When I was recently approached to do a tutorial for Lust Have It using polishes from an Australian company called The Natural Source, I initially freaked out having never done a tutorial before and not being the most accomplished nail art person!  But I’ve had an absolute blast doing this and hopefully because it’s super simple it’s something you can all do too!

I was sent a gift set of Camoflage Colours polishes which are made by The Natural Source using natural dyes and colours.  I have to admit I love the packaging – the tin fits 8 polishes which are packaged in glass vials instead of traditional polish bottles.  I was initially a bit worried about painting with such unusual bottle caps but it was surprisingly easy and the wide vial necks makes it easy to get at the polish (I’m terrible at dipping my polish brush with my non-dominant hand, I’m always missing the bottle neck!).  The mirror in the lid also means this tin would double up nicely as somewhere to stash makeup for on the go.  The bottles are 12ml each.  I’ve done some hunting and I can find these polishes are free of Formaldehyde and Toulene, but no mention anywhere of DBP and I haven’t found a full ingredients list so I would have to assume that these contain DBP.

I decided to use Purple and Pumpkin for my tutorial to create dotted accent nails which were in fact the very first nail art I tried when I got into polish about two years ago.  The formula on these polishes varies between needing 2-4 coats to get opacity which I would have to assume is because of the natural dyes that are used in them.  The good news is that none of these polishes stained when I tested them which I was quite prepared for given that they use natural dyes only.

Purple was one of the more pigmented polishes, needing two careful coats to get full opacity.  It also had a lovely jelly like texture to it, even though it isn’t sheer like a jelly.  I did find that I needed to leave these polishes a few minutes before adding a top coat or I got streaks in the polish.  Anyway, here is the tutorial for you all:

1.  Find a bobby pin and a fabric pin to use for dotting tools and a surface that you can use as a palette for your dotting colour.  My boyfriend does a diet where he has all the food prepared and delivered every week.  The eggs come in these great little plastic sealable cups so I save them to use the lids for palettes and the cups for water marbling.  You can also cut up a small piece of baking paper (wax paper) which works well.

2.  Paint all your nails in your chosen base colour (I used CC Purple here) and apply a top coat.  Wait for it to fully dry

3. Put a generous blob of your accent colour on your palette (I used CC Pumpkin here) and dip the tip of the bobby pin into it.

4. Tap the tip of the bobby pin onto your nail to create a dot.  If it’s not full opaque you can repeat this to build up the colour.

5. Switch to your fabric pin (be careful of the sharp end, you can add some blu-tak to the end to make it more comfortable to hold and protect yourself if you wish) and repeat this process to add smaller dots around your large dot.  By getting more or less polish on the pin head before tapping it, you will get a smaller of larger dot.

6. Once you have added some smaller dots, repeat the process so you get a random pattern of smaller and larger dots.  I like creating this semi-circular shape around two edges of my nails but you can arrange them however you wish and cover as much or as little of the nail as you wish.

7. Let it sit for a few minutes to allow the dots to set and then seal with a top coat which will smooth out the bumpier texture.

Here is how mine ended up coming out.  I filled my entire ring finger with dots to create a bit of variety and to show the difference it makes when you leave some plain polish.  This can also be done with multicoloured dots which (I usually do mine in two colours to add more variety) or you can add glitter or a different texture such as a metallic polish to change it up, the possibilities are endless!

Now the good news for all my Australian readers is that The Natural Source is running some specials for you all!  The Natural Source is offering 25% off their nail lacquers and free delivery until which makes them AU$7.50 a bottle using the discount code lhi.  I’f you purchase 8 or more polishes, you will also receive a gift tin like the one in my post.

**edit 14/03/2012** I also have a discount code for Lust Have It subscriptions for you all now – use the code PROJECT to receive $5 off a subscription to their women’s box for the next week.  This is available here in 3, 6 and 12 month subscription packages.

You can find more information on Facebook about The Natural Source and Lust Have It who will be showcasing more tutorials using these polishes today from some other well known Australian nail bloggers.

The products in this post were provided to me for consideration but this in no way influenced my review.  For my full disclosure policy, please click here.