What I Use To Paint My Nails

In this post I want to share with you all the products I regularly use when painting my nails so I don't keep repeating myself in every post and boring you all! I'll do a separate post about my nail care routine where i'll explain what nail polish removers/moisturisers I use and how long a typical manicure lasts. I paint my natural nails so all products are based on this. :)

Base Coats

I always use a base coat. Currently I change between O.P.I Nail Envy and Sally Hansen Maxim Growth and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails. I love all 3 of these strengthening base coats and they work brilliantly for me. They may be more expensive than more general base coats but they do last a very long time, I've had this bottle of Nail Envy for over 2 years.

Coloured Polishes

All of my nail polishes are by the British brand Barry M. At first this was not deliberate, it was merely the only brand that appealed to me and was easily available to me when I first got into painting my nails 5 or 6 years ago. They are also very reasonably priced at £2.99 for their regular nail paints and £3.99 for any effects paint. All my friends have Barry M nail paints too, and there will always be a special place in my heart for Barry M! I absolutely love their bright colours and their Gelly collection is wonderful, however I feel they chip slightly more than their normal paints and they are a little bit more expensive. Also as their bottles are cube shaped they fit in my box perfectly!

Top Coat

I should probably buy a 'real' topcoat but for me Barry M's all in one topcoat, basecoat and nail hardener works well and keeps my nails chip free for a couple of days. I do have Seche Vite after reading so many positive reviews of it in blogs and videos my friend and I fangirled over it in the shop as we thought it was a more professional product and we both bought it. I have never been more disappointed in a product. I've used it twice (I probably should give it another chance but I'm not ready to yet!) and both times it has made my nail polish peel off from the tip and sides and it seemed to shrink from the sides. It reminded me of a cheep nail polish I got as a freebie in a teen magazine years ago.  It also has a really strong chemical smell, much different to any nail polish I've ever known. It's such a shame as it did leave my nails incredibly shiny and the drying time is great, but I would so much rather it lasted longer! I'm not sure if I was using it wrong as so many people do love it, so maybe it will work for you. 

Acrylic Paint

For nail art I use acrylic paint. When I first started nail art I did use nail polish but I have really small hands and so my nails are also small so I found it quite tricky to get small details right and this is what I love most about nail art. As I was studying Art at school I had some acrylic paint and decided to use this to paint my nails. After trying nail art withp olish acrylics seemed so easy. You can mix them with water so they can flow better on your nails and mistakes can be erased without a fuss. Also with acrylics you can create any colour you want so simply, I could never not use acrylic paint for nail art, but you must use a top coat otherwise the design will not last!

Brushes
These are the brushes I use on a regular basis (sorry the photo is quite bad!). The two on the left and the dotting tool on the right are from a packet of nail art brushes my friend got me for Christmas a couple of years ago and they are much loved. The brush in the second photo is the one I always use and it is falling apart so I need to find a replacement, but I can't bear to part with it while it still works!

 

If you have any tips or suggestions on any of these then please let me know! 

Thanks for reading!

:)