Plastic Baggie Technique for Nail Art

Are you bad at painting your dominant hand? I am. That is why I found the plastic baggie technique to be very helpful!

This technique requires:
1 plastic sandwich baggie (they stay more flat than saran wrap)
Nail art brushes (I use modified paint brushes)
Nail polish
Creativity!

First, you need to decide how detailed your nail art will be. If there are a lot of thin areas or detail, I suggest laying down a coat of clear nail polish on your baggie before you begin. You only have to coat the area that you will be painting on.

It is not easy to see the clear under the design in this photo but it is there! Here, I am working on a paisley design. 

Next, you just paint until you are done. There is one caveat though! You should let them dry for a long time (overnight, preferably) so that they are not as apt to bleed when you put them on your nail. 

For individual designs: Carefully peel off the design (I usually move the plastic rather than moving the design) and place it on a wet, or for best results, tacky nail. Typically, this means that you've put on some clear top coat. GENTLY press the design until all the edges are down. I work from the inside out, to get rid of any bubbles that might form!

Here is my example of a design where I pressed each one individually onto the nail. The base is Essie Jelly Apple and Hello Kitty Sparkle Red. I pressed the bears, honey, and salmon on one at a time, sealed them, and then QUICKLY covered each nail in quick dry top coat (I use NYC Grand Central Station). 

With a more complex design, it is easier to peel up a small part and cut off the design, placing it on the nail and trimming the corners off by either using acetone and a clean-up brush OR by using an orange stick and quickly pressing the outline of the nail and then cutting with cuticle nippers. I prefer using the acetone method. You can also easily cut the design to the shape of your nail to avoid any trimming. 

Sorry for the poor quality! Working on a light box.

This is my finished paisley design. 

I put the design over a base of China Glaze Turned up Turquoise

I had to do two cleanups on this mani, but it was worth it. This is a REALLY fun way to do nail art because you can make both hands look the same! This has always been my problem with nail art.

I hope this helped you or inspired you to do some sandwich baggie nail art!! Please let me know if you have done this before :))