Nails by Anne: Bling It

It’s been awhile, I know… In my defense, I have a lot on my plate right now, and most of it is nail related. I’ll have a big announcement to make soon, but until then I wanted to let my handful of fans know that I haven’t forgotten you! So, I have a quick nail art post today!

I recently lost a few of my acrylic enhancements because I went too long between fills, and the manual labor I’ve been up to lately was too much for them. I know, I’m a nail tech, I know better, but if it’s a choice between letting my clients nails suffer or my own; I’ll always choose to spend the time on my clients. Anyway, I decided to just soak the enhancements off because my natural nails underneath had grown out, and I like having natural nails when I can. I bite when they’re short and ragged, but once they’ve grown out I can usually resist the temptation to gnaw them off.

Unfortunately, after only a few days of having my nails Au Natural, I broke off two of them and tore another doing some more of the manual labor I mentioned above… Nails are jewels, not tools after all.

I really don’t have the time to put acrylics on at the moment, and it seems kind of silly to do all that work for just three nails, only two of which are actually gone, so I reached into my tool kit and used an old but good technique that most people seem to forget about.

Fabric Wraps!

Silk or fiberglass wraps are a great way to repair a damaged nail, or add length to one or two nails so they match the rest. They also lend strength to your natural nails, to help reduce normally occurring damage.

So I wrapped my nails, and then painted them with one coat of CND’s Sapphire Sparkle Effects, and one coat of CND’s Sugar Sparkle for a natural, semi-opaque look that is dazzling in the sunlight.

I like my nails to have a little more pop though. They’re my business card after all. I want people to notice them, and ask me about them. So…

Time to Bling it!

You’ll Need:

Top Coat
Dotter Tool (remember the tool we made with the bobby pin?) or a Toothpick
Small Rhinestones

1. Dip your dotter tool into a puddle of topcoat, and leave a dot of it on your nail wherever you’d like to place your rhinestone.

2. With the dotter still wet with top coat, touch the top of a rhinestone to pick it up. The top coat should make it stick long enough to move it to the nail. If not, dip the dotter in top coat again before picking up the stone.

3. Place the stone into the dot of topcoat on your nail and press firmly. The topcoat should ooze out from underneath the stone.

4. Arrange the stones into a pattern you like, and finish by sealing the stone and the nail with a thin layer of topcoat.