Can You Use Regular Stickers On Nails?
These nail art stickers have some similarities with regular stickers, but they are not regular stickers. Since both of them are stickers, it’s obvious to think that you can use regular stickers instead of nail art stickers.
But can you use regular stickers on nails? You should not use normal stickers on your nails because normal stickers are not durable, water-resistant and cannot be removed by acetone. Your nail art will get damaged if you use regular stickers and regular stickers may not even fit in your nails correctly.
Regular Stickers
Stickers get typically made with vinyl sheets, with gumming on one side. They have countless applications and comes in all kinds of sizes. They get printed using various technologies. Let’s look at some label types now:
Polyester Stickers
They are sleek and withstand rough weather conditions, and gets used on pipes and other industrial fittings. It gives you a metallic look and has long-lasting adhesive.
Vinyl Stickers
These types of stickers are meant for industrial use since they are water and chemical resistant. We use such stickers in an outdoor application, on a curved surface, and also on equipment. They also protected from UV rays.
Satin Stickers.
Made from satin acetate cloth materials, and used mostly for liquor bottle and similar polished surface stickering.
Polypropylene Stickers
They are a suitable replacement for vinyl stickers and more cost-effective than the polyester type. They are resistant to oil and other extreme conditions. Get used in packaging, stickers on food products, and other innumerable other applications.
Recycled Stickers
Made from recycled materials, and are not water-resistant. They get used in all craft-related activities, and cannot get laminated.
Dye Cut Stickers
Such stickers have a specific application and made from vinyl materials. Depending upon your requirement, the shape of the stickers differ.
Fluorescent Paper Stickers
These stickers come in specific shades and get meant to warn us of impending dangers. These foil-based, synthetic coated stickers have limited use in cars, signals, and signboards.
The Basics Of Nail Art
Base Polish
Just using a single coat of polish is passe. In nail art, you need to have a layer of base polish applied. This could be transparent, gloss, matte, metallic, or glitter, and you could either use regular polish or gel. Against this background, the entire design would get based. For pricing information on nail art products click here.
Metal Design Plate
Stainless steel plates get generally used for this purpose. Various designs get embossed on this plate, which gets transferred to your nails during the manicuring process. Since this plate gets regularly cleaned after every transfer, it has to get made of sturdy materials.
Special Stamping Polish
This polish has to transfer the design from the plates to your nails. They have two essential properties to address this requirement:
They have high pigment and dye count, thus making it dense and opaque. This property allows it to hold on to design engraving grooves and not run away. The transfer design is bright, depending upon the color shade chosen.
The second most important aspect is its non-drying capabilities. This type of polish does not dry quickly, providing you enough time to transfer the design to your nails.
Nail Stamper
These are of silicon, which is hard and firm. You need to choose a stamper depending upon your nail size. Clean the face of the stamper with acetone, to ensure all earlier pigments are absent.
Firmly press the front against the polished metal engraving, from left to right. Now, press this design on to your nail firmly, from left to right. The design transfer is now complete. Clean the stamper face once more for the next application.
Topcoat polish
A layer of transparent polish gets applied over the entire nail, to lock in the design, and protect it. If you are using gel polish, you need to cure it with a UV or LED lamp.
Rhinestone
For a bling look, fix rhinestones, or any other beads and pearls to your nail with glue. If you are using gel base polish, they can get stuck on this too. Cure the layer until they get totally dry. Apply a top coat to cover the entire design and make it secure.
Acetone
Nail polish remover is an essential accompaniment to your nail art process. You need this to remove the polish pigments from all surfaces, including the glue. Cotton, swab, and nail correcting pen are some essential items required for the cleaning process.
Nail Stickers
Let us look at some types of stickers which gets used for nail art:
Adhesive Stickers
These types of stickers have glue on one surface attached to the backing sheet. They need to get removed using tweezers. Some such stickers are as follows:
Plain stickers
Depending upon the sticker you choose, you must apply the required color shade as the first step. Pick up the sticker from the backing with a tweezer and place it on the nail. Do not let go till you have aligned the sticker.
Use a silicone gel stick to smoothen the sticker, so no air bubbles are there below. There are a vast number of design options in such decals. Apply top coat to protect the nail art from external forces.
Lace Stickers
These come in lace form, and you have to cut the design as per your requirement. The process is similar to the above.
3D Stickers
You get various designs and motifs in the 3D form here. They are gum based and gets applied as earlier.
Full nail stickers
These stickers cover your entire nail; hence base coat color is not required. However, it is always prudent to provide one of the natural polish on your nail to smoothen the surface and fill the ridges.
This helps in the uniform application of the stickers and protects the nail surface from damage. Also, the nail surface and skin around secrete body oil, which inhibits the decals’ proper attachment.
Gel-Filled Full Stickers
Some part of the design has gel fused between the sticker films, giving your nail a 3D look. Full stickers must get trimmed as per nail shape and size, before fixing. Topcoat polish gets used on top so that you save the nail art from wear and tear.
Bigger the sticker surface, you need to be very careful to ensure that there are no air bubbles stuck below the surface. Smoothen the sticker with soft silicone gel stick, by applying pressure from the center, towards all sides of your nail.
French Tip Stickers
These stickers are to be fixed at the edge of your nails to give them an ombre look. Matching nail polish is applied before setting the stickers. Clip the extra sticker from the edge, so that they take the shape of your nail. Tip guides are stickers that help polish the exposed nail tips before the guides get peeled off.
Full Polish Stickers
Nail shaped stickers come with an entire polished surface. You can buy a gloss, matte, or glitter look. All hues, shades, and designs are available for you to choose from.
Ultra-Thin Stickers
These modern stickers are sleek and tend to blend with your nail surface. Unique polymer materials get used to manufacture such thin stickers.
Non-Adhesive Stickers
There are a bunch of other stickers, which need to gets fixed externally. These stickers are attached to your nail using nail-art glue. They can also be set on top of gel polish and later cured with a UV lamp. Some stickers which need to get glued are:
Fimo Nail Stickers
Stickers made from ceramic polymer usually comes in sticks or pre-determined shape. You need to cut them as per your requirement and get them stored in transparent wheel containers.
Beautiful, cute designs are available in the type of stickers. Over your polished nail, fix these stickers with glue. Topcoat is applied on top of your entire nail to protect it from cracking and peeling.
Metal Stickers
Metal and other materials which do not react with polish substance get used as stickers. They come different shapes, size and gets fixed with nail glue.
Acrylic Stickers
They are flat at the bottom so that the designs can get glued. These stickers have many shapes, and options to choose from.
Decal
These thin polish films are either purchased or made on your own. These design films are stuck to gel base polish and then cured.
Water Transfer Stickers
You have dip these stickers into a container of water, holding to one end using tweezers. Place the sticker upside down on your polished nail. Press the design area with silicon gel stick to your nail.
Slide away your sticker, and your design gets stuck to your nail surface. Lock the design by applying transparent topcoat polish.
Conclusion
Nail art stickers are the cheap replacement to manicure and nail art by a professional. They have been manufactured with the result in mind – to get fixed to your nail. The designs, materials, adhesive, are all linked to its application.
These stickers could be small strips, motifs, or designs, which can be stuck above already painted nail or full nail stickers. Nail stickers must be durable and must be water-resistant. The adhesive must be strong enough to hold on to the polished nail surface without damaging your nail. You must be in a position to remove the decals with acetone.
To protect your nail art, you coat the nail with topcoat polish. In the case of gel polish, you cure the entire nail surface with a UV lamp.
The nail sticker has to withstand different kinds of stress, compared to other applications. Hence the material that gets used for such stickers, the integrated design, and the adhesive is suitable only for your nail art. Regular decals get made of various materials and are not sleek enough to be fixed to your nails.
Specific stickers have their applications, and they get manufactured for that purpose. Thus, you can only use nail art stickers for your manicure, and not any other stickers. They are just not suitable to take the stress, nor will they have design elements required for your nail art!