fruitmanifinished1

It’s summa, summa, summa time! Shall we get it started with a glorious, fruit-themed manicure? Now, the amount of polishes required might seem a bit overwhelming, but the finished product is so DELECTABLE, it will be worth it! Get yourself in the mood by putting on some tunes by “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat” herself—Carmen Miranda. Take a deep breath: ARE U READY, MY BERRY-BOOS?

What you’ll need:

what youll need

  • A clear base coat. I used Seche Clear Crystal Clear Base Coat.
  • A pink shade of polish, like Floss Gloss’s Perf
  • A red shade of polish. Mine was Gangsta Boo by Floss Gloss.
  • A yellow polish, like Milani’s Yellow Whiz
  • A lavender polish similar to Lilacism by Essie
  • A paper plate
  • A nail-dotting tool or bobby pin
  • A thin nail-art brush or any kind of thin paint brush
  • A dark green polish. I used Essie’s Mojito Madness.
  • A lighter shade of green polish. Mine is called Vikini Green by Santee, which you can only find on eBay now, but this one by Salon Perfect looks similar!
  • A black nail striper or a black polish with a striper tool. I used the Milani Nail Art Lacquer with Precision Brush in Black Sketch.
  • Nail polish remover
  • Cotton balls or paper towels
  • A white nail striper or a white polish with a striper tool. I used the Milani Nail Art Lacquer with Precision Brush in White Canvas. This one by Sally Hansen works, too.
  • A light brown polish. Mine was Essie’s Picked Perfect.
  • A purple polish. I used Maniac by Deborah Lippmann, but this one is a good (and less pricey) choice as well.
  • A top coat like HK Girl by Glisten & Glow

How to do it:

Step One

step one

First you’re going to paint your nails with your clear base coat, then you’re going to paint each nail with a base color for its corresponding fruit. It will go like this: pink for cherries, red for watermelon, pink for strawberry, yellow for pineapple, and lavender for grapes. On each hand, I did pink/cherries on my thumb, red/watermelon on my pointer finger, pink/strawberry on my middle finger (it’s light pink in the photo above, but I didn’t like it, so I ended up painting over it later with the same pink I used on my thumb), yellow/pineapple on my ring finger, and lavender/grapes on my pinky. You can paint whatever fruits you want on whichever finger/s you feel like! You might have to do some jumping around with Steps Two through Six, but it’s no big deal. Here we go!

Step Two (Cherries)

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Pour a little bit of red nail polish on your paper plate. Dip the dot tool in the polish, then dab side-by-side dots on your pink nail to make pairs of cherries. (If you want the cherries to look fuller, dip the dot tool in polish again and dab the cherries a second time.) Next, pour some dark green polish on your paper plate. Dip your nail-art brush into the dark green polish, then gently draw a stem connecting the cherries in each pair. Awwww, aren’t they cute?

Note: If you only have one nail-art brush to work with, make sure to clean it with nail polish remover and a cotton ball or paper towel before moving on to each new color/step.

Step Three (Watermelon)

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We’ve done this one before! Dip a clean nail-art brush in dark green polish, then use it to draw a “rind” on the tip of a red nail. Clean your brush again with some nail polish remover, pour some of the lighter green polish on your paper plate, then dip your brush in the lighter green shade. Draw light-green stripes on the rind, then use your black polish striper to draw seeds on the part of your nail that is still red. Tell me: WHAT IS MORE SUMMERY THAN THAT LI’L WATERMELON?

Step Four (Strawberry)

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Dip a clean nail-art brush in dark green polish, then draw jagged edges at the base of a pink nail (the green edges will make your strawberry’s leaves). Grab your white nail striper and make white dots on the part of your nail that’s still pink. Look at that! Now you’ve got yourself an adorable strawwwburrry!

Step Five (Pineapple)

fruitmanistep5

Dip a clean nail-art brush in the light green polish, then draw jagged edges——just like you did for the strawberry’s leaves—at the base of a yellow nail. Clean your nail-art brush, pour some of the light brown polish on your plate, dip your brush in the light brown polish, then draw criss-crossed lines over the part of your nail that’s still yellow. Hello piña!

Step Six (Grapes)

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Pour some purple polish on your plate, dip the dot tool in it, then dab dots on a lavender nail to make some delicious-looking grapes. With a clean nail-art brush, paint some tiny leaves at the base of the nail with the green polish of your choice. Ya crushed it!

Step Seven

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Finish your mani off by applying clear top coat to every nail.

Congratulations: You have nature’s candy on your hands! Celebrate (and show off your sweet manicure) by getting a fruity milkshake. ♦