Harry Potter Nail Art: Revisited (Plus Hogwarts Crest Tutorial)

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! I've had a really busy week. On Monday and Tuesday I was in London, then Wednesday was my 21st birthday! Thursday was a bit of a recovery day, haha. But anyway, I'm really excited about the nail art I have to show you today.

On Tuesday, my friends and I went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour! I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, so I knew I had to do some nail art for the occasion.

This post is pretty picture heavy, so you can see the rest (and the tutorial) after the jump!

I decided to do a nail for each house. From top down, we have Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. I'm a proud Ravenclaw, so that's why I did that house first :)

The colors I used are as follows:

Ravenclaw: Deborah Milano 99 (blue), Barry M Copper (bronze)

Gryffindor: China Glaze Hey Sailor (red), OPI Goldeneye (gold)

Slytherin: China Glaze Running in Circles (green), Sephora by OPI Queen of Everything (silver)

Hufflepuff: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow (yellow), China Glaze Liquid Leather (black)

I was a little worried I wouldn't have all of the colors I needed since most of my nail polish is at home, but luckily I had everything I needed.

To make the house nail art, I started with a base of the less opaque color (bronze, gold, silver, and yellow, respectively). I let that dry completely, then I used squares of tape to block off the appropriate sections. I painted over the exposed areas with the more opaque color, and voila!

For my thumb, I decided to be ambitious and try freehanding the Hogwarts Crest. I think it came out pretty well! You can see a tutorial for it towards the end of the post :)

On my right hand, I freehanded Harry's glasses and a lightning bolt. I think it came out pretty well for something I did with my left hand!

I'm so pleased with how these came out!

1. Start with a white base; I used China Glaze White on White. Using your red, blue, yellow, and green polishes and a medium striper brush, freehand the shape of the crest.

2. Using a gold polish, outline the entire crest and the places where the colors meet. Add a gold square in the center.

3. Using a medium striper brush, freehand a capital letter H in the center of the gold square.

4. Add top coat, clean up, and you're done!

And in case you were wondering, Harry Potter Studios was nothing short of magical. And since it was my birthday, I got to be the first to open the doors to the Great Hall! There were tears; I have no shame. If you're a Harry Potter fan, I DEFINITELY recommend going. I'm going to remember it for the rest of my life. Check out some pictures I took!

At the entrance, rocking my Ravenclaw Quidditch shirt (and snitch earrings, and Deathly Hallows necklace).

The Dursley's house, where Harry lived!

Butterbeer and nail art. Butterbeer is delicious, by the way!

Replica of Hogwarts. Technically it's a miniature, but it's huge!

I got to ride a broom!

Phew, thanks for making it through this especially long post :)