Many ladies believe that for a spectacular and unusual design of a manicure or pedicure, you must definitely have an artistic skill that will help in independent drawing patterns, which is why they always go to the salon. However, there are several design options that require nothing more than consumables.
One of these common options nowadays is sliders. Small stickers are attached to the nail plate, replacing geometric patterns, stripes, painted fragments. They are sometimes used to fill the nail completely.
Material features
The technique of attaching sliders involves the replacement of hand- painting, which is far from always being neat and beautiful, especially when applied on its own. Sliders have a large number of designs and shades, so the client can always choose it based on preferences.
Before gluing sliders to your nails, you should choose the type of stickers that suits you:
- Water based. To fix them, the material must first be treated with water, and then applied to the nail plate.
- Self-adhesive. They are convenient to use, but they must be glued as clearly as possible, since the location of the sticker cannot be corrected.
The design option for a manicure has a lot of positive aspects:
- Versatility. Suitable for fixing on any decorative surface;
- Ease of use. Unlike drawing with a brush, the risk of inaccurate attachment of stickers is minimal;
- Low price;
- Saving time. It may take up to 15 minutes to draw one nail, the slider is attached in 10-15 seconds;
- Even a beginner can do the procedure;
- Persistence of work. When fixing a manicure with a top, the stickers remain in their previous state for up to a month.
However, keep in mind that before gluing sliders to gel polish, you must definitely pay attention to their quality. If they are made of thin material, you cannot fix them on a dark decorative coating, as the result will look messy.
Required tools and materials
The lady can always carry out the technology herself, since she does not require special skill or a large number of devices.
Before performing any manicure, it is necessary to process the nails, for this use a file, an orange stick or a metal pusher, nippers, buffs, and a dehydrator for degreasing the nail.
To complete the design, materials are used:
- Coatings – top, color pigment, base.
- UV or LED lamp.
- Tweezers.
- A container of warm water (when using water-based stickers).
- Sliders.
- Manicure scissors.
- Lint-free wipes.
- Cotton buds.
- Primer.
- Orange stick.
Make sure your work area is clean before using the sliders on your nails. To do this, it is necessary to remove from it the nail dust remaining after the rough manicure, since it’s getting on the adhesive part will spoil the efficiency of work.
Preparing nails
Any manicure begins with a rough treatment of the nail plate. It is especially important to pay attention to this when working with sliders, since it will not be possible to correctly fix them on an uneven nail.
Typically, the manipulation takes up to half an hour:
- Use a file to correct the shape of the free edge.
- Apply remover to cuticles to soften them.
- After a minute of its action, use an orange stick or a pusher to push the epidermis to the base and slightly lift it.
- Use nippers to cut off the cuticle.
- Polish the nail with buff.
- Remove excess sawdust.
- Apply the dehydrator.
After complete treatment of the nail bed, apply a primer to it to increase the adhesion of further coatings.
Create a background
The slider is not attached to a clean nail, so you must always first apply gel polish to the nail.
Mostly, you first need to apply a base coat, dry it in a lamp, and then apply that very substrate.
White is most commonly used as the main color (since it will not shade the slider pattern) or camouflage (color similar to the shade of the nail plate – flesh). The substrate should be applied in one layer and cured in a lamp.
After that, the base is again applied, on which the slider will already be attached. Please note don’t dry it!
Working with a picture
The drawing also needs to be prepared for work. It depends on the type of mount you have chosen. In any case, you will first need to cut out a fragment similar to the size of the nail plate.
When working with a water-based sticker, it is recommended to moisten its base on a damp cloth for 30 seconds so as not to ruin the front side.
The self-adhesive slider does not need to be prepared in advance; for fixation, the bottom layer is removed from it, and then it is glued to the nail.
Decor and design sealing
After applying the base, underlay and the second base coat, you can attach the slider. It is most convenient to take it with tweezers, and level it with an orange stick.
After the final location of the cut out fragments, apply a top transparent layer on it and dry in an ultraviolet lamp for two minutes.
Sometimes it is advisable to double-seal the design to secure it tightly. Then, after fixing the slider, a base is applied, which is carefully dried in a lamp, and only after that the top is applied. This reduces the risk of damage to the decorative coating.
Conclusions
Sliders are an effective way to decorate any manicure, complementing it with unique patterns and pictures. The result looks beautiful, neat, so visually it does not differ from independently drawing drawings with a brush. However, be careful – to keep the material well, you first need to pay attention to competent preparation nail bed and nail polish sealing.
