The trend of nail art has existed since the 1980s. While Switzerland, like other countries, has many nail art centres for men and women, there are also designs and styles one could try at home. Samvidha Srinath came across the work of many nail art enthusiasts and influencers on YouTube and Instagram, and soon it became her hobby.
A hobby that Samvidha decided to share with us. Getting the ingredients isn’t difficult. She picked up her stash at the beauty section in Migros.
Materials
- Nail Paint: red, white, brown, glittery green dark blue
- Correction pen filled with nail paint remover
- Nail paint remover
- Nail care pen
- Gemstones
- Nail stickers
- Basecoat and topcoat
- Clear nail polish: nail polish without any colour
- Dotting tool(s): a tool with a round end with which you can draw dots
- Striping tape: very thin tape exclusively made tapes in different colours for nail art. These are used to create clean and sharp lines
- Gradient sponge: a sponge with which a gradient can be created
- Nail art brush: works just like a regular paintbrush but it is used for nails
- Cuticle pusher
Prep your nails
Clean your nails with nail-polish-remover. If your nails are uneven or rough, file them and give them a good buff. Remember to file your nails in one direction and to round the edges off to prevent your nails from chipping. Push your cuticles back as this removes any old skin and may hurt a little if the skin is new. It also gives you more space to work with since you are going to be working on a very small surface.
Dip your nails into nail polish remover again and then wash your hands with soap. Your nails will be smooth and clean. Then apply a base coat to all of your nails. The base coat protects your nails and makes the nail surface easier to work with. If the nail polish is not opaque paint another coat. Tip: To save time, work on different nails simultaneously.
Create your Nail Art
Paint your thumb with glittery red nail polish and let it dry completely. Take some white nail polish and drop some on a piece of white paper. Put a dot in the centre of the nail with a dotting tool. If you don’t have one, a bobby pin does the trick. Draw a straight line and two diagonal lines with an extremely fine brush. Draw a small V on both ends of the lines.
P
aint your index light pink. Draw a small thick brown line at the bottom of your nail. Take a dark green nail polish and draw curved zig-zag lines. Fill in the shape. Once dry, add some white nail polish under every zigzag curve to show that there is snow on the tree. Then apply some clear nail polish on the green area. Take out some stones in any colour. Dip the dotting tool in clear nail polish and use it to pick the stone up. Place the stone on the tree and press it down. If you don’t have stones, you can put colourful dots in the same manner.
Paint your nail white. Take a gradient sponge and apply dark blue polish, a polish of a lighter blue shade and light blue. Make sure that the polishes overlap. Then dab the sponge onto your nail until you see a shift from dark to light blue. Let it dry. Draw a snowflake as you did for the thumb. If there is some space left, you can put some white dots.
Paint your nail white. Don’t wait for it to dry. Take some translucent (or silver) glitter and pour it all over your nail. Shake away any excess glitter. Apply a layer of topcoat to smoothen the surface. Let it dry for 20 minutes. Put on some Christmas stickers.
Paint your nail gold. Apply a layer of topcoat. Let it dry. Put on striping tape diagonally in a way that it looks like a gift box. Apply dark green nail polish or any colour of your choice and then quickly take the tape off (in the reverse order you applied the tape) before the nail polish dries. You will be left with two sharp golden lines. Apply a ribbon sticker which comes with the Christmas sticker set.
Set Your Nail Art
After finishing your nail art, apply one to two coats of topcoat to seal in the design. This will last for two weeks. I hope you enjoy doing this design as much as I did.
Disclaimer: Opinions and methods expressed are solely of the writer. Namaste Switzerland does not undertake any obligation or liability which may arise from the content.
