Expressionail

Comments:

This nail polish is the same colour as chocolate milk. The picture is without topcoat. I wanted to show the nail polish in it's true form. It is shinier in real life, but for some reason the camera did not pick up on that (other than the index nail). It also looks slightly streaky in the picture but it looks fine off camera.

Pros:

You can get away with one coat

Dries quickly if you use a thin coat

Decent shine (camera does not do it justice at all)

Cheap and easily accessible

Cons:

Materials:

"Map it Out" Heart 2 Art Nail Art by Fing'rs

Base Coat

Top Coat

White Nail Polish

Water

Tweezers

Nail file

Before starting:

Put a bit of water in a little dish. Alternatively, I just used a bottle cap here.

Remove the desired map design from the Map It Out kit and cut it into rectangles big enough to cover an entire nail. I used around 2-3 sheets.

Tutorial:

Paint your nail with two coats of base coat, and 1-2 coats of a white nail polish. I used Pro-FX's Protein Enriched Base Coat & Revitalizer and Little White Lie by Fing'rs. Let dry.

Peel off the plastic film from the map design paper.

Dip the map design paper into some water. I used tweezers for this since it gets sticky when it is wet.

Place the wet map design paper onto your nail. User your finger to press. Make sure to press on the entire nail!

Carefully peel the paper off. I've found it works best to peel from the edge closest to your cuticle (rather than the tips of your nail). You may need to rearrange the map design a little bit to make it flat.

Use tweezers to remove any excess film on your fingers. Then, use a nail file to remove the excess from your nail tip. Finally, add top coat! Be sure to apple top coat around the tips and edges. There is a lot of tip wear with this!

Removal:

The instructions of the map design kit say to non-acetone nail polish remover. I used 100% acetone nail polish remover and it still came off! Alternatively, you could peel off the map design and remover the underlying nail polish with acetone nail polish remover if you want.

Comments:

Remember to remove the film of the map design paper before dipping it into water! I forgot this step often, and ended up not being able to use that piece. It may be a little bit difficult to work with this at first, but practice makes perfect!

Also, sorry if the final product looks messy in the picture! I originally took the picture to show a friend, and I never intended on uploading it on a nail blog (and therefore didn't feel a need to be neat). Also, excuse my dry skin.