The actively developing areas of activity of nail service masters amaze with their rapid spread and favorable adaptation in the arena of the modern nail industry. Needless to say, at the present time there are so many different manicure techniques, so many different decorating techniques and so many different ideas for creating an original design that you don’t get bored. Today, every girl can choose for herself such a decor for her nails, which is able to reflect her mood, and correspond to a solemn occasion, and fit into everyday life. Today's contemporaries are experimenting with the selection of nail designs for a specific costume, a specific outfit, a specific occasion and a specific pastime.
One of the relatively new decorative solutions in the modern manicure service is the use of sliders: these are multi-colored, diverse and diverse water stickers ongel polish. How to properly apply this kind of nail decoration element to the nail base? What are the secrets of step-by-step nail design using these slides?
Features
What is an ordinary sticker - probably no need to explain. All of us from childhood are familiar with the features of this kind of application, which has different directions in the intended purpose. The sticker is a piece of paper (sizes may vary) covered with a sticky layer on one side and decorated with a decorative image, illustration, drawing or photographic print on the other. The point is that stickers are glued to various surfaces in order to decorate, aesthetically transform or hide any defects on these surfaces. Stickers can be of different format, quality, density, purpose. They differ from each other in appearance, fragments of artistic aesthetics depicted on them, and scope.
Recently, the developers of nail decoration elements have proposed the use of all kinds of sliders as a design for nails. Gel polish stickers have spread the scope of their application and have fallen in love with many representatives of the beautiful half of humanity so rapidly that almost every modern fashionista has already managed to get acquainted with their amazing features and aesthetic superiority. According to nail service masters and amateur girls, the use of this kind of decoration hasa lot of significant advantages and an almost complete absence of disadvantages. But first things first.
Pros to use
Before you resort to using nail sliders, you need to figure out how to properly apply stickers on gel polish. Water slides or adhesive-based applications differ somewhat from each other in the technique of application to the nail plate. But in general, the instructions for their design on the surface of the nails are simple. That is why this method of decorating nails is used not only in nail salons by experienced and qualified nail service masters, but also by amateur girls at home when creating an original design with their own hands.
What are the fundamental benefits of using this nail design element?
- Comfortable application - there is nothing easier than transferring the sticker from the substrate to the surface of the nail bed. It is clear that care and accuracy in actions will be required in order to apply the material to the nail plate correctly, but this, in general, is not difficult even for beginners in this business, not to mention highly qualified specialists in their field.
- Instant adhesion and almost instant drying - decorating slides on nails is not only surprisingly easy, but also amazingly fast. Already after the first seconds of fixing on the nail, the wet surface of the film begins to dry out. After a minute or two, the nail will be ready forfixing coat finish.
- Practicality - with such a manicure you can walk up to three weeks, given, of course, the fact that the technique of applying stickers on a manicure with gel polish was performed correctly and correctly.
- Possibility of self-application - the option with stickers is incredibly popular with girls because it can be used without the help of a manicurist. Do-it-yourself design modeling with slides at home is now as accessible as making your own makeup, which, you see, is quite convenient. At the same time, there is no need to spend money on the provision of professional services by a nail service master. This results in another plus - cost savings.
- Gorgeous Aesthetic Look - Achieving amazing beauty on your nails with the help of well-chosen color schemes and successful artistic illustrations on stickers will not be difficult even for beginners. Moreover, in order to get an admirable drawing, it is not at all necessary to have even the basics of artistic skill, because the amazing drawings already prepared on the substrates in an instant can be transferred to the nail without any slightest ability to wield a brush with paints.
Negative sides
Despite the fact that this element of manicure decoration has quite a lot of advantages, sometimes girls still note some nuances that are somewhat disappointing with their presence. What are these nuances?
- Fragility - iftalking about ordinary nail polish, then a slide on it can last no more than three to four days. Subsequently, it begins to flake off or fall off in pieces. But since modern girls mostly use gel polish as the basis for manicure, this drawback disappears by itself - under the finish layer, the sticker is not able to deform.
- Difficulties in removing from the nail plate - since the sticker or slide acts as the most ordinary film with a pattern, it is quite difficult to remove it with ordinary nail polish remover. You have to resort to additional manicure tools in order to scrape off the film firmly glued to the nail bed, and this is additional time and effort.
- Difficulties with correct straightening on the surface of the nail - in order for the sticker to lie as flatly as possible on the nail (especially in cases where it is solid), you need to practice a little. The first times may still result in damage to some slides and the need to apply new blanks to the nail. But it's only a matter of short-term experience and acquiring the appropriate skill.
In a word, we can note the fact that the number of advantages of using slides is almost twice as large as the disadvantages of this procedure. From this it follows that the game is worth the candle - that is why most girls at this stage of the formation and development of a manicure service use this method of decorating nails in practice more and more often.
Instructions
Like any other nail design technique, applicationslides are characterized by a sequence of coordinated actions. Whether it is a nail art studio or a home environment, the meaning of the procedure is that all manipulations, step by step, are performed in a clear sequence according to the established instructions. But what is the flow of the procedure? How to apply gel polish stickers?
The step-by-step instruction provides for a phased work, which consists of the following steps:
- preparing for sticking slides;
- main body;
- completion of procedure.
To perform each of them, you need a list of appropriate tools.
Toolkit
To understand how to apply stickers under gel polish or how to apply them on the surface of a natural nail covered with ordinary varnish, you first need to familiarize yourself with the appropriate design tools. What should be prepared before the procedure for applying stickers on nails?
- The slides themselves.
- A saucer of warm water (for water stickers).
- Manicure scissors (for cutting solid slides to fit your nails).
- File (for shaping the nails and removing the remnants of the sticker from the end of the nail).
- Buff (to eliminate the shiny layer of the natural nail).
- Primer (to ensure a tighter adhesion of the material to the nail, optional).
- Orange stick (for easy straightening of the sticker on the surface of the nail).
- Antiseptic (for disinfection of hands, nails and tools).
- Degreaser (to remove the sticky layer from nails).
- Tweezers (for easy separation of the patterned film from the paper base).
- UV lamp (for polymerization of the gel composition on the nails).
Preparatory stage
etc. How to apply stickers on gel polish? Step by step and being extremely attentive and accurate, you can achieve a decent result without putting any supernatural effort in the process of doing manicure work.
So, what are the preparatory steps?
- Step 1: Eliminate the remnants of the previous manicure, remove varnish with an acetone-free liquid with a pungent odor.
- Step 2: Take a hand bath to soften cuticle buildup and gently cleanse excess skin from nails.
- Step 3: disinfect hands and nails with antiseptic.
- Step 4: preliminary disinfection of working tools.
- Step 5: Perform a cuticle removal procedure to prepare the nail for gel polish application, and then the slides.
- Step 6: shaping the nails and removing the top shiny layer with a buff; ifthe nails are not natural, but have already been strengthened with gel, then it is necessary to correct their thickness with a nail file of a harder abrasiveness.
- Step 7: after applying a primer that ensures good adhesion of the gel polish to the surface of a natural nail (optional), it is necessary to apply a top coat on the nails, given that the background color for the sticker should not “argue” with it.
Having finished with the preparation process, you can quickly proceed to the direct design of nails using slides.
Main Stage
The key point in designing with stickers is the quality transfer of the slide from the substrate to the plate. How to apply stickers on gel polish? How to stick blanks so that they do not bulge, do not crumple, do not stick together with free edges?
Sufficient will be a slow, systematic implementation of the following successive steps.
- Step 1: preparing the stickers for work. If they are water-based, dip them in a saucer of water. If the slides are made on an adhesive basis, you need to cut out pieces of photo design that best fit the shape of your nails with nail scissors.
- Step 2: sequential transfer of stickers from the blank to the nail. The important point here is to separate the adhesive part from the base as delicately as possible so that the sticker does not bend, its tips stick together and crowded. In this case, it would be more correct to use thin tweezers to maintain the adhesive part of the slide.
- Step 3: Choosing the correct position on the plate. If the sticker is partial, then the correct placement of the artistic element in the aesthetically correct part of the nail plays an important role, especially if the nails are long. Often, girls choose an angular root zone or an angular area along the cut line. If the sticker is solid, it must be applied all over the entire surface of the plate.
- Step 4: smooth out the smallest film clumps. The thinnest texture of the sticker tends to shrink, curl and bend under the influence of pressure on it. Therefore, here it is necessary to be extremely careful and not overdo it with the onslaught on its surface. If, nevertheless, the sticker has moved off the nail and is too wrinkled, it’s better not to regret it and use a new sample. The skill of clearly applying slides also comes with some experience.
- Step 5: drying the damp surface of the sticker. This mostly applies to water-based slides. How to apply water stickers on gel polish? It is necessary to achieve a perfect straightening of the sticker on the surface of the nail, and then dry it with a dry cotton pad or swab.
Final stage
After the direct transfer and fixation of the sticker on the nails have been carried out, the final manipulations are performed to bring the nails to an aesthetically presentable appearance. How do they manifest?
- Step 1: Top coat the slide. After making sure that the sticker is dry from the water, you need to cover it with a layertransparent gel as a fixative of the resulting composition. This will ensure the comparative durability of such a manicure design.
- Step 2: UV curing. UV rays provide polymerization of gel polish and speed up its drying.
- Step 9: Degrease. To remove the top sticky layer of gel polish, you need to go over it with a cotton swab previously moistened with a degreasing liquid.
That's it. By following these simple steps, you can achieve the desired result without much difficulty at home. Now the nails are ready for display and publication.
Varieties
Being already aware of how to properly apply stickers on gel polish, you can pay attention to some of their special varieties. We talked about the most sought-after and popular elements of nail design, but besides them, there are many more interpretations of such decorative equipment. For general development, let's talk about each one separately.
- Water stickers are the most relevant type of slides, which is considered the most popular today due to the ease of transfer to the surface of the nail plate. The idea is that the stickers need to be immersed in slightly warm water to activate the adhesive layer.
- Adhesive slides - have a denser film texture and are characterized by a simple separation of the adhesive part from the paper blank.
- Photo design - represented by stickers with a realistic image of phenomena, objects, texts. These slides are pre-cutcontour of the nail and subsequently straighten on its surface with an orange stick.
- Volumetric stickers - are convex figures, being separate fragments of an artistic composition. It can be a three-dimensional butterfly, a three-dimensional flower, a three-dimensional heart. These slides give the impression of a 3D picture and have the effect of a three-dimensional realistic dimension.
- Partial - provide for filling only part of the nail space and act as symbols, silhouettes and objects with a clear outline.
- Solid - suggest one hundred percent filling of the surface with a clear, pronounced print.
- Mirror - characterized by the use of foil slides. How to glue stickers on or under gel polish if their base is metallized? The technique for performing this design is identical to the technique for applying stickers on the nails described above, except that the straightening of the nail bed should be done more carefully to achieve a better end result.
Extra Tips
A step-by-step guide detailing how to stick stickers on gel polish and how to apply adhesive film on nails correctly can be supplemented with a couple of simple but important tips.
- To prevent the sticker from shrinking when separating it from the paper base, you need to use tweezers as a film holder and help yourself with an orange stick, holding the paper base fidgeting on the saucer with its tip.
- Tothe foil sticker lays down more softly and evenly, warm it up slightly on the matte side - it is important not to confuse this side with the glossy side, otherwise the mirror effect will not be achieved.
- Excess water on the nail is better to get wet with a cotton pad, otherwise the slide will slide on the nail even when trying to apply a top coat.
