Here we go… another nail tutorial! DIY nail decals this time.

I first tried this DIY nail decal technique a couple weeks ago, with not very much success. ATTEMPT #1. EW SO UGLY. Since then I’ve tried the technique three more times and have come up with a few tips and tricks for you.

ATTEMPT #2

I painted a huge thick gradient of three colours onto a Ziploc bag. It was very smelly. I let it dry overnight.

I then cut out ten pieces, one for each nail. One nail at a time, I painted on base coat, let it dry for 10 seconds, then peeled my DIY nail decal off the plastic bag and stuck it on to my nail. I used my thumb of my other hand to smooth out the part that was actually touching my nail as much as I could.

Here’s where things started to get difficult: the decals were far too big for my nails. Ripping off the edges did not work, so I used nail clippers to trim off all the extras, but that was not very successful either. Probably those small nail scissors would work the best, but I don’t have any. Once I got all the major flaps off I used a q-tip with nail polish remover to dissolve the rest and clean up the edges as best I could.

Two coats of top coat later, that’s what I ended up with.

Oh by the way, I use Essie’s Good To Go top coat now because my Seche Vite has thickened up wayyy too much. Rip off. Anyway Essie’s isn’t AS super fast drying, but it’s still pretty good and it’s not becoming thick. I like to do one very quick coat of top coat, very light and gentle so nothing gets smeared underneath, and then after that has dried, a second coat just to make sure everything has been covered. This makes my nails extra extra shiny and incredibly durable.

Well anyway that manicure looked pretty cool but it took a long long time, and getting rid of the extra bits around the edges was super hard and I wasn’t pleased at how jagged some of them ended up.

ATTEMPT #3

My nails still looked fine, so I got Rosemarie to come over so I could try another idea out on her nails.

The night before, I painted 30 hearts on a ziploc bag (so she could choose what she wanted).   Overnight drying seems to be good. If not overnight, at least let it dry for several hours!

She chose rainbow hearts, with gold underneath. I used pretty much the same technique as before: painted one nail at a time with the gold nail polish, then peeled off a little heart decal and carefully stuck it on her nail. I used a toothpick to push the edges of the hearts down gently. Once I finished all of the nails on one hand I went back and used my thumb to press the hearts down better.

Excuse her lizard skin please.

Two coats of top coat later she was done. There was much less clean up to do afterwards, no trimming necessary.

ATTEMPT #4

Rainbow nails, rainbow hearts + topcoat. I love it, I think it turned out pretty well!

It’s pretty neat how the two layers of nail polish end up fusing into one smooth layer. I haven’t had any cases of peeling whatsoever. The gradient manicure stayed on my nails for two full weeks, so it’s obviously nice and strong even considering you just stick it on to the nail as opposed to painting it on.

Tips & Tricks

– Thick is better than thin. Paint the nail polish on fairly thick on the Ziploc bag. I have not had any issues of the decals being too thick, but I HAVE had issues where the polish was too thin and the decal ripped.

– Probably best to just do little designs instead of the entire nail (the big decals were too much work, considering the results). Designs that have skinny or pointy parts (ie. stars) are going to be harder to peel off the bag than designs that are rounded (ie. hearts or circles).

– Do one quick light coat of top coat, then when dry do another coat, so you have less chance of smudging your hard work.

– You can use scissors to trim up your decals on the plastic bags after they are dry if you didn’t do a nice job of painting the designs.

– Let the decals dry for a while. At least a few hours! Also leaving my heart decals on the bag for a week did not seem to affect them at all.

While many of you may not care whatsoever about nail polish, water marbling has been the number one search query for people winding up on my blog from Google, so there must be some kind of demand!

I water marbled my nails last weekend and took a bunch of pictures so that I could have a go at writing up a tutorial, including some of the tips and tricks I have picked up during my VAST EXPERIENCE (3 times).

Let’s get started.

MATERIALS

• A cup/container you don’t care about. It will get nail polish remnants all over it. I use a sour cream container.
• Masking tape
• Scissors
• Lots of toothpicks
• Q-Tips
• Nail polish remover/cotton pads
• Base coat (optional). I use a base coat because my nails got kinda mushy a while ago. Gross.
• Top coat (optional). For a top coat I highly recommend Seche Vite. You can put it on when the nail polish is still wet and it dries everything up super fast. Plus it’s really nice and shiny.
• White nail polish. I use Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On (#300). It is kinda gloopy but it’s good enough that you only need to do one coat, plus it only costs $3.49. I forgot it in the picture so I Photoshopped it in for you guys. I DO NOT recommend Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Polar Bare (#120) because it is expensive and it’s really thin and sucky.
• Lots of other colours of nail polish. Up to you how many you choose and what colours. All the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear ones I have work really well for water marbling, plus like I said they are cheap. When they go on sale next I am going to buy every colour!!! Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure colours seem to work well. Sparkly/shimmery nail polishes do NOT work as well, and neither did those Wet n’ Wild ones in the picture that I got for 44 cents. Other than that I haven’t tried anything else. Feel free to let me know what works or doesn’t work for you.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put on your base coat. Optional.

2. Paint your nails white. It is not super important to get perfect coverage, but you want a nice white blank surface so that the relatively thin layers of coloured nail polish show up nice and bright. I do one coat with my Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.

3. Mask the skin around your nails. *This is just the way I do it and it’s not even that great. If you have a better method PLEASE LET ME KNOW* First I put one piece of masking tape from side to side on my finger. Get it as close to the sides of your nail as possible and as tucked up underneath your fingernail as possible. With the shape of my fingers this is not that possible. Then use a second piece of tape to wrap around your finger tightly to secure everything down. Put that strip right up to the base of your fingernail. I usually mask one hand at a time.

4. Time for the fun part!! Fill your container up with water (lukewarm! not too hot, not too cold). Then drip nail polish onto the surface of the water. Once the drop hits the surface of the water it will spread out really quickly. That is what you want. If any of your drips do NOT spread out that means the surface of your water is too dirty and it will not work out. Time to clean it up and/or refresh your cup of water. Anyway back to dripping. I usually drip two drops of the same colour in a row because I like my colours nice and vibrant.

5. After your first colour, drip some more, so you end up with a colourful target-like coating on the top of the water like in the above picture.

6. Use a toothpick to gently swirl the nail polish around until it makes neat patterns. This will take some practice. The area in the green circle above is the kind of swirling that you want–nice and smooth and clean. The area in the red circle is what you DO NOT WANT–the nail polish has bunched up and gone cruddy. This will look ugly on your nails. You also have to work fairly quickly because the longer you wait the more it bunches up. Ah but you are only going to dip your finger in one or two spots so it’s ok if one part gets bunched up, you can still use the other parts!!

Sorry for the next three blurry pictures. I need a third arm.

7. Dip your nails in the exact part of the swirly pattern that you like the most. I struggle to do more than one nail at a time like other people do so I often just do one at a time. I like to approach the water verrrry slowly and precisely with my face really close so I can see that my nail is actually going where I want. Once it’s in though put it right in. DO NOT let your finger come out of the water!! DO NOT let your finger touch the bottom of the container.

8. Wait a minute with your finger submerged in the water for the nail polish on the surface to dry up a bit. Using your other hand pick up all the extra nail polish on the surface of the water with a toothpick.

9. When all the nail polish is picked up, you can take your fingers out of the water! Admire your work!! (Ignore all the nail polish on your skin.)

10. I suggest waiting a minute, THEN gently and very carefully removing the masking tape. Ugh so many times I have messed my nail up in this step, so annoying.

11. I wait another minute or two and then do a quick coating of Seche Vite top coat. Man I love that stuff.

12. Repeat steps 3 to 11 for you other hand!!!!!

13. Later, when the nail polish is totally dry, I start to remove all the nail polish on my skin. You can do this with q-tips or orange sticks and nail polish remover but I am not a big fan of using that drying stuff on my skin so I usually just have a shower. I find that between washing my hair and gently scrubbing at my fingers under the shower-head I am able to get most of the extra polish off.

DONE! Voila!

This process definitely takes some time and practice, especially if you mess a nail up and have to start right from step 1 again, like I do so many times, but I think it’s worth it! I love how interesting each nail can end up, and how smooth and nice it looks. People often comment on my nails when they are like this and think they are stick on nails!