How I Load My Nail Polish Brush

I saw the cutest photo of a young girl whose Dad is helping her learn to polish. He was asking for tips and after I gave mine, I thought to myself, why not share it on my blog too?

So here it is - the thing I wish I knew when I was first learning to paint:



1. Uncap and lift the brush from the bottle, pressing one side of the brush against the bottleneck so the paint runs back down into the bottle and the brush is left 'clean' on that side.
This side of the brush won't be touching the nail when painting.



2. Press and wipe the top half of the other side of the brush against the inside of the bottle neck, leaving a bead/drop on the side of the brush that will be touching the nail.



3. Get painting!

A few more notes:
Dipping the brush this way allows good control over where the polish ends up on the nail.

Re-dip the same way as needed for larger nails that need extra polish.

If there is a lot of paint on the plastic stem, it too can be wiped on the bottle neck to reduce what runs down onto the brush. I do this on the first lift from the bottle by sort of drawing circles against the bottle neck. It makes a sort of spiral on the stem of the brush which takes about half off of what was on there.

Model for photos was a gift with my purchase: Tonic Grateful

I hope you enjoyed this quick tip! What is your 'thing you wish you knew' about painting when you were just starting out?

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One Cotton Ball to Remove Them All!

Yes, you read that right! I'm going to share my secret with you of how I remove a full manicure with only one jumbo cotton ball.

The trick is to create more surface area. We're going to do that by unrolling the cottonball so that its a strip and no longer a ball.

You'll notice the rolled up ball looks like a hay bale or roll of toilet paper. So, I kind of pick and pull around the rolled edge (like I would a roll of toilet paper!) until the end starts coming loose. Then gently unroll it the rest of the way.



Next, cut small strips/squares from it to match the size of your nails. We're going to cover each nail with these pieces. If you have small nails and make careful cuts, there may even be a tiny cottonball leftover!

Once the pieces are cut, soak them with 100% acetone one by one and apply on top of the nail.
There are a few ways to soak them with acetone:
1. Put a small amount of acetone in a glass dish and toss the pieces in to soak it up. (watch for drips)
2. Hold five pieces together at the bottle opening and tip it, then separate them to apply to the nail. (spill risk)
3. Using a pump bottle, which is the way I prefer most. It's less risky of spills/drips and can be done with one hand.

Apply the soaked cotton pad to the nail and let sit for a bit. About a minute is a fair time frame for a couple of layers of cream polish. Let it sit longer (and reapply acetone if it dries out) for more layers or polishes with shimmer.



Remove each piece by pressing down near the cuticle and sliding the cotton to the free edge of the nail. This will remove most if not all of the polish. Avoid scrubbing back and forth, as this will just smear the color from the cotton onto the skin. If there's a litlte polish left on the nail grab a clean square and remove it in the same manner, dragging from cuticle to free edge until it's gone.



Above is my result! I had about three layers from my previous mani.
Afterward, I used the tiny cotton ball remnant and removed the little spots of leftover polish.

This method is very similar to the foil method, but without the foil. I've come to love the unrolling technique that I have used since 2008, it is key to making a bag of cotton balls last much longer.

I hope you find this useful and try it out some time!
What are some of your your tips and tricks to remove polish?

Easy Glitter Removal

Surely everyone would love a quick, easy, no fuss way of removing that beautiful glitter bomb right?

I just spotted the most brilliant idea for glitter polish removal!!
Blogger Pretty Purple Polish has such a detailed post about it, that I wanted to share it with you.


Check here: http://prettypurplepolish.blogspot.com/2012/08/peel-off-base-coat-for-easy-glitter.html

And then Here for more details: http://prettypurplepolish.blogspot.com/2012/08/pva-glue-base-coat-questions-and-wear.html

How to Remove balls from your polish

I was so taken by Chalkboard nails photo of Windestine's black and white polishes that I had to have them!

They've arrived and had their balls removed because Freda sent a proactive email to let me know that the balls were not stainless. Non-stainless balls will corrode over time and ruin the polish. This rarely happens in the indie world any more, but if you're buying second hand, this article may be helpful to you!



I also removed them from my Enchanted polishes.


The best way I have found to remove the balls is take off the lid, cover the bottle opening/mouth with a plastic baggie or saran wrap, place a strong magnet on top of the baggie over the mouth to sort of seal it. Holding the magnet against the mouth of the bottle with your hand turn the bottle over and listen for the balls to click to the magnet. Tip it back over and carefully pull the magnet away from the bottle mouth, the balls and bag will come with it, turn the baggie out so the balls are inside it. It takes about a minute and is virtually mess free.