How to Do Newspaper Nails

Can we talk about nail art for a minute?
Okay, stick with me — you’ll like this.

The lovely and talented Orlica, who is a self-confessed manicure fanatic — “polishaholic” as she says — brings us this step-by-step tutorial for newspaper nails that are everywhere right now. It’s newsprint as nail art, people!

(I love this almost enough to wish I didn’t bite my fingernails.)

Check out the video tutorial and roll on for more nail ideas.

Nifty, no?

Basically, you’ll apply two coats of polish (let it dry very well) in your base colour of polish, then (doing one nail at a time) dip each fingernail into vodka or similar spirits. Press a small piece of newspaper firmly but carefully onto the nail, being careful not to move it around; wait 30 seconds; and peel off the paper. Repeat with the other nails, let dry, and paint on a protective top coat.

While it pains me to think of wasting, er, using up some perfectly good vodka or alcool by sticking my fingernails into it… I’m prepared to concede it might be worth it to get the New York Times crossword puzzle at my fingertips.

And, apparently, rubbing alcohol works just as well if you don’t have any spare booze on hand.

More Nail Art Ideas!

The nail-art-obsessed Orlica has a whole lot of tutorials for do-it-yourself nail art, actually, that you might like to look at.

Not only that, but — as I discovered while browsing the entries for the Disney Nail Art contest she ran recently (the 1001 Dalmations/Cruella DeVille theme fingernails won, by the way, which seems only appropriate), it would appear there’s a whole subculture of fingernail artists out there on the webs! Want more? You’ll find loads of nail art ideas from the funky to just fashionable at 365 Days of Nail Art on Nails magazine‘s blog.

Personally, there’s no way I’ll ever have the long elegant nails that are needed to show off these mani-creations, but it’s still a whole lot of fun to look at these miniature paintings, and to admire the steady hands that painted them.

How does that work, anyway? Do you do nail art on someone else, or do you have to be ambidextrous, so both the left hand and the right hand fingernails turn out well?