Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

I have been a Harry Potter fan for over a decade, and with the final film hitting cinemas everywhere, I just had to paint a Harry Potter dedicated design. It was quite complicated, and would normally be attempted with nail stickers, but as a free-hand nail artist, I accepted the challenge of painting mine free hand. I filed my nails a lot shorter this week, but they will grow again soon. The same design is mirrored on my other hand.

On my four fingers are the different Hogwarts Houses, and on my thumb is the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. The vertical line represents the Elder wand (also called the Death Stick or the Wand of Destiny), the most powerful wand in the world. The circle symbolizes the Resurrection stone, a stone able to half bring back the dead; and the triangle is the Cloak of Invisibility, able to render the wearer completely invisible, and the only one of its kind that is never damaged with age nor spells.

I could have done a better job, but I finished this design 1am and was tired, and by the time I woke up the next morning, the polish had been indented by my sheets and dried. The trick to this is not to show people your nails close up. For instructions sake, however, I took close up pictures.

On my index finger are the house colours for Slytherin. I painted my nails dark green (MigiNailArt) and used MigiNailArt's silver pen to draw diagonal lines, then a small silver dot in the centre.

On my middle finger is the Gryffindor house. I painted my nails a sparkling dark red by MigiNailArt (Wish I knew the name), then took Art Deco's "Gold" and created the sane diagonal lines as I did for the Slytherin nail, but larger. I filled in the diamonds for a checkered look, and cleaned it up with the red again.

On my ring finger is the Ravenclaw house. I painted my nails several coats of MigiNailArt's bronze, then taking their darker royal blue, I drew a few random lines.

On my pinkie is the Hufflepuff house. I painted it yellow using MigiNailArt's "Lemon" , then taking Art Deco's black, I painted on the diagonal stripes.

On my thumb, as I already explained, is the Deathly Hallows symbol. I painted it Sally Hansen's "Lavender Cloud", then taking MigiNailArt's "Black" pen, I drew the symbol.

Wait for your designs to dry, then apply a top coat. Try to let that fully dry before going to bed.

So there are my Harry Potter nails! I hope you like them! If you're wondering about the title of this post, "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus", it is written beneath the Hogwarts coat of arms. It is Latin for "Never tickle a sleeping dragon".