How to beautifully stick water-based stickers on nails?

Slider design is today considered one of the best ways to decorate accent nails. This technique is an alternative to hand painting, it is easy to use and allows you to professionally design your nails in minutes, saving time on drawing. However, not everyone knows how to use water stickers correctly, how to glue them beautifully, so that the design looks as if it were made by a professional manicurist.

Water stickers differ from other varieties of such a decor in the structure and method of transfer to the nail plate. Each element has several layers:

• a protective film is located on top;
• under the protective layer is a working film with a printed pattern;
• the picture is held on a paper backing.

It is necessary to take into account the fact that stickers of this type need to be moistened correctly. You cannot completely soak a picture; there should be no water on its front side. The strength of adhesion to the sealing layer will depend on this. For this reason, experienced craftsmen do not put water stickers in a container of water. They use napkins, moistening them with water and placing the slider cut into the shape of a nail with a paper backing on a wet napkin.

Pictures themselves are sold, as a rule, in the form of ready-made sets in one theme and color scheme. These are 10 sliders for 10 nails, and the pictures are paired. Some sets are made in a rounded shape, others are rectangular images. Both of them in the process of work have to be trimmed, since they are rarely ideally suited for a specific nail plate.

This is done either with nail scissors or with tweezers, cutting off the excess slider on the sides and in the cuticle area. However, they immediately try to trim the picture in the shape of the nail only at the bottom (at the base of the plate). The upper edge is trimmed after the material is dried in a special lamp along with a retaining layer. To remove excess, use a file with a fine abrasive. Cut off excess material at an angle so as not to cut off the sticker on the end.

Few people think that water stickers are all different. This affects the accuracy of working with them and can both simplify and complicate the work process. The differences are explained by the features of production. In some products, the working films are thin and often torn during adjustment, in others they, on the contrary, are dense, and therefore do not fit well on a rounded nail.

Among a wide variety there are also elastic thin films. Due to this, they can even be slightly stretched if adjustment requires it. However, it is precisely the thickness that often determines the type of decor: thin stickers imply the obligatory implementation of a white backing. Dense ones do not need it, often they already have their own background.

Transparent varieties of sliders have a smaller thickness of the working film. Therefore, distributing them on the surface of the nail plate is easier. However, they can be very diverse. Accuracy of gluing may also depend on the volume of the sticker. Today, all categories of sliders are divided into partial or completely covering the nail plate pictures. It is easier to work with the former, but subject to certain rules, the latter can be glued very carefully.

By the type of drawing, the pictures can be color, monochrome, golden, silver, holographic. In this case, neither the color nor the type of pattern affects the quality of fixation. It all depends on the work of the wizard and full compliance with all steps of the technology of fastening the slider to the prepared base. If necessary, you can make timely adjustments, remove wrinkles, trim the picture.

In order to stick the slider on the nail, just tweezers are enough, which is useful for transferring stickers from a paper substrate, and a flat brush. To trim the excess material, you will need manicure scissors or tweezers, a file is useful to remove excess length. It is advisable to select a brush with an elastic pile, it will better remove air pockets than other devices, which can form if you fiddle with the edges for a long time.

As for the materials, they are selected based on the characteristics of the technology. If you preliminarily perform medical manicure, you need a device with different nozzles or a basic set with scissors, a pusher and tweezers. It’s not worth gluing sliders to unprepared nails: they will look ugly, focusing on untidy hands. In order to keep the coating well, the gloss must be removed from the nail plates using a buff.

For design, you need a base and top coat, an acid-free primer will be superfluous. They will have to use it if folds are obtained during the distribution of the sticker. For pictures on a transparent basis, a pigmented gel polish is prepared. For a dense film, one base will be enough.

In addition, if the nails are thinned, you will have to prepare a hardener. This substance is sold in bottles, like all varnish products. Its layer will increase the thickness of the nails, which will affect the wear of the slider.As a rule, the hardener has good tenacity, it will enhance the adhesion of the nail to all subsequent layers.

It’s easy to glue water stickers on nails beautifully, but the work itself will require accuracy. You should also take into account the nuances at each stage of the technology. There are 4 known options for fixing the water slider. In fact, the technique will be one, but only the type of substance applied under the slider itself will change in it. The substrates for the slider can be a transparent base, an unfinished top, a special white base and an ultrabond.

Consider the basic technology.

• A thin layer of base coat is applied to the nails and placed in a lamp for complete drying.
• The base layer is coated on top with white pigmented varnish and dried again.
• Remove the protection from the sticker and place it face up on a wet towel.
• The base is applied on the nail with a thin layer, not dried. The thinner the layer, the less likely it is to flow over the side rollers and cuticles.
• Remove the working film with tweezers and transfer the picture to the nail over the sticky layer of the base.

• Take a brush and distribute the picture as accurately as possible. It is advisable to adjust its size at the base of the nail even before applying the sticker, since when trimming it on a sticky basis, the base material will flow outside the nail plate.
• The base with the picture is dried in a lamp. Drying time should be slightly increased to completely dry the material. Otherwise, the layer will peel off very quickly.
• After that, the excess material is cut off from the overgrown edge, the picture is covered with a base layer, and dried.
• The top is sealed with a top, it is also dried.
• If a top with a sticky layer was used in the work, 30 seconds after drying, the residual stickiness is removed.

If wrinkles form on the coating, they are removed with an acid-free primer. However, this work requires special care, since the composition can dissolve the picture to the base. In this case, with a brush, they barely touch the folds to remove only the defects of work. If a white base is used in the work, there is no need for a conventional transparent material. Ultrabond is good for cases when you want to refresh a plain manicure after a week of wear. It is characterized by a very thin thickness of the applied layer.

Some masters have their own approach to the design of nails with sliders. For example, they give the effect of hand-painted pictures, painting some contours of the images with gel paints or glitter. To make the design more interesting, they completely cover one nail with a sticker, and crop another picture. After passing through it with acrylics, it looks very beautiful and really seems like professional drawing. This is a great opportunity to show the seasonality of manicure, which today is one of the main fashion trends.

You can also apply on top of the picture, in addition to paints, sparkles, glue rhinestones in the right places. To decorate the image, you can use kamifubuki or broths. You can make a different design on this basis: the main thing is to qualitatively translate the image. If desired, it can be added volume using a transparent gel or top. Someone uses water pictures even for an aquarium manicure, reliably sealing them with several layers of a modeling tool.

Examples of photo galleries will help evaluate the possibilities of decorating nails with sliders. Beautiful lace design, worthy of an evening dress. Halloween version in neutral colors to maintain a special mood. Interesting design with floral patterns on accent nails.

A harmonious solution for every day for the image of a city dweller. The dream catcher design is especially popular this year. The subject of lace or monograms does not leave indifferent any woman. Elegant solution in the spirit of geometry, simplicity and lightness of design.

Great marshmallow manicure using a kawaii print.A good solution for strict bows that fit into the established norms of the dress code. Beautiful floral design that can decorate the image of romantic nature. Variant of design of nails for publication.

Delicate design of nails for a young fashionista. Stylish design that can brighten even the most concise women's outfit.

For how to beautifully stick water-based stickers on your nails, see the next video.