If I'm honest, nail art is not one of my fortes. I never seemed to have the patience to grow out my nails and paint them any more than one color. Luckily, I have asked my friend Annabelle to answer a few questions to hopefully inspire myself and you to start doing nail art!
Hi! My name is Annabelle, I'm from Toronto, and I've been doing my nails for about two years. Just a disclaimer, when I say I've been doing my nails, I don't mean professionally. I'm not a nail technician, and I have never been professionally taught. Everything I know about nails is from my research and the magic of YouTube.
I want to try nail art. What tools do you use?
Absolutely Necessary
Good base coat and top coat
When I started doing my nails, I didn't want to use a base coat because I thought it was an unnecessary step, and I rarely used top coat because it made my designs streak and discolored over time. But you do need them! A base coat is necessary because it gives the nail polish something to stick to on your nails, so your manicure is less likely to chip or pop off. The top coat protects your nail art from any denting or scratching while giving your manicure a pretty shine that makes colors pop! Most importantly, it protects the hours of work I did.
Cleanup brush
This is one of my favorite tools! To make your nails look neat and 'professional', it's essential to have clean nail polish lines and no flooded cuticles, and to do this, you should have a cleanup brush! Sometimes, when you have too much polish on the brush or have shaky hands, you can get polish on your skin and pooling at the sides. You can dip your cleanup brush in some nail polish remover and clean up the excess polish while making the gap between your polish and skin straighter.
Glass nail file
To get a nice nail shape, you need a good nail file and not the emery board ones. I know a lot of people use nail clippers or emery boards because they are everywhere, but they can make your nails split and make them more vulnerable to breakage. With a glass nail file, your nails won't fray, and it can give you a smooth nail shape easily. Plus, it lasts a long time!
Nice to have
Liquid Latex
Liquid Latex is a literal lifesaver. If you flood your cuticles a lot or you're doing a sponge gradient and get the polish on your skin, nail latex will save you so much clean up time. You could use tape if you want, but liquid latex applies way easier, and you don't risk accidentally ruining your nails during removal. Plus, liquid latex lets you get closer to the cuticle and gives you a better chance of achieving that clean line!
Nail art brushes
Nail art brushes are fantastic for when you want to freehand a design or put some little details on your nails. It requires a steady hand, but with practice, you can get better at it!
A nail art mat
I got a nail art mat about a year ago, and it has saved me from so many spills. With a nail mat, you can make custom decals, swatch polishes to see how they turn up on lighter and darker nail polishes and hold your materials in little dividers. It is incredibly helpful for keeping you organized while you do your nails.
Nail tape
Nail tape is always good to have on hand if you suddenly feel like making your regular one-color manicure a bit fancier!
Tweezers
I think tweezers are an underrated tool. When starting, most people think they can just use their hands to remove tape or place gems. But by doing that, you're more likely to smudge your nail art by accidentally knocking the nail, shaking, or placing a charm in the wrong place. Tweezers allow you to get in smaller parts of a nail design without ruining the placement of others around it.
Where do you get your inspiration for designs?
I like to go on Instagram tags to look at other people's nail designs when I'm in the mood to do something a little more complicated or fancy. I don't copy them, but I take pieces I like from their work and put my twist on them.
I also tend to look up pictures on Google with searches like spring nails, graduation nails, or nails with blue gems. The more you dig with keywords, the higher the variety you can find for inspo. You can also look on YouTube for different designs and tutorials! I like to combine various designs I see into one manicure.
I also tend to pick my colors and designs from anime, manga or other fandoms I like. For example, I love Seventeen, so occasionally when I can't think of something to do, I fall back on the colors pink and blue and play around with the layout.
How do I get better at doing my nails?
This is going to sound annoying, but the only way you can get better is to keep practicing. I practice by doing my nails once every one or two weeks, depending on my mood, and I also offer to do my friends and family's nails when they're available.
By doing your nails consistently, you begin to understand the grooves and warping of your natural nail better, and therefore you can paint them better. Plus, every time you do your nails, you'll be able to see where you went wrong, how to improve on it, and then apply those lessons to the next time. For example, if you notice that your polish is thick on one nail but not the others, you may see that there is a wrapping in your nail that makes the polish pool, so next time you should be careful to apply the polish in thinner layers.
Some people also like to practice their skills on a set of fake nails, so that way you don’t have to put your nails through a lot of stress while testing and swatching!
I messed up! What do I do???
Bubbles
In my opinion, bubbles are probably the most common and most annoying problem when doing nail art. Bubbles happen when you have too much polish on your brush, so the thicker your layers of polish are, the more bubbles you'll get. They can also happen when you don't let your coats dry thoroughly before applying more polish.
To stop doing this, you'll need to apply your polish in thin layers, and wait for each coat to dry properly before applying more. If you already painted your nails, they've dried, and you just noticed there are bubbles, you only have two options: redo your nails or deal with it. You cannot pile more polish on top to hide the bubbles, and you can't remove a few layers then re-apply the polish.
Wrinkles
Wrinkles can happen if you dent or touch the polish some of the layers are still wet. To avoid this, when your polish is drying, you need to be extra careful and aware of what you're doing with your hands. Otherwise, you're bound to get some wrinkles and maybe even some dents.
Smudges
It's tragic when you spend so much time on your nail art, only to have it be smudged with the top coat at the end. This type of problem happens for two reasons. The first is because the nail polish has not thoroughly dried down yet so when you apply the top coat, you're dragging the wet polish with it. To prevent this, you just need to wait until the polish is fully dry.
The second reason why this problem happens is the way you apply your topcoat. When applying topcoat, you can't push the brush down in a way that the bristles are touching the polish. This will drag and smear any wet or semi-dry polish underneath. Instead, you should glide the top coat on your nail by taking the small amount of polish on the brush and floating it over your nail; the polish should be the only thing touching your nail!
What was your biggest challenge?
Realistically, my biggest challenge was about how to fund my nail art hobby. For good tools, polish, and materials that will last for a long time and make my manicure look better, I had to spend more. So, I would save up for items I felt were necessary for doing my nails and bought them one at a time. For example, the first thing I bought was a cleanup brush, then some tweezers, and some nail art brushes. After a while, I was able to get all the necessities, practiced with them, and expanded my work to include gems, charms, and other things like glitter and gold flakes.
In terms of challenges involving my skills, the biggest challenge was my lack of patience! I was really impatient with my nails and thought that it should only take me an hour or two maximum to get some nail art done. So, I would continuously try to rush my work and never waited for layers to dry completely. This would lead to messy and bubble-filled manicures that stressed me out to no end. Eventually, I learned that nail art is meant to take some time because you're literally putting small details onto your tiny nails. Furthermore, by taking the time to do your nails carefully, you will have a manicure that can last longer, and one you'll be happy to keep on for a long time.
BONUS: Do you have any examples that would be easy for a beginner to try?
The first nail art I ever did was striped nails! It's simple and lets you understand the basics of doing your nails, and it's honestly quite satisfying to see the design as you take off the nail tape!
Striped nails
You'll need:
Two different colors of polish
A base coat
A quick-dry top coat
Some nail tape
I would strongly recommend that you use nail tape because it is made for this specific purpose! You can use some random household scotch tape if you don't have any, though. Just make sure to cut them up into even pieces!
Optional:
Tweezers
Tweezers help position the tape exactly where you want it and make removal easier. But if you don't have any, you can just use your hands!
1) Apply your base coat and wait for it to dry
2) Apply as many coats of your first colored polish as needed to get full opacity, then wait for it to dry
3) Apply a quick dry top coat and let it COMPLETELY DRY. If you don't let the polish dry, you could end up destroying your work!
4) Put on the nail tape into a horizontal or vertical stripe pattern. Try your best to make them equally spaced!
5) Apply your second color polish on top of the tape to only one nail! We're going to be working one nail at a time because if we let the polish dry over the tape, the lines will be messy and the tape can get stuck under the polish.
6) Remove all the strips of tape and let the polish dry
7) Clean up the edges and any excess polish
8) Apply a topcoat by gliding the polish over the design to prevent streaking.
Done!
Hungry for more tutorials and beginner tips? Follow @thenerdiyblog on Instagram! If you'd like your crafting questions answered live, I stream on Twitch at twitch.tv/finding_doro.
Comments