Nail Art: The Basics

In my last post, I gave you a list of "manicure essentials": in this post, I'm going to outline "nail art essentials". You won't need everything on the list for every design, but they're certainly good things to have for when you need them.

So, let's start at the beginning, and the end - base and top coats. A base coat is essential for protecting your nails underneath, and stopping them turning an awful colour when you remove your design. Top coats give your design a nice sheen: with glitter manicures, a top coat can stop your nails feeling rough to the touch and with smooth manicures they can help seal in the design (and stop your varnish chipping). I use Sally Hansen, usually "Double Duty" (which can be used as a base and top coat) which I love, but you have to be careful as it can sometimes smudge the detailing of your designs. At the moment I have the separate base and top coats which work brilliantly too.
Another great nail art staple is a matt effect top coat. The one I use is by Rimmel. This looks great just over plain polish, but can be used for creating textured french tips (as opposed to creating them with different coloured varnishes), creating detail, or giving a luxurious finish to your nail art designs.

To create intricate designs, you'll need a striper and dotting tool(s). The striper I use the most is part of a black polish (which is great, as most detailing is done in black). You can also buy sets of nail art brushes, which can then be cleaned using nail varnish remover and water. Dotting tools are used for creating polka-dot style details and you can get them in sets with tips of differing sizes. If you don't have them, you can use cotton bus or cocktail sticks as an alternative (but you can find them online - they're relatively inexpensive).

Of course, nail art requires a variety of different colours. I have a lot (like...a LOT) of different colours, but you can just get them as you go. You'll work out which brands you like best, and the more expensive ones won't always be the ones you like. It's nice to splash out on colours you use the most, to get the best quality you can (like black, red, pink, nude), and maybe save a bit on colours you only use rarely (yellows, oranges etc.).

Creating great designs can also take a bit of time - for intricate designs where you have to wait for each coat to dry before adding a new one, you can be waiting quite a while. And once you're done, you'll also need to make sure you leave them to dry fully before doing anything. So the last item on my "essentials" list, is the time and space to work on your design to make it the best it can be. Most designs usually take around an hour to create...but remember you also need drying time after that!

In a future post, I plan to outline other nail art products which can be used to create great manicures, other items which you might want to try. My next post will be my first step-by-step tutorial, and it's a design I've done time and time again - I hope you'll enjoy doing it as much as I have!