Custom Conference Nail Art

Following on from conversations at 2022 Scottish Summit and Commsverse, plus an ongoing conversation with @aaron_rendell86 about a nail bar at South Coast Summit, I decided to have a go at creating my own custom nail art. As my skills are technical and not artistic, this mean I needed a “copy & paste” solution!

I did it!

Want to create your own?

To create the nail stickers you’ll need:

• Water Slide paper suitable for your printer. I used this one, I found on Amazon UK
• Clear gloss spray vanish. I used this one.
• Your images
• Printer

To apply the stickers you’ll need:

• painted nails
• bowl of warm water
• tweezers
• clean cloth, preferably lint free to smooth sticker to nail
• clear nail varnish

To create my stickers:

1. Create your art! I arranged the chosen images on a PowerPoint Slide, using different sizes of images. After trying a few sizes 0.7cm or 0.8cm square are about the correct size for my nails and nicely visible. I tested the sizes by printing on plain paper, cutting out the images and trying them on the nails.
2. Once you are happy print your art onto the waterslide paper.
3. Let the printing dry for about 30 minutes
4. Spray with the varnish to seal. I did two coats of varnish 30 minutes apart, but follow the directions on your chosen product. I sprayed my sheets outside using an old carboard box behind the paper to avoid varnishing the garden furniture too.
5. Leave to dry for at least 24 hours
6. Cut out your stickers. As my water slide paper is clear, I did not need to be precise, but the edges are still a little visible so be as tidy as you can manage.
7. Apply one sticker at a time to prepared nails. I went with white nail varnish, but any clean nail surface will work.
   1. Drop the sticker into the water. After a couple of seconds remove and slide the sticker from the backing paper. I found that rubbing the sticker between two fingers, to start the separation the easiest. Then when the sticker was part way off the backing paper, I picked up the sticker with my tweezers.
   2. Place the sticker into position on the nail. I used tweezers to avoid damaging the sticky on the reverse as much as possible, but you can reposition the nail sticker once or twice.
   3. Smooth down the sticker to the nail, working from one side to ensure no lumps, bubbles or folds in your sticker
   4. Cover with clear nail varnish. Use a colourless top coat for best effect.
   5. Let you varnish dry a little before doing the next nail. Or work with an assistant.

The stickers are not going to last as long as a full manicure, probably only about 2-3 days, but that covers most conferences.