Nail Care and Nail Art!

So excited to show you all some tips on nail care and a nail art example! Let’s get started:

Before I even think about putting any nail polish on my nails I make sure they’re nice and healthy first. If I’m removing old nail polish I make sure to sure Beauty Secrets nail polish remover, this formula is made for natural nails and won’t be as harsh as a regular nail polish remover. It doesn’t dry out your nails like other removers and it also smells a lot better and not as strong. So I recommend this nail polish remover if you paint your natural nails to keep them nice and healthy. I buy this at Sally’s beauty store, this big one cost less than $5 and it lasts forever, there’s also smaller sizes if you want to just try it out.

After removing any nail polish I buff and file my nails, I showed my buffing block and nail filer in my beauty haul, which is what I used this time. The buffing block removes dead skin and any stains from dark nail polishes. There’s four sides to it, the first one evens out your nails, the second side smooth’s the nail out, the third buffs your nail and lastly you shine your nails. When doing all these steps make sure you move the block in the same direction, don’t go up and down, side to side, just one way. This also goes for filing your nails. When I file my nails I shape them into a square shape, I use a tweezer man nail cutter with a straight edge in order to give my nail that square shape.  

After buffing and shaping your nails I like to use this Burt’s Bees cuticle cream, I mentioned this in my What’s In My Bag post. It makes your cuticles soft and you can push them back easier, plus it smells so delicious! Finally, I just moisturize my hands, I use Cetaphil moisturizing cream, this is what I use daily, it’s for dry and sensitive skin and fragrance free. I mentioned this in my previous post how I have really sensitive skin so I try to find the best products for my skin. This cream is awesome because it makes skin soft and smooth and it doesn’t make me feel oily like a regular lotion does. I love this stuff!

Now that your nails a pretty without any polish on you’re ready to make them even prettier!

For nail art I use my dotting tools that I bought on Amazon for less than $3. I’m only showing two of them because I’m pretty the other three dotting tools are at my parents’ house because my sister uses them too and we use to share all that stuff. They all have different size tips to create a lot of unique art work. You can make your nails look like you spent hours on them, when it really only took you like 10 minutes to do, that’s the beauty of dotting tools. For the design I did today I just used one of the dotting tools, this design is like a lace design, and it’s super easy!

I first put my base coat on (all the nail polish I used today are Sinful Colors, I get these at Target) and let that dry. Then you put your first coat on, I used white, I’ve also used a pale pink for this design before and it looks just as great. After I let two coats of white dry I use my dotting with the bigger end and dip it in black polish, then I just place the dots a little less than the middle of my nail and make a straight line across it. I do that to all my nails then fill in the rest of my nail with the black polish. You then let that dry for a bit and use the smaller tip of your dotting tool and place those dots where the other dots were to create that lace effect. After creating this look just add your clear coat to make it shine and finish the look!

Make sure you let it completely dry because then some of the colors will smear, I’m very impatient so some of mine did smear a bit : ( If you’re as impatient as I am you can tip your nails in ice cold water to help the drying process, it doesn’t completely dry them but it sure does speed up the process.

                                                                             

I get a lot of inspiration from Pinterest or YouTube, my favorite beauty guru is Jenny Fox, a.k.a MissJenFabulous. She does a lot of nail art and gives step by step instructions on how she does them. She uses dotting tools for almost all her tutorials so the designs she does are easy to re-create.The design I did today is pinned in my Beauty board on Pinterest, that’s where I got the idea for it. Thank you Pinterest!

I hope this was helpful, I try to keep things simple and easy, because I know nail art can be discouraging from how it looks but when you see the steps they’re actually a lot easier than you think. I strongly recommend buying them because they can create so many designs and make your life easier, plus they’re super cheap! Send me your re-creations or your inspirations and hashtag them with #stylealwaysfashionforever, on Instagram and on Twitter. Thanks everyone!