Despicable Me Minion Nails + Tutorial!

9:00:00 AM

This time next week, I will be preparing for the premier of Despicable Me 2.  You know, the sequel to one of the greatest animated movies ever.  Now, when Despicable Me first came out, I was bitter, I was a Pixar fan and thought "eh, it's going to stink, I don't want to ever see it."  One night, maybe 3 years ago now, I was hanging out with a group of friends.  We were bored of random games and such and decided it was time to watch a movie.  As soon as everyone found out that I had never seen Despicable Me, they turned that movie on.  There we were, a group of 20 somethings watching Despicable Me on a Friday night.  Regrets?  None what so ever, probably the best Friday ever.

This movie became one of my favorites.  It has such a cute story line, and well who doesn't love Gru, the girls, and most importantly, the minions!  The cute, adorable, little yellow guys that run around helping Gru perform his "evil" deeds.  They're just the cutest characters ever.  Well, last year, before I started blogging, I painted minions on my nails.  Now, I warn you, before you click the link, you should know, this was one of my very first attempts at nail art, I owned about two polishes, and used only toothpicks.  Now that you've been warned, here are my very first minions.  Not so bad especially since I really had no idea what I was doing.

Well, ever since I heard that there was going to be a sequel, I have been dying to re-do these nails.  Now that my stash has grown, I have nail art supplies, and my hand is a bit steadier, I was really anxious.  Miss Susan from Subtle Shimmer told me that I should do them and maybe make a little tutorial so some of you other ladies could paint your nails for the premier!!!  I listened to her advice, and well, let's take a look!!!




Colors Used:
  • Ulta - Sun Sational
  • Sinful Colors - Endless Blue
  • Sinful Colors - Cool Grey 
  • Orly - Black on Black
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Ulta - Flamingo

How I got the Look (I broke it up into Two Eyed Minions and One Eyed Minions):


  1. Paint your nails in your best banana, minion colored yellow.
  2. You can do step two a few different ways.  I placed  piece of nail art tape towards the tip of my nail, and with a dotting tool filled in my "french tip" with a blue polish.  I wanted my lines to be very straight for the lil guys overalls.  If you have a steady hand, you can use the paint brush and slowly paint the tip onto your nail.  You could also use a striper or a nail art brush.
  3. With a nail art brush, paint two black rectangles on the sides of the minions heads for their goggles.
  4. With a dotting tool, either create two grey dots, or one large dot depending on if you want a two eyed minion or a one eyed minion.
  5. While the grey polish dries, with a nail art brush, create the little minions mouth.  On the two eyed minions, I decided to create a simple smirk.  On the one eyed minion, I made the mouths a little more crazy.
  6. When the grey is dried, with a smaller dotting tool, add white polish.
  7. When the white is dry, with an even smaller dotting tool, add the black pupils.
Make sure each of the layers are dried before adding a top coat.  I was a little thick with my top coat because I didn't want my black pupils to smear and drag down on the white.  Sadly, it still happened.  No matter what I do, or how long I wait, black polish always drags.  My right hand looks awful, but hey there is a reason why I do not photograph that hand!!! 

Compared to last years, I decided to make the overalls smaller because I wanted their faces to be the center of attention.  I feel like my first attempt was too overall-ed and their faces weren't apparent enough.

What do you think?  Are you excited for the film?  Will you be painting your nails special for the movie?

If you use my tutorial, please tag #thelittlecanvas and share your design!!!  I love seeing your work when you have been inspired by something I have posted!!

Ahhhhh, this makes me so excited for next week!!!!!  Loving my lil minions.

I want to also quickly say, I know that CutePolish did a similar tutorial on her YouTube channel.  I love CutePolish and have copied many of her manicures and give her credit when I copy her manicures.  It ended up being bad timing that she did the same thing around the same time I did.  I had this planned for awhile, and was planning on changing up the overalls and such.  When doing the manicure, I actually stared at a personal friends Facebook page because she did them last year like this and I loved how hers turned out.  CutePolish, I love ya, but I didn't copy you on this one :).

Until next time, <3.

**I purchased all the polishes used in this post**

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