Puppet on a String themed stiletto acrylic nail

Today we're going to do a stiletto nail in a polka-dot style, so a little bit of fun. We're going to... [Read more]

Today we're going to do a stiletto nail in a polka-dot style, so a little bit of fun. We're going to start by building up a nail in clear acrylic and pinching it prior to putting us polka-dots on. This nail's already been prepped and the form's already in place so if you need to refer back to those videos do so now. We're going to start by picking up a clear bead of acrylic, Placing it on the nail and the form and pressing it in to place. This is going to create our structure of our nail before we start applying us design. So you want it nice and thin, and whenever we do any sort of sculptured nail we need to really concentrate on them side walls. I'm using the belly of my brush to really spread that product out nice and thin. We're going to apply another bead just on the stress point so that when we do pinch this nail it stays in place but again, nice and thin. We're going to let that nail set a little bit now before we pinch it. Now remember, depending on the temperature of your room will depend on how soon you can pinch the nail. If you're in a warm environment you can pinch a little bit earlier, if you're in a cool environment it may take a bit longer. What you're waiting for is that stickiness to go off the product, at that point you can put your pinching tool on. So just keep tapping your product until you feel the stickiness go. And then you can place your pinching tool on. At the minute I'm just pinching  the stress point and then I'm going to use my fingers to pinch the rest of the stiletto. Once your pinching tool has been on long enough you can take it off, make sure that the free edge is nice and pinched together as well. Okay, so next we're gong to start adding our polka-dots, take the liquid out the back of the bead once you've picked it up and place it on the nail, that way the bead won't sink too much. You want different sized beads so you get different sized spots. If you want certain beads to be a little bit bigger just press them down slightly with the tip of your brush. Don't fill the nail in too much because we are going to add a little bit of hand-painted on top of this as well. And make sure that your smile line is nice and covered up with your colours. Okay, so just let them beads settle a little bit and start to cure, and then we're going to cap this nail with clear powder. You want to work with your clear a little bit wetter than what you would normally because you want it to be able to sink round the polka-dots that you've created. So, using the tip of your brush to spread the acrylic and the belly of your brush to pat it down into place. Don't forget when you come to do the cuticle area, tilt your client's nail down so that you know that powder won't run backwards into the cuticle area. So, we're going to let this nail set now and then we'll go to filing. So, this form is ready to take off now. Make sure you release it from the acrylic and that you go down, because if not you'll hurt your clients hyponychium. So, we're going to file this nail next, making sure that when we do stiletto nails that that side wall comes out nice and straight. Whenever you're filing, keep checking your nail from every angle to check that the thickness and smoothness is how you want it. Nice and gentle round that cuticle area - just let the file do the work, don't apply too much pressure. Okay, so that's the filing complete. We're just going to white block this nail now so the surface is nice and smooth for our hand-painted. Make sure you get rid of all the dust, on top and underneath because this is a clear nail Next we're going to do a few hand-painted dots. We're going to do a few little dots on top of the bubbles that you've already created, Then we're going to apply some random dots in the clear area. And then just a few coming down one side of the nail. We're just letting that paint dry a little bit and then well apply a gel top coat. Then you can pop your client into the lamp for two minutes to set that. That nail's now done, it just needs a little bit of cuticle oil to finish it off. Don't forget to go behind the back of the nail when you're doing a clear nail. That's a polka-dot stiletto nail done [Read less]