How to use gel nail paint

What is gel nail paint?

Gel paint is a thick mixture with high viscosity and dense pigmentation, intended for decorating the nail plate. It does not flow or bubble. It hardens only under the influence of a UV lamp (polymerizes) within an average of 2 minutes. Due to this, gel paint is an extremely convenient material for creating even very detailed and complex designs. The master can take his time when working with gel paint and do his job as carefully as possible.

This is a material for creating artificial and natural nail designs with gel polish. Gel paint has become an excellent alternative to acrylic paints and regular colored gel. It is well suited for both aquarium nail design and surface painting of the nail plate. It is good for both Chinese painting and a clear smile on the nail when creating a French manicure. In a word, gel paint is a universal material for decorating nails. The artist's choice is available with or without a sticky layer.

Chinese nail painting technique for beginners

Chinese painting involves creating any designs on nails - flowers, panoramas, landscapes, but using a certain technique. The essence of this process is to draw a separate design detail with one brush stroke. Here you don’t have to paint your nail in several layers; you need to apply the desired colors to the tool, mix them and sweep them over the nail.

Required materials and tools

Acrylic paint is the main component. The material has excellent viscosity and the right consistency so that the design is perfectly applied to the nail. An excellent choice would be water-based acrylic paints with the addition of silicone. This material can be easily purchased at any office supply or art supply store.
Brushes. This tool made from natural wool is chosen by real craftsmen because it is durable and easy to clean. For beginners, artificial brushes are suitable for the first time; they are cheaper and more practical. A craftsman should have several types of such tools in his arsenal: flat – for applying smooth patterns;
brushes - to add texture to drawings;
liners - for drawing contours, straight lines, thin elements;
fan - to create a background, single-color fill;
beveled - for drawing small ellipse-shaped elements.

Skewers of different diameters for drawing dots and circles.

Water container.

Execution steps

First of all, you should prepare all the tools and materials that will be required for the job. It is worth taking care of your nails; they should already be well manicured. For test execution of designs with Chinese painting, it is allowed to take artificial false nails that are longer. It is recommended to copy the first images from ready-made pictures in order to analyze the correctness of the design and its similarity to the original. If you need to make a blooming rose using Chinese technique, then the stages of its implementation will be as follows:

Take white, red, black acrylic paint and a wide brush. Dip the tool in the first two colors, shade it a little on a piece of glass, in a plastic plate or other container.
Apply the first round stroke to the nail; it should turn out convex at the highest point. We make the width of the future petal minimal, and its left edge should be lower than the right side.
We make the second stroke in the same way, but its ending should be located higher than the initial one.
The next two movements will be similar to the previous ones, but in symmetrical reflection. The first strokes should look a little smaller and be covered by subsequent strokes.
Add a few more petals using similar movements with the brush, performing wave-like movements (up and down).
Apply black acrylic paint to a thin brush and draw all the contours that we want to see on the blooming rose. With the same color and tool you can make several closed buds and leaves.

Chinese nail painting for beginners

Differences between gel paints and colored gels

Gel paint does not need to be stirred.
It is very dense, the pigment does not settle to the bottom of the jar.
Gel paint can be used for surface design.
It has good saturation due to high pigmentation.
Allows you to draw even small details.
Available in a wide variety of colors.
The paint does not dry while working (unlike acrylic paints).
Economical consumption (a small volume lasts a long time).

Unlike gel paints, colored gel must be stirred before use, even if the jar has only been sitting idle for one day. To obtain a vibrant color, it is necessary to apply the color gel in several layers, which leads to the formation of a thick coating. All this pushes colored gels into the background. And modern masters increasingly prefer gel paints.

How to draw flowers on nails?

You can make different designs on your nails with gel polish. To do this, you can use photographs and descriptions or come up with a design from your head. To draw a flower on the nail plate, you need to use a thin brush and dots. It is necessary to adhere to the following stages of work:

Nails are filed and straightened. Floral designs look equally beautiful on both square and round nails.
The base coat is applied and dried. After this, the main color coating is distributed over the nails.
It is better to draw flowers on one or two fingers. The rest of the nails can be plain, or you can do a French manicure on them. The petals are painted with a brush, and the core of the flower is painted with dots.
The nails are covered with a top coat, after which their surface is dried in a lamp.

Additional Information. To decorate flowers, it is better to choose contrasting colors. A design in which the petals are depicted in dark blue and the inner part in white looks advantageous. Flowers with light petals and a dark core also look good.

Which gel paint is better to choose?

Today, the market for nail art materials offers a wide range of gel paints. Making a choice is sometimes very difficult. I would like the material to immediately please with its characteristics and excel in its work with an A plus. But it doesn't always work out the way we want. Each master has his own preferences, including in the selection of gel paints. Some people like one brand, others another.

We advise you to experiment more, then you will be able to accurately select the right material for you that will suit you in everything. The main thing is to beware of fakes, do not use Chinese gel paints. When working with clients, give preference only to proven and high-quality gel paints. After all, this directly affects your reputation and positive experience.

The most popular brands of gel paints in demand today are BlueSky, Emi, Kodi, In'Garden, RuNail, Irisk.

We recommend trying them if you have never used gel paints for nail design before. They received quite a lot of positive feedback and recommendations from experienced manicurists.

Art painting of nails with acrylic paints

Acrylic paints are the most popular material for painting nails, although this design can be done with varnishes and gels. The positive qualities of such material consist not only in the presence of a wide palette of colors and the correct consistency. The main advantage of acrylic paint is the speed of its drying, the ease of correcting the image with water and the inability of the paint to crack or lose shade.

Required materials and tools

To decorate nails with artistic designs, any master needs a set of different brushes, a wide palette of acrylic paints, water and a place to apply a new design. For beginners, it is also recommended to take an example of the required image in order to be able to study step by step the process of creating a drawing, and then reproduce it on the nails. Don't worry about an incorrectly applied stroke; it can be easily corrected with a thin brush dipped in water.

Execution steps

First of all, to create a beautiful design on your nails, you should draw a background. To do this, it is better to take a classic, matte varnish in a pastel shade. A bright color can also be used here, but in this case the entire pattern should be contrasting. Let's consider the stages of performing artistic painting with an abstract design on women's, short nails:

We clean the cuticle from the nail hole and give the nails the desired shape using a nail file.
We polish the plate with a special file, degrease the nails with a special product or nail polish remover so that the design lasts a long time.
We apply a colorless base so that the nails do not absorb the color of the varnish.
We paint the plate with any bright varnish.
We wait for complete drying, prepare acrylic paints, brushes, water, napkins.
We begin artistic painting with the nail on the ring finger. Here the drawing should be the most intense: with white acrylic we draw the contours of the butterfly, put a series of dots, several wavy lines.
On other nails we draw similar elements, but not exactly the same as on the first nail. It is better to decorate the little finger and thumb only with wavy lines, dots, without butterflies.
We take a bright shade of acrylic paint adjacent to the background (if the base is soft yellow, then prepare a bright lemon color or other) and apply several strokes that create the appearance of flower leaves.
We cover the nails with transparent varnish or a special fixative.

Nail design with acrylic paints

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What can you use gel paint for?

Drawing small volumetric lines. No need to cover with topcoat.
Drawing flat patterns. It is necessary to cover with a top.
Creating the “Velvet Sand” effect on nails. A pattern is drawn with gel paint (do not dry) and colored acrylic powder is sprinkled on it, then dried in a lamp. There is no need to cover with topcoat.
Create a convex design with a metallic effect.
Casting on nails using foil. We described how to use foil in a previous article.

Use Cases

You can use gel paints to create different nail decor:

color painting in the form of flowers, dots,
casting using foil;
sugar design; relief design (for example, knitted manicure, convex curls, etc.);
French manicure;
complete nail coverage.

This material works great with other decor. You can safely add glitter, acrylic powder and foil to the painting, creating incredible works. Before using gel paint, make sure there is an adhesive layer, otherwise other material will not be attached to it. In any variation, a manicure with gel paints will look luxurious and attractive.

Step-by-step instructions for use

Now let's look at detailed instructions on how to use gel nail paints. In this example, we described working with gel paint for coating with gel polish.

Apply a base coat to the prepared nail and dry for 2 minutes in a UV lamp.
Then we cover the nail with colored gel polish and dry it for 2 minutes in a UV lamp.
If necessary, apply another layer of colored gel polish.
We cover the nail with top coat and also polymerize it. Remove the sticky layer from the top, if there is any.
Open a jar or tube of gel paint of the desired color and put the required amount on the brush. For painting you need to use special brushes for nail design. We looked at which brush is intended for what here.
Let's start drawing. If the design is complex, we recommend drying each element separately in a UV lamp. Gel paint should be dried in a UV lamp for 2 minutes, in an LED lamp for 30 seconds - 1 minute.
Depending on the need, cover the nail with topcoat and dry it as well.

How to remove gel paint from a nail coated with gel polish? To do this, you must first file off the top coat and pattern, then remove the gel polish with your usual special product.

Modern ideas for painting nails with gel polish

Nail designs are made in various styles. If we look at nail art this season, moderation and conciseness remain relevant.

Monograms and patterns

Their peculiarity is that they are created by intertwining lines. There are several types of monograms: French, original and modern monograms. Simple curls can be easily drawn with a sewing needle or toothpick. Usually a thin brush is used for painting. With its help, you get an accurate result.

Geometric designs with gel polish

In this case, you can combine different shades and execution techniques. For geometric designs, you can use masking tape and stencils.

Ethnic drawings with gel polish

They are always associated with warm summer days. This is a bright and bold design. On the ornaments you can see motifs of various nations.

Volumetric drawings with gel polish and powder

This is a new trend this season. Such drawings look very interesting and attractive.

Gel polish designs with rhinestones

They look festive. For everyday manicure, it is better to apply rhinestones only on two nails.

Drawing in gold

This print goes well with a French manicure.

Sweater design on nails

This is a real hit this winter! This design looks very cozy and evokes only the most positive associations.

Video lesson for beginners: drawing on nails “Twigs”

Examples of working with gel paint

Using gel nail paint, you can create incredible designs of absolutely any kind. Do you want a strict jacket? Please! Do you want a chic painting with swirls and flowers? No problem! Do you want to get molded nails? And it's real. All this can be created using gel paint.

How to apply gel paint

The contour of the gel paint application depends entirely on the desired design - it can be individual lines or dense coloring in the area of the free edge of the nail. The process of applying the composition itself is quite easy:

The desired pattern is applied to a previously prepared surface using a brush. Its contours can be easily corrected with an orange stick or another clean brush - if the drawing has not yet been subjected to UV exposure, then it can easily be adjusted;
after the layer of gel paint is polymerized in a lamp for about 1-2 minutes (the exact time is indicated by the manufacturer on the packaging);
Depending on the type of product, it may be necessary to remove the sticky layer.

To create a harmonious picture during application, you can add sparkles, rhinestones and other design elements. This technique gives a good effect - foil is applied to the dried paint and sharply torn off, leaving behind an uneven shiny coating. This helps create a bright and effective design, especially if contrasting colors are used.