A Head Start with Nail Art Four Tips for Beginners

As women we can be very expressive with the way we dress or the way we wear our makeup. However, these days our nails have joined the style wagon in the form of various nail art designs.

Almost every lady has tried to do nail art at least once, and why shouldn't we? It's fun, it's unique, it's basically like picking out an outfit for our nails.

We can see the impact of nail art on women for ourselves whenever we watch award shows like the Grammy's where they have this gimmick called the Mani Cam. The Mani Cam is basically a small red carpet platform with a camera at the end where celebrities can show off their nails.

This unique manicure style allows us to express ourselves creatively through our nails. We can have any colour and any design we want! It also doesn't have to be so complicated to create one. Some designs don't even need drawing skills.

Gradually when we keep doing nail art we will IMPROVE OUR SKILLS AND LEARN to do MORE COMPLICATED DESIGNS. So, to help you get there, here are a few tips for beginners that might be useful in giving you a head start:

  • Begin with simple designs. As I've said before, some designs can be very simple to do. You don't have to immediately jump into complicated designs because you will eventually learn how to do them once you've mastered the basics. Some examples of these simple designs are stripes, leopard prints and polka dots. In fact, even having a different colour for each nail is considered a design!

  • Use Ziploc bags. If you think you're still a little unsteady with applying directly on your nails you can use plastic Ziploc bags as your canvas instead. Estimate the size of your nails and draw the design you want on the Ziploc bags. After finishing your design, leave them there for a while to dry. Once it has dried you can peel them off, stick them to your nails and top it with a fast-drying, colourless coat. You can even outline your design with a marker to make it easier for you to draw.

  • Improvise! As a beginner you might not have all the fancy tools the professionals have, but that shouldn't stop you! There are many materials just lying around your house that can do a good a job as the professional tools. Let's take polka dots for example, perfect circles can be achieved by using bobby pins (but you have to pull it apart first). If you want smaller dots - use toothpicks.

  • Use a Cosmetic Sponge. These are a great tool for creating gradient or Ombre nails. What you can do is first paint your nails with a base colour and allow it to completely dry. Once you're sure that it's as dry as it can be, apply 2 or 3 colours onto a cosmetic sponge and dab the colours onto the nail to create the gradient effect. If you're happy with the results of each nail, finish off with a colourless top coat.

Starting out is really all about experimenting until you find a design you really like and are really good at. Hopefully these beginner tips can help pave your way to fabulous and expressive nails.

3rd Jun 2014 Meliney

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