From afar I think this looks okay, but I'm struggling with cleaning up the cuticles. I swear to god I've been over each cuticle 5+ times with pure acetone and a brush. Thatsy biggest concern, but also I was trying to do a glitter gradient and really struggled… Can I get some tips for improving this look next time?
Polished:
Base by manicurist
86 by lacquer22 3 coats
The harpist ? By ilnp 1 drop them brushed out with nail art brudh then messed with when I didn't get what I wanted…
Top Essie gel setter
by SpillingHotCoffee
4 Comments
These really saturated colors are harder to clean up. I have a heck of a time with purple.
I use the curved pointy bit that’s on the other side of my cuticle pusher to scrap flooded nail off the edges (literally run it along the edge of your nail and not just on the skin). Then I use acetone on a brush. But I have the best luck leaving a gap between the cuticle and the edge that I’m slowly closing with practice.
I personally have better results with cotton swabs with acetone vs a brush. I find the brush with acetone to be annoyingly slow at removing stuff, especially with very saturated colors. The only caveat is that sometimes the cotton swabs will leave behind a straggler fiber, so I usually have my tweezers ready just in case.
Pulling the skin away from the nail a little can also help separate them some. I will also say that sometimes I just leave it and the next day after I wash my hands or something I’ll peel the polish off. Since it was a thicker layer, it usually peels off a lot easier than getting this type of thinned out pigment off your skin.
Dark colors are the hardest to clean up, so don’t fret too much over this. I use the pointed end of an orange wood stick to immediately remove any flooding that occurs. It’s much easier to clean it up when the polish is fresh and hasn’t stained the skin yet. This makes the cleanup with a brush and acetone minimal later on. If it is still looking a mess, I scrub my nails with a nail brush when washing them and that removes any problematic stubborn spots.
For the gradient, I’d recommend putting some of the glitter polish on a palette and picking up small amounts with a nail art brush, so you have a lot more control over placement as you apply it. It will look better if it you drag some of the glitter towards the nail tip, so that it doesn’t all stop at the same spot on the nail.