My Alternative, Unique and Ghetto Nail Art Tools

***My video on this matter***


Good nail art tools can be pretty expensive and there are so many that it adds up quick fast and in a hurry. So, I find my own ways of..."creating" nail art tools of my own. So, today I decided to go ahead and talk about the things that I like to use instead of normal tools.

One of the most commonly used items in nail art is the nail dotting pen. I've seen them for as cheap as $4.00+ shipping for a set on sites like eBay, all the way to as expensive as $10-$15 dollars for a set. Well, what I like to use instead of the traditional nail dotting pen is an open bobby pin. You can buy a pack of like 100 bobby pins at places like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens for under a dollar and its not like you need to worry about if you buy the right color if your using it only for nail art. I personally buy the ones that match my hair color only because I like to pin my bangs up so its a win win for me!

Bobby Pins also work as a way to pick up individual rhinestones for nail designs. But, if I'm trying to be more precise with the rhinestone I'm trying to pick up, especially the smaller ones, I like to (CAREFULLY!!!) use an open safety pin. I repeat, CAREFULLY! You just dip it in a little bit of top coat and grab a rhinestone and place it on the desired area on the nail that you want. You can buy packs of 100+ safety pins at not only the previous places mentioned in my last paragraph, but at the dollar store. Buy a pack, use some for nail art and the rest for all of your safety pin needs. This is WAY cheaper than going out and buying a tool made special for picking up rhinestones. If your dealing with a huge rhinestone that a bobby pin/safety pin wont hold, feel free to use tweezers. You should also use tweezers if your using things like pieces of gold foil or the dried flowers. As for nail beads, I haven't used them yet but when I do, I'm not sure what I'll use.

If I need to do a design where I'm doing a design with something like leopard spots, I like to use something like paper to put a drop of polish on it and dip my paintbrush in that (I'll get to those later). But paper can leak polish thru and make it stick to the surface I'm working on so I like to use index cards. Their thick enough so that the polish doesn't leak thru and I can buy a pack of 100 at one of the previously mentioned places above for a couple dollars.

Instead of spending a lot of money on special nail art brushes, I like to buy a big pack of normal paintbrushes at Wal-Mart and cut them down to size. I learned how to do this thanks to the fabulous Robin Moses who shows you how to cut them in this video riiiight here...

I also like to use regular flat top brushes to clean the excess polish from the sides of my fingers when I'm done with my design.

The Nail polish remover that I like to use is the kind that comes in a little jar that you stick your fingers in and swirl them around and the polish comes out that way. When it's time to get a new jar of remover, I like to keep the old jar and use it to clean my brushes. Kind of like the way that you keep a cup of water next to you when your painting on a canvas and you need to clean your brushes. They only cost a couple of dollars at (again I refer you to one of the previous paragraphs) one of the previously mentioned places. The way that I tell if I need to get a new one is when your nails start to come out discolored like the color of the nail polish remover. If you like, you can even empty out the jar and put some from the bottle in there. I like to do that with one of them that I kept that has bristles instead of a sponge.

So, that's my post on my alternative, unique, and some may call, ghetto nail art tools. I hope you guys can find this helpful, and if you have the actual tools and DON'T find this helpful, thanks for reading anyway and now you have some tips for if (nail gods forbid) one of your tools breaks and you need a last minuet alternative. Obviously, these are for the people that do their own nail art like me because I'm sure if you work in an actual salon, you have the good stuff. Enjoy!

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Happy painting!