Okay, so a while back I had made a post to see if anyone would be interested in having a guide to nail art. I’m not a professional in any way, but I love creating fun designs on my nails and I love nail polish. So here it is. I will divide this into different sections to make it an easier read for everyone and to make this easy on myself as well.
First off, you don’t need expensive items to create a beautiful designs. I always start off with the essentials which are shown above. The few items that I do like to splurge on are base and top coat. I love my OPI Nail Envy because it works for me. I do like to buy mine on amazon because in stores its around $20 and online I usually get it for $8. My top coat is Seche Vite, but any fast drying top coat will do. If you’re hesitant about suing Seche Vite because of the chemicals than I recommend Poshe Top Coat. It works just as well and it leaves a beautiful shine.
Now my nail polish remover, nail clippers, tweezers, cotton balls, cotton swabs, nail filers and make up sponges are all from Dollar Tree. You don’t need to buy the most expensive of these items. I know many recommend crystal nail filers, but I learned that regular ones will work too as long as you file in one direction instead of going back and forth. Ps. make up sponges can be used to create ombre nails!
My acetone, nail polish thinner, liquid latex are from Sally’s Beauty Supply. I also like to have the Orly nail rescue in case I get a bad break and I'm in a hurry for something or I don't want to file the rest of my nails down. Caution though, I don't recommend using this more than once on the same nail because it is essentially acrylic powder that you’re putting on your nails and it will leave them weak and could possible damage them in the long run.
I love to get my buffing block from Walgreens as well as my tooth picks and the most essential nail polishes that everyone needs to have in their collection: black and white. Tooth picks can be used to create dots on your nails if you don’t have dotting tools. I do own two sets of dotting tools that I got of ebay, but I find myself leaning more towards using the toothpicks. Now for the black and white polishes that I love are both from Sinful Colors and Walgreens is always having them on sale for $.99. The names of the two polishes are Snow Me White and Black On Black.
The hand lotion and cuticle lotion I got when I was in the mall and some random person came up trying to sell me body products. As you can see I bought some. But any lotion will do. I have some from the Body shop that I love which are the Almond and Hemp lotions. The nail art mat that you see is from Whats Up Nails and I got the small one which was about $7-8 before tax. I though I would use it to make nail decals, but most I just have to see which color combinations of nail polish would go well together.
Okay, we’re down to the last few things. I have a NCLA bottle shown which used to have cuticle oil in it that I received in an old Boxycharm box. I did use it up, but I made my own cuticle oil using equal parts of coconut oil, jojoba oil, and olive oil. I have all of these oils in my kitchen and I decided to combine them to make my own DIY cuticle oil. I use this at least once a day and up to three times a day.
And last, but not least is both plastic wrap and aluminum foil. I sometimes take some pieces and place drops of nail polish or acrylic paint on them and after I'm done I just throw them away. Of course what I love using the foil for is removing textured or glitter polish. I soak a cotton ball in nail polish remover wrap it around my nail and them wrap all of it with foil. I wait about 5-10 minutes and then I remove it and voila they glitter and nail polish is off. Plastic wrap on the other hand I love using for marble nails. I dab some onto a scrunched up piece of plastic wrap and dab it on the nail. I do this with about 3 colors no more than four and I have instant marble nails.
I do get some clean up brushes that are actually eyeshadow brushes from ELF and they’re usually about $1 in my Walmart. They’re small and easy to use to clean up any nail polish that might have gotten on your cuticles or the edges of the nails. Striping polishes are optional. I think I've had these for a long time and never used them. I mostly have them for the brush. I like to take it and dip it into other nail polishes and use it to create nail art that requires lines.
That’s it. those are my everyday essentials for painting my nails. I will have a post for the arylic paints, and brushes that I use for nail art as well as where to get affordable nail art decorations such as crystals, rhinestones, studs, glitter, and 3d deco (including where to buy dotting tools). After that I will show you guys my favorite mainstream brands: OPI China Glaze, and more. Favorite drugstore polishes and then favorite indie polishes. Pps, I will also tell you the best indie sellers for fandom inspired nail polishes.
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