Water Nail Decals – How To

You will have seen water decals on many nail art blogs and incredible manicures around the internet and here in the She Said Beauty office we love them! They can add a whole other dimension to a manicure in one go and create art that even the best nail artist couldn’t replicate. We’re here today to show you just how easy they are to use with this simple and very subtle spring floral manicure.

Start by prepping your nails for the manicure ahead. Taking time at this stage will help your designs stay longer and help prevent the polish from lifting or chipping so soon. File to one length, push back your cuticles, buff with a white bloc and dehydrate using a cotton pad soaked in nail polish remover. Apply a base coat – we love NARS Cosmetics Base Coat.

Paint your nails whatever colour you like – we’ve uses Ciate Paint Pot in Pocket Money with Sonnetarium Indie Polish in Strawberry Smoothie over the top and Korres Nail Polish in Peony Pink. Be sure to choose a very light colour for your water decal base to prevent it showing through the design and ruining the look of your manicure.

Cut out your water decal (we’ve used these adorable Flower Decals from Pretty Little Nails) as close to the edges as possible and using a pair of tweezers hold it into a bowl of water for 25-30 seconds to set the glue working.

Take your decal between your thumb and forefinger and gently slide the design away from the backing paper. you can throw the backing paper away as we just need the clear design part of the decal.

Press the decal onto your nail being sure to hold down all the edges to prevent lifting or creasing in the design. Hold here for up to 2 minutes until the glue has adhered to the nail. The time you need to hold the decal down with depend on the size and shape of both your nails and the decals. You can use kitchen paper to blot off any access water before pressing the decal down – this may help speed up the process but don’t be disheartened if you need to hold your image down for longer to make it stick.

And there you have it! Seal in your decals with a generous layer (or two) of your favourite top coat (we love Essie Polish Drying Top Coat) and add any design you like to your other nails – we’ve applied some small round studs from Born Pretty Store by sinking them into a layer of clear polish.

Have you tried Water Decals on your nails before? Why not give them a go and tweet us your best picture @SheSaidBeauty!