Nail Art – Tools & Products

Hello everyone!

My name is Ina and I would like to share with you all the different nail art designs I’m creating. Some of them are inspired by different other artists, some of them are mine. I will make a tutorial for each of them, showing step by step what you need to do if you want to try out a certain design.

In this first posting, I’d like to start by describing some of the tools and products I’ll be using to create the different nail art designs that I’m going to show you in my future tutorials. This way I won’t need to explain each of the materials repeatedly. Instead, I’ll link – when needed – the materials towards this article.

Tools/Materials:

- Dotting Tool  – a tool, which helps to easily create dots on your nails. It is also very helpful for applying rhinestones or small glitters on the manicure. If you don’t have a dotting tool, you can use a toothpick or the tip of an old empty pen.

- Little Sponges – the nail sponge is great if you want to apply very thin, uneven layer of nail polish or other nail paint. This allows the colors to blend and to create a new third color. Just add a color with the polish brush on the sponge, wipe dry it and sponge the nail. If you don’t have a nail sponges, you can easily make such simply by cutting a regular dish-washing sponge into small pieces.

- Nail Art Brushes – if you have chosen acrylic paints use a very thin-tipped nail art brush (mine is 9mm), or a size 4 gel brush – depending on the motives you want to create. The first brush is great for very thin lines and small dots. The second – for creating motives using the one-stroke technique. If you have chosen to work with normal nail polish, you can use the thin brush of an old decoration nail polish.

- Decoration Rhinestones and Glitters – if you want to create a slight accent on a certain spots of your nail design, you can use a drop of top polish and apply a rhinestone using a dotting tool. If you want to make instead more such sparkling motives, it’s best to apply different shaped glitters, because they’re flat and don’t fall off the nails that easily. No matter whether you chose stones or glitters, make sure to apply at least 2-3 top coats every half an hour in order to secure them on place and don’t lose them while doing your everyday activities.

- Different Files – 100 (rough), 180 (soft) и 240 (very soft); buffer / white block.

- Electric nail drill with different bits – small and thin (to gently remove cuticles), big with flat tip (to file gel nails), big with round tip (to form a perfect curl on the backside of the nails) and a brush bit (to remove all the dust from the filing – over and under your nails).

- UV Lamp – to cure gel products.

- Sticks – nail polish remover (you can also use an ear stick soaked in nail polish remover) cuticle softener (includes cuticle oil).

Products:

1. For background

- Nail Polishes – different colors

- Color Gels – need to be cured under an UV Lamp for 2min.

2. For nail art

- Decoration Nail Polishes with thin brushes

- Water based Acrylic Paints for nail art – they are far easier and pleasant product to use for nail art than the regular nail polishes. Using such paints, you can create great and very detailed motives almost effortless. They are a lot thinner and precise than nail polishes. I can only recommend the use of acrylic paints when you want to create many and detailed motives. Before creating you nail art over the already colored nail, please make sure to have applied a Top Coat first. This way if you mess up your motives you just need to clean them with water and start over, but you won’t lose your already prepared nail background. Always seal acrylic designs with Top Coat to protect them.

3. For gel nails

- Primer – it dehydrates the nails and is always necessary for gel nails. Apply it over prepared nails (filed and cleaned nails with removed cuticles), wait for it to dry and use the next product.

- Gels – all gel products need to be cured under UV Lamp. You need 3 kinds of gels for a standard French manicure – Bounding/Base Gel to ensure the lasting of your gels, Builder Gel (the main one) to strengthen your natural nails and eventually to build them longer, and a French White Gel to apply over the tips of your nails. Eventually you might use a Top Sealing Gel, which seals the previously applied gels and make them durable. The downside of this gel is that you have to apply it with a brush and it forms a Sticky Residue/Layer, which needs to be removed with a Cleaner. In order to avoid this, you better apply a Gel Top Coat.

- Gel Top Coat – this gel product is in a bottle like a normal nail polish, it is very fast and easy to apply. You need to apply only a very thin coat of it. After curing it under the lamp it doesn’t form a sticky layer and you’re ‘ready to go’.

- Cleaner – it removes the Sticky Residue that some gel products form after curing under an UV Lamp. You have to use it before applying the Primer as well. The Cleaner also disinfects.

4. For securing and sealing the design

- Top Coat – when making a nail art or having applied multiple coats of nail polish, always protect your design with a Top Coat. When applying the Top Coat over motives, make sure you don’t apply any pressure and use more of the product than usual. This way you’ll avoid the brush to get dry and to smash you whole design.

- Nail Polish Drying Liquid – this is a very nice and easy to apply product. Just apply 1 to 3 drops over each nail depending on its size.

- Gel Nail Polish Sealer – This is one perfect UV gel based product. It is in a bottle just like a normal nail polish. It is used to seal the applied nail polish coats. Its biggest advantage is that when you finish a design you apply a thin coat of the product, cure it under an UV Lamp for 2min. and then you’re ready! There is no need to wait for your nails to get dry!

I sure hope you’ll find this list useful! If you have any questions or concerns, I’ll try to answer them and help you with pleasure.

Greetings to everyone!