Tools of the Trade

Hey guys,

So Monday is St. Patrick's Day, which means there is lots of AWESOME nail art coming up. I have already seen a whack of awesome manicures on IG. Of course I will post my Bestie Twin St. Patrick's Day manicure on Monday, and tomorrow I have an awesome polish that's also very appropriate for St. Paddy's day.

I often get asked what I use to do my nail art. Now I definitely don't claim to be amazing at nail art, but I like doing it and every once in a while I'm fully surprised at the outcome. So today I thought I would share them with you, along with a link with some great tips for nail art beginners.
 
More after the jump.

So first up are my dotting tools, you can get these in a range of different sizes, I think I got both of these free from NPC at some point or other. Each end is a different size. If you don't have dotting tools there are plenty of substitutes, such as a pin stuck in a pencil eraser, or a toothpick.

Next up are my striper brushes. I got these three from the Born Pretty Store for cheap. You can see one of them is totally warped. It got squished in my art basket. I really only use the red one though. I try to save these for striping with nail polish.

Next are a random assortment of art brushes I got from Michaels, I use these for acrylic paint. The white one in the middle is probably the one I use most.

For gradients and any type of sponging I use make up sponges I got in a bag from Winners. I cut them into pieces and try to use each piece as much as I can. Make up sponges are definitely the best to sponge with.

For clean up I use these awesome "Nail Tees" I picked these up from London Drugs, they are basically just pointed Q-tips but they work great for cleaning up mistakes or edges, or even under nails.

This is just alcohol used to clean nails before using gel polish but it works great to clean up acrylic paint blunders. 

These Sally Hansen nail art pens are GREAT for beginner nail artists. They're a bit pricer ($7 each I think) so I only have the one, but if you just want to start with something easy these are a great place to start.

I use these Orly Instant Artist polishes all the time for nail art, they're water based so they act much more like acrylic paint, and can be watered down when they get thick. Plus they have this awesome striping brush. They're about $6 a piece. - Side note I've also used Color Club's Art Club nail striper polishes and I seriously dislike them, I won't ever waste my money on them again. Orly all the way for these.

I've recently started using acrylic paint for nail art. It is CHEAP, the craft smart brand is under a dollar from Michaels. You can use any brand. 

And last is my palette I use for my acrylic paint and nail polish. I just picked this up from Michaels again. You can also see some make up sponges waiting to be used again.

This by no means is an exhaustive list of EVERYTHING I use but this covers it for most of your everyday nail art.

Now if you want a fun easy idea for your own St. Patrick's day manicure without needing any of the above Click this link right here!!
Also visit HSN's New & Improved (doesn't that sound bright and shiny?!) Nail Page
Shop for Polish here
I don't know off hand if they ship to Canada but either way make sure you click and go drool over all the pretty polishes!