I’m going to be honest, until I arrived at college and met my creative and nail orientated roommate, I couldn’t paint a single nail without covering my whole finger in polish; it was always a bad experience for me. From the fearful start to the inevitable end an hour later where I scrubbed the shapeless blobs off my abused nails blatant irritation. College has brought new life and love to my nail painting process. After watching my roommate paint countless designs and styles upon her long, strong, beautiful nails I finally feel brave enough to share with you tutorials I have found helpful and even tried (with great success) in hope that those of you in need of help, like I was, can brave the nail polish isles once again.
Let’s start with the basics: types of nail polishes and the colors. There are a million and one types of nail polish, one walk down the numerous isles in any store can show you that. There are the typical expensive brands like O.P.I. that runs about six or seven dollars depending the type and color. There are also more economical brands like NYC that are priced around one or two dollars. Keep in mind however economical the brand may seem that it may take two or three coats of paint to completely cover the nail; this can lead to easy chipping or pealing if the nail polish layers are too thick. Don’t be afraid to shop around and find a brand that best suits your nails, even if it is the most expensive brand, they always have sales.
After deciding on the brand, colors are the second most important choice. There are three basic nail polishes that I recommend to always buy: black, white, and once solely glitter. With these three anything is possible. When it comes to other colors consider your favorites, there is the classic, dramatic red, or the soulful purple, or perhaps an envious green, or a sunny yellow. Keep in mind whatever the color you buy that they can work with others in your collection (if you ever what to combine them) and they don’t clash with your skin tone.
Now to the fun stuff…the designs! The base is everything, when picking your base color its best to go with a singular base coat and build off from that, personally I don’t like the look of designs on a bare nail you can chose whatever you like the best. Below is a nail painting diagram that I find helpful when doing a base coat.
The first design is my roommates personal favorite, it is a bit difficult for a beginner (I personally have never felt brave enough to try it); I like to call it the Neon Tip with a Twist. Basically it is a French Tip but with colors varying from neon pink to a screaming yellow instead of the average white. With this design, unless the nail polish is going to stain, it is recommended to start off with a bare nail. Adding on to the tip, my creative roommate often goes above and beyond the basic and embellishes her accent nail with various colored swirls for an extra little bam! Below is a photo tutorial explaining how to do a basic tip.
The second design is a sure way to get funky with some patterns. After choosing two or three colors to begin with and find a pattern that makes you happy. Two of your best friends during this process will be brushes to clean up your edges or tape to make the edges. When you are using tape be I would suggest placing it on your arm or leg before placing it on top of your nail’s base coat, forgetting this step will insure that when you remove the tape it will remove your nail polish. One pattern option is below, but check out our Pintrest to find more tutorials.
Option three is my personal favorite, the glitter gradient. This is perfect for chunky glitter as well as the smaller types. When using this technique my roommates tip is to use two layers of glitter. Use one sweep of glitter to display the fade out and another to double the amount of glitter present at the base of the gradient. Below is an example of the gradient.
Nails can be fun! Whether you’re going in solo or painting with a group of friends, don’t be afraid to get crazy and try out new styles. Check out our nail page of HC Mercer’s Pintrest to gather more nail style ideas.