how-to:nail art brushes + acrylic painting Part 1

Sorry for not being able to blog regularly. I think i have been apologizing over & over again because of my lack of updates. I hope that you'll be able to forgive me with this post. My long overdue post about nail art brushes.

This 15 pc. brush set is from BornPretty.

It has a pretty good selection of brushes in making different designs. It got detailing, liner, fan, angled, filbert & dotting tools. According to the website it has:
3 drawing tools
7 painting tools
2 liners
1 dotting tool
2 fan brushes for nail art effect

I seriously can't understand why there is a need for 2 fan brushes though. i'd rather have another filbert brush to go with this set.

I prefer acrylic as my medium all because it's easy to work with. You can easily wipe it out when you made an error (provided that it's still wet). Unlike polishes where you have to redo everything once more. I have received tons of questions if it's ok to use the acrylic sets that painters use.

I, myself, use acrylic sets like that. I think as long as you put on base coat, it won't harm your nails. I have even tried using it as my base color & nothing happened on my nails.

note:
Make sure that you do not get the acrylics on the ferrule or you'll risk the bristles of your brush splaying out. Getting the debris out of ferrule is not an easy task. You'll end up ruining your brush when it splayed out, especially for detailing brushes! Just dip the bristles half-way on the acrylic & make sure you clean it after every use.

Let's start by prepping up first & what you need before you start playing with colors.

First of all, you have to remember that acrylic dries fast. It is water-based so you would need to spritz water on it every now & them to keep it easy to work with. So you would need an atomizer filled with water (mine is really small...see that small orange bottle?) to keep it pliable.

Then of course, something that you can use as a pallet. I just use old CDs. Something to wipe your brushes with... kitchen towel or tissue & of course your jar of water to clean your brushes.

Now that we got that out of the way let's go to the brushes...

My favorite brush of all...

THE DETAILING BRUSH

This is the most versatile brush of all because you can make specific designs with this.
Detailing brush has fine tip so that you'll be able to maneuver it easily. I mostly use this on my nail art tutorials. Here are some of the designs that i did using this brush. Just click the title of each picture to see the step by step tutorial on how to make that design.

3d flowers

You just need to have steady hands when doing detailed work, well, since acrylic can be easily removed with wet wipes, you can practice the design as much as you want on the surface without worrying about it.

rose curlicue

You can do lines easily with this brush too...
even dots!

sunny flower

You can also use your polish as your medium, just make sure that you will not get the polish into the ferrule... same goes with acrylics.

heart overload

If there is one brush that i would recommend that you buy, it would be this. You can also use artist brushes. In fact, my favorite detailing brushes are craft brushes. Sizes would vary of course, just go for the smallest ones, which i think is 3/0, if my memory serves me right.

You can do a lot of designs with detailing brushes!
Love love love detailing brushes!

THE FILBERT BRUSH

This is a very nice brush to make flowers with.
Please refer to this illustration on how to make flower petals.

You just need to lay it on the surface then drag it either towards you or going out.
See the 2 different flowers using this brush?
Cute,huh?
^_~

time for spring

This is one design that i made using a filbert brush.

THE STRIPING BRUSH

Striping brush have flat ferrule as opposed to detailing brushes that has a round ferrule.
So, what designs can you make with it?
Basically, you use it to make stripes!

Of course, it doesn't mean you only need to use it for straight lines. You can make waves with this brush too, like this.

This is perfect for making those background waves.

I didn't really do this design for i had it made on the salon, but the brush that was used on this is striping brush.

THE FAN BRUSH

Fan brush can be used to clean the surface among other things.

The top pictures would be to show to make random "flowing" stripes in just a couple of strokes & the 2nd one is how to use it in picking up glitters/pigments. You tap it straight on to your wet polish for that added bling!

I didn't use a fan brush in this nail art but i should have just used it because the end result would just be basically the same.

christmas trees

The grasses on the ring finger is made with a fan brush.

These are just the basic use for the brushes but you don't need to limit yourself to these designs with each brushes. Heck, you can even do flower petals with a striping brush! Just explore these brushes to figure out the different uses.

To be able to see my nails art easily you can click on my FB NAIL ART ALBUM. It would be easy for you to browse through my past designs with blog links on each pictures for reference.

I'll continue with another post to talk about the other brushes like the flat & angled brushes. I actually cut my nails a few days ago so they're really really short now but i don't mind. I am enjoying my shampooing experience because i can get to massage my scalp as much as i can unlike before. LOL!

I just hope that it will grow long by christmas time because i would like to don christmas design on my nails this holiday!

It's going to be my birthday this Sunday. I can't believe how fast time flies.. I'm already 27!
Wow! Where did all the years went? haha!

Anyway, hope that you'll have a happy weekend!
Jaa ne~!
^_^

ps:
Product presented as samples. I did not receive any monetary compensations. Opinions posted are mine alone & not influenced by the company.