Watch the full video for this tutorial! This photo tutorial really builds on the video rather than replacing it so I would highly recommend that if you are actually interested in recreating these nails, go watch!
These nails kind of have two concurrent processes that are going on. First, you are going to create your DIY nail art decals. This was the part of this nail art design that was new to me and experimental. In the video, you can see how I made them, what it looks like, how to cut them, and the three different methods I used to try to apply them. You can also see more of me talking about why I do not like them (or at least not these exact ones).
Making the Nail Art Decals
paint one thin coat of black polish in a big rectangle onto a plastic sandwich bag, let it dry
paint another thin coat of black polish onto the same rectangle on your sandwich bag, let it dry
put top coat on the same rectangle, let it dry for A BILLION YEARS (aka several hours) so that it is so dry that it will peel easily right off the sandwich bag (you will know that it is not ready if it resists as you try to pull it off the bag)
use normal scissors to cut in into thick stripes
Actually Doing Your Nails
Once you have made the nail art decals, you can begin to actually do your nails. After cleaning, filing, and shaping the nails and applying a base coat:
apply two thin coats of white polish
apply one thin coat of top coat
working one nail at a time, apply another coat of top coat, stick on your decal (using tweezers or your fingers)
use a nail art brush and some acetone to melt the decal onto your nail (this did not work very well for me and I really struggled because no matter what I did (and I did try several different things), I couldn’t get the decal to ever really integrate smoothly into the rest of my nail. It was still very bumpy and raised no matter what I did)
apply another layer of top coat (either matte or shiny, whatever you like. Just note that matte top coat will make the bumps even more noticeable)
No matter how many layers of top coat or how much I tried to smooth the decal into my nail, I could not get it to look smooth. I did still think it was worthwhile to show you guys the process and I will continue to work on figuring out a way to make decals work when you don’t want to cover the entire nail (like you see a lot of people doing with watermarble decals and decals made using stamping tool designs). I will keep you posted on my progress and definitely let you know if/when I find the best technique! In the meantime, I hope that you enjoyed seeing a bit of the learning process!
