In this picture you can see all my bits and pieces:

If you’re using a store bought acrylic kit you should always follow their instructions!

The first things that you need to do is prep your hands. Use the moisturizer and give yourself a massage, I used to have a little UFO hand massager from the Body Shop which was awesome but it’s been lost amongst my bathroom junk. If Nintento Ds taught us anything it’s that touch is good so rub away!

Now use the clippers and trim you nails so they are well shaped, you should also use an orange stick to clean under your nails and push back your cuticles if necessary. Take the buffer/sander and sand gently along the flat of the nails to get rid of ridges and roughen up the nail so the glues bond better.

Once your natural nails are all ready you should lay out all your nail tips and find one that fits each finger individually. It’s really important to get a good fit so if you can’t find one that actually fits then you should use the next biggest one and sand the edges until it does.

The edges should be able to matching up to your natural nails around 4mm from the top edge. Now following the instructions glue each nail in place. My natural nails are tiny so my tips cover most of the nail but if yours are longer then you should put them lower down.

RAWR! Witch nails!

Ok so once they’re dry then you need to trim and shape them to the length you want.

Now is the part where following your acrylic instructions is super important because sets tend to differ slightly. The general idea of what you’ll need to do is this:

– Put the nail prep liquid on the exposed nail, wait 30 seconds and apply a second coat, wait 2 minutes. Be sure not to put it on the fake nail!

– Pour some acrylic liquid into the dapper dish. Dip your brush in, wipe the excess on the side and the put the tip of it into the acrylic powder.

– Move it around in a circle so you create a little melted ball on the end of the brush. Apply that ball to your nail and wipe it into the nail in long strokes until smooth. Apply more balls until you have covered the whole nail. It should have a smooth finish but don’t worry too much about small bumps because you can sand them out afterward. If your trying it for the first time don’t give up! My first nail was terrible and lumpy! It takes a little practice but you’ll get it in the end!

– Now wait a few minutes for the acrylic to dry. To tell if they’re dry tap them together and if it sounds like nails then you’re done! You can now sand and shape any bumpy bits with your emery board. Here are my finished nails.

Ok so you’ve got the nice acrylic base to work on now, lets get decorating!

At this point I usually clear off the table of anything I won’t need such as the acrylic kit and I lay out everything I need for decorations such as specific nail polishes and jewels. I put paper towel down before I sort loose jewels so nothing gets lost.

For the design I’m showing you today you will need: • Light pink nail polish • Clear nail polish • 10 white pearls gems • 20 pink pearl gems • Light pink loose glitter • Lots of small pink diamantes depending on how big your nails are. • Nail polish dryer is optional but effective

First give your nails a coat of pink. Depending on the brand you have you may need up to 4 coats to get a nice smooth finish. If you want to apply a base coat or primer coat go ahead before the pink. Once the pink is completely dry take your clear polish and paint a diagonal triangle across each nail as shown my the red in the picture below.

While the clear is still wet dip the nail into the pot of glitter. It helps to do each nail one at a time so the polish doesn’t dry too quickly. Once you’ve dipped each nail and they’re dry, take the cotton bud and wipe away any wayward glitter. They should look like this:

Now do another coat of clear over each nail to seal in the glitter perfectly.

Once that is dry get together all of your jewels and pearls.

You should paint a line of clear along the diagonal line on the first nail and place a white pearl in the middle, then place a pink pearl on either side and fill in the gaps to the sides of the nail with small pink gems to complete the line. Make sure to press down the jewels into the nail polish with an orange stick so they stick nicely.

Wait for that to dry and then clear coat over the top of everything for a final seal.

Viola! Cute Hime style nails!

Violet’s tip 2. If you’re worried about things falling off you can do another clear coat the next day.