Hi everyone! Ashley from Smashley Sparkles, here. Today I want to share some common mistakes all of us seem to make! Even though all of our members are very talented, we still have the same "oops" moments as our readers ...
For myself, one mistake I seem to make occasionally is not knowing when a mani is "too much", and more importantly, not photographing a mani as it progresses so I still get something useable even if it turns out as a fail. I think a good way to avoid feeling like you wasted your time on a nail art fail (for me as a blogger anyway), is to be sure you take photos of each step. You can then use the base color as swatches for another post, maybe show a more simplified version of the art if you end up adding too many things. (Glitter and rhinestones, I'm looking at you!) I don't seem to have any photo examples of this, probably because I've just totally scrapped anything that got messed up that much.
This mani comes from Emma of Manicurity, who wishes she had stopped before the white lines got as thick as they did.
Jolene from Follow Gashin' says, "My mistake is not letting thicker polishes dry more between coats, causing dragging!"
Heather from Peace, Love, and Polish told me, "My most made mistake is smearing my design with a topcoat. This usually happens when I'm too lazy to apply properly and I use too thin of a coat. Sometimes I feel the need to go over the same spot twice, which makes it smear so much more. My tip to prevent this is use a really good topcoat (I use HK Girl) and create a thick ball at the end of the brush before applying. I try to never let the brush touch the design! That way, the chances of smearing are less."
Vic from Glowstars.net said, "My frequent mistake is not choosing the right undies. I love China Glaze Sunshine Pop but always forget that it transforms any colour used over it. In this mani I thought it would go excellently with Barry M Cyan Blue. Yeah, not so much."
Emma from Manicurity says, "One mistake I made for a long time was using brushes for freehand nail art that were simply too large, so no matter how precise I tried to be I got blobby lines. Cutting down your brushes is SO easy to do and makes all your details much finer! I wish I had cut mine sooner."
Emma says this mani is the one which pushed her to finally make the cut...
Sue from Creative Nail Design By Sue said, "The biggest mistake I make is not being patient. It makes me crazy waiting for polish to dry and sometimes I start the next phase too soon and it destroys the final look. Here is a tape mani I did creating a reverse gradient. As you can see if you look close, I peeled the tape off my pinky which wasn't dry enough and it peeled the polish with it. I hate it when that happens."
Kerrie from PishPosh and Polish says, "I love using nail art pens, they really help me to achieve lines that on my own i just wouldn't be able to draw. Honestly I just don't have the skill for it on my own. My mistake is not planning ahead when using nail art pens. I use polishes that apply way to thick or take too long to dry (or never dry) and then when it comes to using my pens they dig into the polish and make yucky pits in the nails. Errgh!"
Bee of Bee Polished told me, "Mine is not waiting long enough before adding art, thereby ruining the whole thing!" Seems like patience is a virtue that not many of us have, because I do this too. :)
Meghan from Will Paint Nails For Food said, "My biggest mistake is not taking a few minutes to plan my design beforehand. When I sketch out a quick design before I start painting, I usually don't have to deal with mistakes or redo parts of my nails. In one of my recent nail art designs I took a minute to sketch out where I wanted my flowers to go and what parts of my source image I wanted to use. It made a world of difference in the finished piece."
Debbie from The Crumpet says, "My biggest mistake is an evolving mistake - in the beginning, I didn't believe in clean up. Then I realised there SHOULD be clean up. Then I sucked at it, so had manis with holes at the sides. Then I got a swish new camera that showed me more bits I hadn't seen with my naked eye .... dammit, polish should contain magnets that are only attracted to the NAIL people, the NAIL ... after all, it's not skin and nail polish."
She also wants to recommend to never, EVER splatter with shimmers. I've made this same mistake and we both know that the clean up takes FOR-EV-ER...
Kirsten from Geeky Owl said, "Thinking that my cuticles are moisturized enough from the cream I put on and taking the photo and then later while editing seeing all the dryness magnified! I have learned when in doubt, moisturize and find the happy balance between dry and too shiny!"
So, lovely readers, I hope this post helps you learn from the mistakes we have already made... though I was taught in hair school that you never make mistakes, you only have learning experiences, which I believe to be an important way to think about mistakes. Trying to learn from them and improve yourself in the future is a major benefit from making mistakes in the first place! And remember, even your favorite bloggers and nail artists still have their own learning experiences, maybe more often than you think... ;)
