See a negative space (nail art) like a half-full glass of water. Imagine, you’re painting your nails, and you forgot some spaces here and there but quite neatly: some lines or some dots. No matter how what you’ve left is a negative space nail art!
On Valentine’s day, fill your day with love and hearts. Repeat on your nails. Learn how to do a negative space heart manicure with tips!
I just had to give it a go! With a bit of patience and some acetone-free solution (to dissolve my mess), I’ve created my own negative space nail art with a heart-shaped, negative hole. I balanced the romantic design with some hot colours by no means soft or sweet. A manicure like this requires times but it’s worthy it.
I started my negative space manicure with a protective base coat: I used Avon Pearl Shine to strengthen my nails and protect them from awful stains. I picked orange and red nail lacquers for this nail art, but reds and derivates are so lovely: reds love you so much, they transfer onto your nails and stay there for a while! So I’ve applied a thin layer of my pearly treatment that dries in less than one minute.
How to negative space nail art: tips and tricks
I cut a piece of painters tape, I placed it on a cutting board, I outlined a heart, and I cut it with the help of a cutter. I did it with extra care, so to get a DIY ‘stencil’ and a ‘sticker’ in one go and with just one piece of tape!
Once placed my heart sticker on my index fingernail, I applied one coat of a vibrant orange nail polish: Yamamay n°16 Fluo Orange. I avoided the tape and – with the help of my tweezers – I quickly removed the tape while the nail polish was still fresh. I painted all my nails with the same orange, and I cleaned all around the cuticles with an acetone-free nail polish remover and a flat nail art flat. I cleaned with a q-tip soaked in nail polish remover my empty heart, and I refined the heart silhouette with a nail art brush damped in the same polish remover.
I applied my stencil with the heart-shaped hole, on the back of my hand first, and then on my ring fingernail. I applied Revitage n°16 – a watermelon red nail lacquer with a crème finish – inside the stencil, and I quickly removed the tape. Then I outlined the contours of my 2 hearts with a thin nail art brush and Lillalab Bronze n°53, a foil effect nail polish. I repeated this step twice to get full opacity and vibrancy.
To smooth and protect this nail art, I applied two layers of Kiko Quick Dry #800. This clear nail polish proves to be an excellent substitute for any common top coat as it dries very quickly and makes my nail colours shiny and smooth like glass.
Like good things in life, this type of manicure takes its time: it took me around 20 minutes but lasted for about a week! I told you it was well, well worthy!
Valentina Chirico aka Valens
