Metal Decals: What they are, and tips for using them in your nail art!

Metal decals are a pretty cool way to accessorize and customize your nails because they share the intricate designs of nail stickers but are WAY more bling and cool to look at, besides being relatively simple to work with. 

They are made of a very soft, thin metal, can be used on acrylic nails or natural nails, and are usually pretty small in size (below 5mm or 2/8"). At this point, I've never seen colors other than silver and gold. 

Purchasing:

They're very affordable (120 pieces in a mixed set usually cost no more than about US$2.50 - 2.99) and come in tons of different shapes.

• If you're just trying them out and don't NEED to get the hello kitty inspired ones I used, I'd recommend skipping the shipping cost and buying a mixed pack from lightinthebox or bornprettystore.
• If you can't IMAGINE not using hello kitty metal decals and don't mind paying shipping, then I'd point you to reputable sellers on good ol' ebay who ship internationally.

How To Use:

First you want to apply your base polish of course. Because I'm doing a Hellow Kitty theme, I had to use a hot jelly pink. Try something like China Glaze Heat Index. (I actually toned it down slightly by applying this over a slightly less neon jelly pink I got from Hong Kong beauty supply store Sasa, but you don't need to.)

Now get your decals out. The bigger the decal, the trickier they are to work with, because you need to bend them slightly so they will fit snugly over the curves of your nail. Flat ones would just stick out. 

Tip: It's easier to pre-bend them by pressing them around the curved side of a pen.

Now you can place each piece over the designated nail to see if the curve fits properly. Make sure you leave minimal gaps underneath or it will pop off.

When you're ready to apply it, you can use a bit of clear polish, OR my preferred nail-art adhesive, repositionable craft glue. Just smooth it on where you want the decal to go, and before it's dry, place the decal on.

This is because you might need a bit of time to move it around until you get it into the perfect position or angle, and if you wait for the glue to dry, it would be too tacky to shift the decal.

I seldom ever do uniform fingers, so on my middle finger, I decided to do 2 diagonal stripes using gold holographic striping tape (#28 here). 

Tip: Striping tape has a tendency to lift and start peeling off at the edges after a day or so. To minimize this, always cut off the tape BEFORE the edge of your nail and make sure you apply a thick layer of top coat.

On the thumb I combined both, by using a bow on the top right corner (a la Hello Kitty herself), and 2 additional gold stripes along the bottom.

Tip: Finish by applying 2-3 coats of topcoat just to make sure everything is secure, and the surface is smoothed out so there are no sharp edges. Especially important if you're doing this on a child as they could scratch themselves or rub their eyes.

One Other Idea: 

Use these to bling up your cell phones!

"Antique Bronze Relic" Manicure

I was looking at one of the prints on an XL stamping plate and saw one design that I thought looked really interesting. It's a geometric pattern that looked kinda organic (peacock) and kinda tribal/sci-fi in a rather 5th Element or WoW Iron Dwarf relic kinda way. Nerd, I know.

I used:

• A beautiful duochrome polish olive-green from China Glaze that's a dupe for Chanel Peridot, called Rare & Radiant.
• A white Essie polish as stamping color. I didn't use a Konad stamping polish as it was too stark and opaque a white and I wanted something softer.
• An XL stamping plate in design "B" that you can get from cheeky-beauty.com
• Konad stamper and scraper
• Turquoise/Teal hexagon glitter
• Repositionable glue (if you have foil glue that works; anything that dries clear and tacky)

Tutorial below!

The “Yellow Polka-Dotted": Lemon Fizz Nails with Acrylic Bow and Pink Glitter Spots

Yellow polka-dotted nails with acrylic bow on accent finger and sequin heart on thumb.

Items used from left: China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Konad pink special polish, yellow acrylic bow with pink dots, and pink translucent glitter. QA30 stamping plate from eBay.

I was inspired by a pretty yellow acrylic bow and decided to do matchy-matchy nails to go with the theme. 

Apply pale lemon-yellow polish until opaque, and let dry.

Use nail glue (or indeed, super glue) to apply the yellow bow to the ring finger. Remember not to use too much. This type of glue is stronger with just a thin layer. 

Make sure your repositionable glue dries a bit before you start dotting on the glitter with a toothpick or dotting tool, or they won't stick. Simply dip the tip of your dotting tool in a tiny bit of glue and let dry so the surface is tacky and it can pick up glitter easily.
 Repositionable glue is available from arts n crafts stores (scraperfect.com has a really good one called Best Glue Ever if you prefer to shop online; they ship internationally). They're really the perfect thing for applying small pieces of nail art and glitter to your nails. 
For pink glitter, you can simply use any translucent duochrome pink glitter like the one I have above. It shouldn’t be too small in size or the dots won't be visible.

I used a random plate that was provided free when I bought a bunch of polishes from a seller in China. I'm not sure how you can get the exact same one but I 

Remember to let the glue dry before applying glitter!

I used Seche Vite topcoat.

Feel free to change the color scheme around and use different combinations! (Red and white, pink and black, blue and aqua, etc.)

[Nails] Psychedelic Swirls: Adventures with XL Nail Stamping Plate B

If you're an expert, you probably already know everything I'm about to say.
But if you like doing your nails but haven't heard of "Konad" or "nail stamping", it's one of the easiest ways to "cheat" and create intricate designs on your nails without visiting a salon.

People who get into stamping get quite fanatic about it, because it's such an economical way to jazz up your nail look. Plates and stampers can be re-used for years, and there are so many different looks and effects you can get into. It's also not hard as long as you use the right polish and good quality plates.

Stamping Tools:

To get started, you need a

• metal stamping plate with some designs on it
• a flat scraper (some people use old gift cards or credit cards)
• a rubberized stamping tool
• stamping polish (or any existing polish that is very thick, very pigmented)

Konad is one of the best-known brands that supply metal stamping plates and all the peripheral accessories like rubber stampers and metal scrapers (you can find them on naildelights.com). They also supply stamping polishes. Now Konad stamps and polishes aren't cheap, and there are so many different designs that you often find yourself in a "gotta collect 'em all" situation.


In recent years, many manufacturers have come up with alternatives to Konad, most of which are much more affordable. "XL" stamping plates like these below can have up to 40+ designs on them and cost as low as about US$7 each on Amazon and eBay, if you buy 3 of them.

Not all work extremely well, but most are ok, and a lot depends on the stamping polish you use.

Starry, Starry Night: Navy and Silver Glitter Ombre Nails

(For the fabulous Yina of The Velvet Dolls.)

Super simple, and pretty darned quick to do. This nail look requires no ready-made glitter polish and no mixing of pigments into clear polishes. All you need is:

• A dark blue nail polish (I used L.A. Girl Dance Club)
• Repositionable glue (below) or nail foil adhesive
• A silver glitter (fine-grained)
• A soft blue eyeshadow (I used MAC Shimmermint)