Saturday, September 28, 2013

My New Nail Shape!

Howdy folks! If anyone remembers last week's post, I had a new nail shape in it, so today I thought I'd turn it into a tutorial. I know it looks pretty simple, but I decided it might be nice to share some tips for what worked best for me. Enjoy! 


Start off by removing any nail polish you might have on. Embrace your naked nails! Hehehe. You'll need pretty long nails for this, so I chose to change my nail shape after I hadn't filed my nails for a week (they're longer here than I'd usually have them). 


Before you get ready to cut, moisturize your nails and cuticles. If you use any nail strengthener (I love Sally Hansen Vita-Surge strength gel), this would be a good time to use it.


Wash your nails and sketch out the shape you'd like your nails to be with a Sharpie. I feel like this makes cutting and filing your nails later so much easier, because all you really have to do is follow the lines, ensuring that your nails aren't lopsided. If you're worried about the Sharpie staining your nails (I had a little difficulty removing mine) put a base coat under it - it will make removing it loads easier later.


Use nail clippers to cut the sides off.


Now use acetone to remove the Sharpie and use a file to perfect your nail shape. Annd you're done!


Here's a design I tried right after creating my new nail shape. This was also the first time I'd used HK Girl for my top coat, and I was having trouble photographing all that gorgeous shine! Don't be too hard on my fuzzier-than-usual pictures. I blame it all on the super shiny top coat. The red polish is OPI Cajun Shrimp (my favorite polish ever) and the black is an Art Deco striper in black.




This definitely isn't the sturdiest of nail shapes, so only try it out if you know you have strong nails (or if you won't be too upset if one breaks). Afterward, make sure to moisturize your nails and cuticles daily to keep them strong!

Thanks for reading! This should be a super fun nail shape for Halloween nail art, so if you've been considering it for awhile, now's the time to change! What do you think about it? Does it look good, or did you like my square nails better? Personally, I liked square better, but I'm really loving trying something different. 
See you all next week! 

3 comments:

  1. What a brave change!! I could never do it! It looks great, and I love the idea of tracing it out to get the right shape before starting to cut/file. Nothing is worse than over-filing to try to get them all to look the same and ending up with nubbs, lol!

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    1. Thanks Erica! I actually got the tracing idea from trial and error. I attempted to shape the nails on my left hand first, without any lines to guide me, and now those nails are a good millimeter shorter than my other hand, haha!

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  2. I share Erica's amazement with such a bold move on shaping your nails, Allie! I was also planning to have something like this before until one of my nails cracked. How long does it take you to finish them? Always have a moisturizer handy at all times to prolong the the nail polish's duration. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to your next design.

    Beulah May @ Bernards Salon and Spa

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