So in my previous article on How to Do Easy Nail Designs, I touched briefly upon nail stickers as an up and coming way to produce amazing nail art designs with very little effort or skill [which is always good for me as I don't seem to be perfecting my nail painting skills when doing my nail art designs!].
In this timely update, I’m going to share some research I’ve been doing on nail art stickers for nail art designs, and give you my perspective [which I'm never shy about doing] on how well they work, and are they a front runner for doing easy nail designs. I can tell you a bit of a teaser before I get into the nail designs that I don’t think they are just for beginners – in fact I may start alternating some months using nail stickers versus my normal crackle polish designs or a trendy OPI nail polish…
Easy Nail Designs using Sticker Art
Ok, so my avid readers will know I haven’t always been easy on Sally Hansen nail polishes – this brand of nail polish simply has never performed well for me, so I’ve not written a lot about it when reviewing the best nail polish brands [as for me it isn't a good nail polish]. Besides, this article isn’t about the sometimes tedious approach to painting your nail art designs using multiple nail polish brands!
However, setting aside their polish collection, Sally Hansen is getting rave reviews for their line of nail art stickers – they call them “Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips”, and are essentially easy to apply stickers that have some unbelievable designs already printed on them – they provide incredibly complex nail designs as art, with minimal effort. They use real nail polish when they make the strips, which is why so many reviewers indicate they last 10+ days with little to no chipping or peeling, which is amazing!
They have a great pattern and color tool to see what each of the nail stickers look like – you can find it at the Sally Hansen Site [kind of fun to play around with actually]. Give it a shot to preview what these nail art design stickers will look like on your hands.
If you watched the video at the beginning of this article you already know almost as much as I do about how these nail stickers are applied [although calling them nail stickers doesn't seem to represent the quality of the nail designs to be honest!]
Tips on Artistic Simple Nail Designs with Polish Strips
A few tips on using these to ensure you get the 10+ days wear out of your nail art designs that most readers do:
- You can warm the strips up between your hands before peeling them off, as it makes them more pliable and you’re less likely to tear them by accident
- Use the included little file to remove the excess strip that hangs over the edge of your nail [if you try and rip it you won't like the results trust me!]
- Consider putting a clear nail polish top coat over them once they are “dry” for extra protection
- Try them on your toes – they will last several weeks on your toes, and you won’t believe the compliments people will give you as it is unusual to see cool nail art designs on toes [other than the usual butterfly or flower
] - Be sure and store the unused strips in an airtight baggie ASAP – they will dry out fairly fast
- They will remove fairly easily with regular acetone nail polish remover – trying to peel them off will likely leave residue on your nails, which won’t be a desirable nail design at all!
If you haven’t tried these yet – give them a shot. It takes less than 15 minutes to apply, there is no mess to clean up afterwards, and you truly get some stellar artistic nail designs that would cost a small fortune to have done at a nail salon [if they could even do them by hand, which for many of these I doubt it!].
My favorite place to buy these is either my local Ulta store, or online of course at drugstore.com.
Have some fun with these – you get totally professional looking, sophisticated nail art designs in about 15min, and at around $9 per kit I think it is a great deal – especially if you want to sport a totally cool design that you never see on other women’s nails!
Cool Nail Art Designs by Painting with Polish
Occasionally I will get the urge to do some really cool nail art designs using fine brushes and a few different nail polishes.
The nail design video below shows you one example of someone creating a leopard nail art print on their nails – this can result in a cool look, but be warned you will have to put some time in and practice – this nail design won’t come out perfect the first time. When I tried it my nails had an impressionist art look to them unfortunately!
The above video used Elf nail polish to create the Leopard Nail Design. This next video shows how to create cool Christmas Nail Art [okay - maybe more Winterish than Christmas] that shows snowflakes and snow on your nails – definitely a cool winter scene depicted in real life on your nail art!
As you can see from the above nail art videos, some nail art actually isn’t as hard as I make it out to be [that can come from me being lazy sometimes to be honest]. With just 2-3 colors of a quality nail polish brand, and the good nail brushes included with them, you can actually create some cool scenes on your nails – turning them into works of art! I still tend to use toothpicks and some super fine nail polish brushes, however, as accessories I pick up at my local beauty store. Sometimes the brushes in your existing nail polish bottles can get crusty from past use, or may not be as fine as you need [or maybe this is from my hands not being as steady as they should be? I never claimed to be an artist - especially for nail designs!]
In a future article I’ll take a look at some other nail art sticker options for the trend of easy nail designs – this was a good start and hopefully has given you a new option to try in the meantime!
Happy Nail Designing!
Talia