DIY Nail Decals

This week I'll be showing you all how to make your own custom nail decals. I know this isn't a super unique tutorial, but I figured I'd still make it because it's something that I enjoy doing, and maybe someone will learn something new from my tutorial. You never know, someone might stumble upon this post and it's the first time they've seen this technique! Or they could be like me and before doing a specific technique, they research the crap out of it, looking at multiple tutorials so they can pick and choose which techniques to use to fit their needs.

I eyeballed the size and shape of my nails and drew them out onto a piece of paper. If you do the same, you can draw your design inside of the nail like I did for two of these nails.

I wanted to paint a floral pattern on the rest of them, so on the right you can see some little  sketches I did to use as a reference. You could totally just pull up a reference from online, or a book, etc.

Cut the paper so it can fit inside of the bag and stick it inside.

Here are the steps I did for this specific floral design.

Once the design was dry, I coated each one with some top coat.

Here are some more examples of different decals you can make.

Remove the decals with your tweezers and, if needed, trim them to size. With mine I painted over the lines I sketched out so I had to trim quite a bit to fit them to my nails.

Paint your nails with your base coat, and then one coat of your background color, if you're using one. Let those dry completely, and then apply a layer of top coat, or as in my case, another layer of the background color.

Let it dry for about a minute or until it's tacky and then stick the decal on.

Gently pat/smooth it down. Repeat for all of your nails.

Finally apply another coat of topcoat, making sure to hit all the edges to seal them up.

And here they are all finished!

I hope you enjoyed this weeks tutorial! Stay tuned next week for more~

Nail Polish Mondays: Metal Chevron

I love this manicure! I used tape that I cut to mask off the chevron design.

The base color is Zoya "Dove" and the design is made with Sally Hansen "Pedal To The Metal" and Nicole by OPI "Sea How Far You Go."

Nail Polish Mondays: Patriotic Lightning

I used that lightning nail manicure again for this week.  I felt a little patriotic, so I decided to show that off with my nails.

I used Milani 3D Holographic "509 HD" for the base coat.  The blue is NYC "Empire State Blue," and the red is Sally Hansen "In The Red Creme".

Nail Polish Mondays: Monotone Lightning

I stumbled upon this tutorial for super cute lightning inspired nails, and I knew I had to do them.

This is another manicure that I did a while ago, so I don't remember what the black polish is, but I believe it was just some cheap polish anyway.  The silver was Sally Hansen "Pedal To The Metal." The grey is Zoya Polish "Kelly." 

Nail Polish Mondays: Galaxy

I've seen people doing space nails all over the place, and it inspired me to try it out for myself.  All in all I'm pretty happy with it!

I didn't really use a tutorial for this, I basically just looked at a bunch of examples and pictures of galaxies and took a makeup sponge with random nail polish colors to my nails.  The base color was Zoya, Dovima. I then sponged on NYC "Empire State Blue," orchid "Barely There," essie "Allure," a tiny bit of Nubar "G188," and Sally Hansen "Twinkle Twinkle."  Phew, that was a mouthful.  I probably didn't have to use that many polishes but I was basically just having fun sponging the colors all over my nails!

Nail Polish Mondays: Holographic

You do not know how many times I've taken pictures of this polish trying to capture the amazingness that it is.  I had been lusting over holo polishes for a while and when I passed  by one while at my local drug store, I knew it was meant to be and I took it home with me that day.  It was so awesome that I didn't do any crazy manicures, I just wore it alone.

Here it is, Milani 3D Holographic - 509 HD. So. Pretty. I can't stop staring at it...

Nail Polish Mondays: Fireworks!

Please excuse the messiness around my cuticles, sometimes I get so excited after doing my nails that I can't wait to take pictures.  I thought these ended up looking like fountain fireworks.  After painting the base color, I taped the edges of my nails at an angle and painted a glitter gradation, with more concentration of glitter at the tips of my nails.

Unfortunately I don't remember what the base color was called.  I borrowed my sister's polish.  If I get a hold of her I'll make sure to ask her what it was!  The glitter, however, was mine, and it's Sally Hansen Gem Crush, Glitz Gal. I topped it off with e.l.f's matte top coat which I thought gave it a pretty interesting look.

Nail Polish Mondays: Newspaper

I've recently become obsessed with nail polish. I usually try to do something creative with my nails, so I thought it would be worth it to update what my nails look like each week.  I figured some people might enjoy that! So for this week, I did the newspaper manicure I've seen floating around the internet. Using this tutorial from wikihow, I went to town on my nails, and ended up loving how it turned out! I think I only had one nail that ended up smudged, but whatever.

For the base nail polish I used e.l.f. nail polish 1556 Mint Cream with Seche Vite as the top coat!