Nail art can either be the most creative thing a woman can do to her nails, or the tackiest. But if you can do it yourself, that makes it approximately 30 times cooler. It’s like that time in high school when I made my own pair of guitar pick earrings. If I would have bought them from the local Claire’s, it would have been a little lame. But the fact that I created them, pieced them together out of my love for rock ‘n roll, that made them my favorite pieces of jewelry for an entire summer.
Ok, back to nail art. My amazing friend Bridget has picked up quite a few techniques for doing your own nail art, and she’s been kind enough to dish for Haute in Texas. She recommends a plethora of knowledge on YouTube via channels like CutePolish or LuxuriousNails, but we’ve narrowed it down to our top two tricks.
First up, how to perfect the tricky French manicure. Note: Even though we’ll be talking about white tips, feel free to use whatever color nail polish you want!
- Decide if you want the tips (white portion) to curve on your nail. If you would rather it go straight across your nails, you’ll simply need to place a piece of tape across your nails, and freely paint starting from the tape working towards the end of your nail. Let this completely dry, and then carefully peel the tape away, leaving a perfectly straight line. It should end up looking something like this:
Photo: hubpages.com
- If you want a curved tip, the easiest way to execute this is with a soft hair brush. You’ll first need to freely paint the color of your choice onto your nail, without worrying about the edge.
- Then, dip your brush into a little bit of Acetone nail polish remover, and use it to shape the tip into the desired length. If this seems a little tricky, check out the video below of Bridget doing it herself!
If a French manicure is a little too ho-hum for you, how about painting cute little flowers on your digits? I personally like when girls have one flower, snowflake, heart, whatever, on just the ring finger but feel free to slap on as many as you want! You can go out to any beauty supply store and buy your own dotting tool, but Bridget teaches us below how to make your own.
- Start with your base color, and let that completely dry.
- Pour a small amount of the color into a dish or small plate.
- Take a bobby pin and unfold it so it lays straight.
- Dip the tip of the pin into the color, and let the excess drip off.
- Place dots on your nail in whatever shape or pattern you wish.
Another cool element of this trick is using different size bobby pins for different size dots. Play around with colors, and if you can really get smooth with the bobby pin, it can be used to draw almost anything on your nail! Check out instructions and the video of Bridget painting a flower on my nail below!
- Using your bobby pin, place five dots in the desired spot on your nail.
- Move on to the next nail, or simply give the polish 30 seconds or one minute to settle.
- Take a toothpick and lightly drag it through the polish, towards the center of your flower.
- Finish it off with on more drop of a contrasting color in the center.
- Once the nail art has completely dried, paint over it one more time with a clear coat.
So there you have it. Nail art is no longer reserved for a trip to the salon– you can do it from the comfort of your own home. And the best part is–no matter how bad you screw it up, all it takes is a little nail polish remover and it never happened! Give it a try and tell me what you think!
XO,
A
NOTE: The music in the French Manicure video is Beauty in the World by Macy Gray. In the Nail Art video the song is Strip Me by Natasha Bedingfield. No copyright infringement intended.
