How to use nail stickers at home?

The possibilities of decorating nails are endless today. Therefore, often modern women who perform manicures at home on their own resort to using all kinds of stickers for design. However, not everyone uses stickers correctly, given the material of their manufacture. Let's dwell on this issue and answer what are the secrets of the technology of professional craftsmen and what you need to know so that the stickers stay on the nails for a long time.

Today, nail stickers are divided into several varieties. The offers of trading companies are so diverse that they can satisfy even the most demanding requests. The richest assortment allows you not to limit yourself in the flight of creative thought and to experiment one by one, changing the design depending on the mood. All known types of material differ from each other in the manner of fastening.

Watermark stickers are called slider designs. Today, such translations are overgrown with variations, which significantly increased the ability to decorate nails.For example, they are made not only for hands: when studying the offers of trademarks, you can also find options for pedicure among the bulk. And if the analogs for the hands often consist of 10 or more pictures, then the sets for the legs are designed to decorate the nails of the thumbs.

Such pictures differ in thickness, which determines the complexity of the work and the type of substrate for the sticker. The slider itself is nothing more than a film with a pattern applied to it. Its texture can be elastic, which is good for correcting the slider at the time of gluing to the working nail.

The film may have a colored or transparent background. Here, one of the important points is its thickness: for a thin film with a colored background, you have to make a light (often white) substrate. A thick film is sufficient as the basis of a conventional base.

In volume, the sliders are covering the entire surface of the nail or application options. Second products of this type always have a transparent background. Such pictures can be white, black, color, metallized, three-dimensional (with a visual illusion of volume or 3D). The line of water stickers also includes small volumetric stickers. However, all varieties are united by a paper slider backing, which must be removed by wetting the material.

An interesting material is a tape type foil. In fact, this is a pattern applied to a meter tape, which involves transferring the pattern from the film to the working surface of the painted nail by using special glue. Without it, trying to translate a pattern is useless.

The glue is interesting in that it signals the master about drying by changing the color from white to transparent. The assortment of such a product includes prints of a wide variety of subjects. One of the most delicate solutions are lace patterns and plant weave. The color schemes of this material are endless.

One of the most extraordinary decor options are the so-called thermal stickers. In fact, these are metallized decorative elements that need to be preheated with a hairdryer or near an incandescent lamp. Only after that their fixation becomes possible. The heating process is necessary for strengthening, because poorly prepared decor can be a stain, which makes the general appearance of manicure lose its accuracy.

The texture of metallic stickers can be different: Today it is not only glossy, manufacturers began to produce matte options. Due to this, manicure masters manage to refine even the most concise design. By the way, often in design they use a contrast technique, decorating accent nails with matte and glossy thermal stickers at the same time.

There are also stickers with a sticky bottom layer. In fact, these are stickers familiar to us, because they perform them on the same principle as ordinary children's adhesive pictures. These products can be flat or embossed, they also have a 3D effect.

Today, this decor can have a different type of substrate. If before it was mostly paper, now manufacturers produce film options. This is convenient for easier removal of the sticker from the base.

Regardless of what type of sticker is chosen for design, you can not do without the correct and high-quality preparation of nail plates. To do this, you need to make a hygienic manicure. There may be two options: edged or unedged. In the case of the cutting technique, the nails are soaked, the cuticle and pterygium are removed, trying to handle the skin around the plates themselves with maximum care.

If preference is given to unedged technique, the cuticle is pushed back and sealed. Today, this technique is gaining popularity among professionals in the field of nail art. It is believed that it not only minimizes skin irritation, but also with regular care is a preventative measure for burrs. The masters of salons and studios are sure that this technique provides better hand care.

After the nails are given the desired shape, the length is leveled, it is necessary to remove the gloss from the surface of the plates. This stage is important, because it will depend on how firmly the manicure with the design will hold. You can’t rub your nails hard and for a long time, this leads to their thinning. After the buff goes through all the nails, the remains of the sawdust are removed with a brush and then the dehydrator. Now the nails are ready for staining.

All pictures that brand names offer are glued differently. Therefore, let us dwell on this moment in a little more detail in order to understand the essence of the process and the sequence of actions. But first, we note the difference between gel polish techniques and the usual type of coating, which does not require a special drying lamp.

Hybrid coatings, combining the properties of both gel and varnish at the same time, have a number of features, which is reflected in the technique of fixing the sticker. For example, without a lamp they do not dry at all, and if it is improperly selected, then such a coating can be short-lived. When the technique is followed, and the lamp has the required power, the decor is kept without the need for correction of the order of two to four weeks. Stickers have to be glued on top of several layers of special products provided by the technology for working with hybrid varnishes. In addition, this procedure from hygienic manicure to the very end of the work is very long.

The usual coatings that women have been using for a long time have less wear. They are inferior in color solutions to hybrid counterparts. However, the stickers on them can be glued much faster, which is very convenient in the rapid rhythm of modern life. Yes, and the layers of material here are much smaller, although, as in the version with gel polish, the process will require sealing the picture to increase its wear. However, often ordinary nail polish begins to crack off the surface of the nail on the second day, and therefore many women prefer not to spend time on constant correction, but rather use stickers and gel polish.

When working with gel polish, decals are cut out in the shape of a nail. Do not fit the sticker at the top: it is important that it lies flat at the base, in the cuticle area. The upper edge can then be removed, and if it is cut off, there may not be enough length.

• A base coat is applied to the prepared nail, which is then dried in a lamp. After that, a pigmented white gel polish is applied on top of the base and the coating is dried again.
• Now they draw a little more base on the brush and again cover it with the nail, not forgetting about its end. This time the coating is not dried.
• They take a picture, put it face up on a wet towel, wait about 30 seconds.
• After that, the film is removed from the paper substrate with tweezers and placed on the nail, straightened.
• Then the decor is dried, after which it is sealed with layers of base and top, drying each of them for 2 minutes in a lamp. Instead of a base, you can use a top as a substrate for the sticker.

Work with the tape is performed on the basis of gel polish.

• After the nail is prepared for decorative manicure, the base is applied, it is dried, then the nail is coated with the selected pigmented varnish. The coating is dried again. If the varnish has poor pigmentation, it is applied not once, but twice, while each layer is dried until the material completely dries.
• After that, they take a special glue with a white viscous mass, designed specifically for such translations.Glue covers the entire surface of the nail.
• So that the mass does not flow over the side rollers and the cuticle, before the start of staining, a special protective silicone agent is applied to the skin around the nail. It dries and forms a thin film that can be removed at the very end of the work.
• It is not necessary to dry the glue in the lamp; it itself will dry quickly.
• As soon as it becomes transparent, take a cut off piece of film and transfer the picture, firmly pressing it to the surface of the nail.
• After that, the design is sealed with a layer of top with its mandatory drying in the lamp.

Self-adhesive pictures provide for work with gel polish, and with a conventional coating. To stick them correctly, the dryness of the work surface is important. It’s not worth experimenting with a dry top, it’s useless. The sticky layer of such a sticker needs to grab onto something. The whole point of the work is to separate the picture from the substrate and stick it on the nail painted with colored varnish, carefully pressing it to it.

However, this technology has one caveat. Many women complain that the translation is quickly breaking away from the ground. Masters note that after the substrate for the sticker is completely ready and dried, it is necessary not only to glue the sticker on high quality, but also give it two to three minutes so that it takes a rounded shape of the nail. Only after that the sticker can be sealed with a layer of top with drying or transparent varnish (when working with ordinary pigment).

If you do not want to use ready-made pictures for your manicure design, you can create your own at home. This process does not take much time and effort. Need stamping or disposable stencils.

Take a silicone mat for nails and make on it several strips of a thin layer of varnish. He is left to dry a little. After that, using, for example, stamping, varnishes are applied to various patterns.

Such stickers can be cut in shape or even cut into ordinary strips, which is also fashionable today. The design technology will consist in the fact that after applying and drying the base, stick pictures on an un-dried layer of pigment. After the sticker is placed on the nail and spread, removing the folds and cutting off the excess, it is sealed on top with a layer of top.

You can take water technology as a basis, which allows you to create unique stickers with abstract stains. Different pigments are alternately dripped into a glass of water, trying to ensure that each drop falls strictly in the center of the previous one. The number of drops may be from 7 or more. After the desired amount is reached, take a wooden stick or toothpick and draw a pattern either by movements from the center to the edges, or vice versa.

If you still want to conjure with a water sticker, then after the desired pattern is created, it is left in a glass for about 20 minutes. After that, the film is removed and decoration continues. In addition, such a sticker can be cut into several parts, so that it is enough for all accent nails of a manicure.

There are times when the stickers peel off, which not only spoils the look of the manicure, but also affects the mood of the woman. Do not sin on the low quality of the stickers, because often the reason for the detachment is an error in the performance of the technique or simply non-compliance with the standard instructions. In general, it doesn’t matter if it’s Chinese or other cheap options, and often they hold on for quite some time and for a long time. The masters have a few tips on this.

• If the sticker peels off, this indicates that the drying time has not been sustained.The fact is that the coating on which it is glued when working with gel polish must be dried with the picture longer. Therefore, the standard two minutes must be turned into four. In addition, performing any technique, it is necessary to walk with a brush along the end of the nail.
• We can not ignore the fact that chips and detachment of the picture can occur due to the presence of air pockets. You must immediately stick the sticker tightly, leveling it and avoiding the formation of wrinkles. To be sure of the result, it is important to seal the design with quality. In other words, the layer of material covering the sticker should be at least half a millimeter larger.

• If the picture was cut out large and wrapped under the base of the nail, and the top or transparent varnish did not get there, detachments will not take long.
• To get rid of wrinkles, if they turned out while working with water sliders, you can use an acid-free primer. However, this tool can dissolve the picture completely, so you need to use it very carefully. The primer is used up to the sealing layer.

See how to stick watermark stickers on nails in the video below.