Like to experiment with make-up? Then why not try giving nail art a go, here are a few of my tips, by Rosa Fairfield
Photographs by David Smith
I used to experiment a lot with nail art, when I was a tortured teen (I wasn't really, I was that annoying kid who spent all her time doing homework and revision and love it). I haven't done it for a while and I really wanted to get back into it (nail art not homework... although, that would be fun too). I mean, it's not something I'm great at but it is a fun and creative activity if you have an artistic side. There's an article: non toxic nail polish walgreens - if you are concerned about the effects of nail polish on the environment and your health. Anyway, bellow are some tips and ideas, if you are looking to give nail art a go.
Use a paintbrush?
If you've got any thin artist paintbrushes lying around you can use them for this. It's good to trim them down first. Just use a pair of scissors and trim off some of the bristles into a point. You could also try dipping the brush into a clear coat of polish and leaving it overnight. That way it hardens together, which is better for creating dots.
Flowers and dots
Talking about dots... one of the easiest things to achieve is probably flowers or polka-dots. A flower is just four dots of one colour and then a dot of a different colour in the middle. If you want something easy, I would definitely opt for that. Lines and flicks are also pretty easy too and they tend to have a stylish vibe, whereas flowers look more cute-sy.
You don't need to spend money of specialist kits
When I was younger, I remember happily writing a nail art kit onto my Christmas list from the Argos book. Yeah, they are pretty cool but you don't really have to go out and buy one. Sometimes it can be tricky, because they don't all contain all the colours. You can just use normal nail polish. Buy a nail art brush or use the old paintbrush trick.
Experiment with texture
I like using sprinkles and glitter. I think they help to create something a little more visually interesting. You can stick them down using a top coat. Put some underneath the area, put the sprinkles on and then put another layer of top coat over the top. You could even cover the whole nail in them, if you wanted something a little more interesting but don't want to give the whole nail art thing a go. That was probably a really bad selling point by me... yeah, give nail art a go... but if you don't want to you could always try this...
Think about colour palettes
I'm clearly a little bit obsessed with colour schemes. I feel like I'm writing about this on my blog all the time... but honestly there's nothing more pleasing than that moment when you walk into an art shop and you see rows and rows of coloured pencils all divided up into different categories, in a beautiful arc of colours. Okay, I'm daydreaming and getting off topic. My point was, experiment by putting different colours together and seeing what looks good... and/or learn all about the colour wheel.
So, that's that post. Thanks for reading. I'd love it if you could leave a comment bellow.