One of the hottest nail trends to show up on Pinterest is newspaper nails. It’s basically a way of adding newspaper print right onto the nails. It’s a fun look if you’re on your way to a book club, or just looking to celebrate the written word. The best thing is that newspaper nails are easy to do. There are several methods for getting newspaper nails, which are outlined below.
The rubbing alcohol method
The most common and popular way to do newspaper nails is to apply the newsprint directly to the nails using rubbing alcohol. You start by cutting 10 pieces of print from the newspaper so they’re wide enough to cover each nail. Then apply a basecoat and let it dry. White is best for showing the print.
After that, you dip each nail into a small container of 70 percent isopropyl alcohol for five seconds each. You then take the small pieces of newspaper, and press one text down over each nail. Leave for several seconds and then peel it off carefully. The text should be left on the nail. Once dry, apply a clear gel coat to seal in the letters. It’ll be easiest to do one hand at a time.
Since alcohol can be drying to the skin, another option is to soak each piece of newspaper in the alcohol until it is saturated. Then apply that to the nail.
The water-only method
If you want to avoid the drying effects of alcohol all together, you can use water only to make your newspaper nails. You do the same as above for prep: cut your newspaper and paint a base coat on your nails.
Then you soak the newspaper in water for about 30 seconds. Place the newspaper on your nails like above, but for a minute or two. Carefully peel the newspaper away, and you should have print on your nails. Apply a gel coat like above. This method just takes a bit longer.
Burned paper idea
A clever take on this look is the burned paper style. You apply your newspaper print to your nails like above. Paint a line of black polish over the text and add some dark brown smudging, like the edge of burned paper. Around the black line, treat some of the text with acetone so you can see the nail underneath. That will make it look like the “paper” burned away.
Nail wraps
Then again, if you really want to be lazy about it, you can get some nail wraps that have classic text patterns. Then you just apply them to your nails, no actual newspaper, alcohol or water required. You can find some text nail wraps here.
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