Sean McWard

Hi, I'm Alisha Rimando and welcome to Back to Basics. In this episode I want to talk to you about extending the nail plate. Now, a lot of clients are going to come in and show you pictures of these really long nail plates and they're going to be like, 'That's what I want'. And sometimes it's really hard to do that because they have a little, tiny, short nail bed. Especially if you're trying to do French or if you're trying to do a color fade, being able to extend that nail bed is great, but you don't want to extend it from the cuticle all the way to the free edge because then we just have Barbie fingers, little fake fingernails, and we want it to look beautiful and natural. That's why cover pink powders were made. So let me take you down to the salon and show you how to create a beautiful extended nail that looks so natural it's going to look just like your client's original nail. So the nails have been prepped. And if you want to look at that, you can go to our Back to Basics, one of our very first episodes and look up nail prep. And then there's also another Back to Basics episode on putting on a nail form. So, what I'm going to do is go ahead and start, and of course this also has our nail prep and our primer on there. So I'm going to start with trying to extend the nail plate. What you want to do is dip your brush all the way in, wipe all the way out, because we don't want a lot of product and we also want to pick up our most opaque color, kind of a smaller bead, and I want to let that soak up that monomer to where we get like a really pretty, round bead. And then I want to dry, dry, dry. So we want it to be really dry. So we're going to let out as much liquid as we can, because the more liquid you take out of it, the more it's going to work like a concealer and we want to conceal the very edge of her nail plate. And that little free edge that was showing there, we want to cover that up. So I want to put that down. I want to make sure that my brush stays, moist, but not wet. And so I want to extend her nail bed out, and if you notice where I placed it, right there. Halfway on the form and halfway on her nail and then I'm just going to blend out that very edge of that bead. And that blends that into her natural nail. So it looks very natural, and then I don't want to smash that bead flat, because if we smash it flat then you're going to be able to see through it and we don't want to see through it. So now I'm going to take my brush at an angle and you can see if I turn, that the brush is at an angle and we're keeping the part where we're trying to conceal that smile line area, we're going to keep that high and we're going to press this bead low and blend it right into her natural nail. I want to smash down the very edges of this onto the form, so that it goes back down to that thinner consistency. So I'm going to use the side of my brush to create that smile line look, and you'll notice I didn't cover all of this smile line. I'm just going down the edge of it. Remember to keep that area a little bit thick. So you can keep that opaqueness in there. Then just stretch out the edge. Keep stretching it until you can get the shape. So you can see already that we've got really good coverage here. Remember if you can see it now, you can see it later. So it's really important to make sure you're getting it as opaque as you can and if it's not opaque enough, then you need to go back, take that off and start again. So now when you turn the nail to the side, you can see there's a little bit of nail showing right there and a little bit here, but we don't want to get it too thick in these corners, because let's just say if you were going to do a French, you'd be putting white up there too. So you want to be careful how much bulk you put in the sides, because all nails you want thin at the back and around the cuticle lines, then on the sides and then at the tip and your thickest point in the center, so you always want to remember that. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to try to give a little bit of coverage here, but I also want to blend back, so it blends into the natural nail because we don't want to take that color all the way back to the cuticle line, unless you absolutely have to because then it just looks fake and I don't want it to be fake. So I'm going to take our second color that looks a little bit more opaque. But it has some translucency to it. So I want to take that and I'm going to dry that out so we can get the coverage that we want. I'm goning to put a little bit here on this side and a little bit here on this side. Then I'm just going to tap those into place. Go ahead and blend that bead back onto that nail and blend it at the edge and then go ahead and pack it right into the corner here. Blend out the back of the bead into the nail plate. Add a little bit more, so I can blend that out. A little bit dry. Always keep everything that's on the nail bed blended. So now we have a nice pretty extension. You can still see that line of demarcation there. So I want to take a little bit of that middle color that has that little bit of coverage and a little bit of low-pickness and instead of drying it out at all, I want to put it straight onto the nail and just tap a little bit so that that those 2 colors blend together nicely and then also so that, on the nail plate, it blends right into that natural nail color. Remember the rule is, if you can see it now, you'll see it later. So if you can see that there's a line of demarcation you're going to see it later. But if you look at that, it's really hard to tell. So if you need to, just take a couple of little grains to do any blending that you need to blend and remember too, that sometimes like a little hole in the product application, that'll shine light. So you want to make sure that everything's nice and smooth too. If I look at it from the side, I can see my smile line's not completely straight right there. So I'm going to go in and add a little bit of this opaque one. I'm going to dry, dry, dry it out and stick it right in that little spot where I need that little tiny hole to be filled, so I can get that perfect smile line. Now, sometimes you'll be doing something, wanting to extend the nail bed, and you don't have to worry about that perfect smile line, but with this nail I do want that smile line to be nice and pretty. I'm going to extend her nail with a sheer color. When you bring in colors like this, now we're talking about glitter, and if we're trying to do a full set, we may not want glitter in our monomer and in our brush. So one little trick that we can do, is take these 2 pieces away, bring in a dappen dish that's only used for glitter and a brush that I only use for glitter and go ahead and build our glitter free edge. Wait for the monomer to set in. Because these are big pieces of glitter, I like to place them, where I like to place them. So I like to keep this thin so that I can put my glitter where I want to put it in my design. Remember to just follow the lines. I want to spread these out so they're not stacked on top of each other. That way I can get a little bit more of a consistent look. I'm going make this nail a long oval. So I'm going to follow those oval lines on the form. So now that I have all my glitter evened out into my free edge the way I want it to, I'm going to go ahead and add a little bit of this gold. I think it's pretty. Going to add a little bit of that right around the free edge area and blend that down. Now when you look at the nail from the side, you can see that we go thin in the back and then there's a dip down and then we have this part. What I want to do is add my clear or my sheer pink to the edge of this, to fill in all the space and really build the structure, especially when you're doing glitter nails, sometimes there's a lot more glitter than there is acrylic powder. So you want to make sure that you're not building with just a bunch of glitter, you want to build a nail with acrylic powder. So in order to do that, I just use the glitter for what I want it to look like and then I move back to one of my solid colors. So now I'm going to move my sheer pink powder back in, I'm going to come back in with my monomer, that doesn't have glitter in it, and my brush that doesn't have glitter in it, because that's really important when we're trying to get this covered and I'm going to start with the free edge. I'm going to pick up quite a large bead and place it down right over everything to cover it up. I'm just going to slide all the product where it needs to go. I'm going to use my brush, flat, parallel with the nail, when I'm working around the center and then I'm going to use it at a little bit of an angle at the edge, to get it nice and thin towards the edge. In the center we want that little bit of thickness. We need another bead, place it down. Remember anything that you put down on top of that other acrylic, is going to dry really, really fast. So you want to make sure that you're moving quickly so the product doesn't dry. The old product doesn't suck the monomer out of the new product and make the product too dry. And then we're going to go right at the cuticle line, use that little bit of pink to blend a really pretty nail bed. You can look at the nail from this side you can see that our shape, now we could add a little product here. But you also want to remember that when you're working, to not build up your mistakes, a lot of times we'll get the product really thick here and really thick here and then we add more product in the middle. The problem with that, is there's just more to file because it does have to be thin in the back and thin at the tip, so if you've already got the thickness you want or it's a little bit too thick, then just know when you file...so don't build on your mistakes. Now look at it from the side. You can see it's been in the back. We've got that really pretty arch going right up to our apex and then sliding right back down into a nice pretty thin tip. Now I'm going to pinch. Mold this nail into shape. Check how it's working and if the form starts to come off at the bottom then it's ready to be removed and what you want is that form to be nice and sticky, so it's hard to get off. That way it stays in place. I'm going to get a C-curve stick and just remember with your C-curve sticks, start with the one that fits right now. Make sure you have a nice, pretty arch and you're going to press in where it's wide and then you're going to hold it and the heat from your fingers will help to push in that C-curve and lock it into place then we're going to drop down a size on our C-curve stick. Again, wherever it's wide, that's where we're going to hold it in. And then the last one, I'm going to go even smaller, especially since I'm doing an oval nail. Now we're going to go ahead and get this file. Remember to always start with your sides straight and your sidewalls. File your perimeter first. Once you get your perimeter shaped, then you want to go over the top of the nail. Then I'm going to buff the surface. I'm using 2 different grits of buffer. But you also want to make sure, especially if you're going to be just doing top coat, don't buff it all the way down to really, really smooth, keep it in at least a 180-grit on the surface, so that it grabs that polish that gel polish and it makes it stick really well, so you don't get any peeling with your polish. Again let the grit do the job, don't press a lot, just lightly file over, buff over and I'm going to turn, bring it to a 180-grit. Then look at the shape from my client's perspective. And then I'm going to go back and, with a very thin file, I'm going to go right into the sides, so I can make those sides perfect. We finish our filing and go ahead and finish this out with a little bit of gel top coat. I love doing this really fun glitter because you can see through it and it makes it really fun for parties. If you want to, you can even do a coat underneath. And really show that really glassy look. So that was probably a little bit different to what you've seen in other Instagram posts or maybe things that you've learned before, because this is a way that you can do that overlay in the back, to make it look so beautiful and so natural, and doing like that little glitter fade at the end for the extension, it just makes it really fun. But on the next episode I'm going to show you how to create that perfect French and it is really hard, because when the white and that pink start to touch each other, things start to get a little bit tricky. So join me on the next episode where

Hi, I'm Alisha Rimando and welcome to Back to Basics.
In this episode we're going to take all those little teeny, tiny beads that you've been creating into all those little petals and I'm going to show you how to lay them out and make a perfect flower.
I'm even going to show you how to do that hibiscus flower that I love.
It's just laying the petals out a little bit differently in different sizes, but you're going to love that too.
So now that you have the consistency down with all your tiny beads, we get to put all those together.
We're going to make a five petal flower.
We're going to connect flowers.
We're even going to learn how to make leaves, so we can make a whole floral design.
So grab all your stuff and let's get Back to Basics.
When we're talking about composition for the nail and we're talking about how to lay your petals down, I always like to think of things like a clock or a circle.
So all flowers basically create a circle in the end.
So I start with a circle and in my mind, I'm deciding where I want to put that on my nail.
So maybe over here, so it's going to take up this space over here.
So this flower is going to be a circle and I always imagine the center of the flower.
So what you want to do when you're laying your petals.as you put that bead down and you start to spread it out, and you create this circle.
You pressed the center of your brush towards the center of your flower, you leaned back and it opened up this petal to create this shape.
So this is the shape that we've created and you saw before, we created this shape and you know, maybe this was shaded a little bit, but that's your first petal.
So one thing you want to think about.
I start with the 5-petal flower because it really helps you to determine how you're going to lay those petals out, because believe it or not getting 5 petals in a flower is pretty difficult to do when you first start.
So the first thing I like to do is cut this circle in half and I figure if I can get three petals on one side of the circle.
I can definitely get two on the other side.
So I'm going to create this first petal and that's going to be my starting point and then I'm going to try to do 2 more petals on this side.
One on each side of that one, and that's going to allow me to have half of the space to create my other 2 petals.
So, the biggest problem that people have when they start creating flowers, is they start putting the petals down and all of a sudden you have a flower that has 4 petals and you've got a 4 leafed clover instead of an actual flower, because you don't have the space.
So I always like to divide that in half, get your first petal down, and this is all in your mind, you know, as you're laying it out.
put one petal here your first, your second petal to the right, your third petal to the left and you definitely have room for petal number 4 and 5.
Now, this is the same whatever type of flower you want to do.
So, let's just say we're going do a daisy.
So you're thinking about the center again.
Remember leave that open space in the center for whatever it is that you want to add later.
Maybe it's a little bead of liquid & powder.
Maybe you're going to put a stone there or some little bullion beads, but let's do like more like a daisy.
So we put our our bead down on this and we start drag it back into more firm.
we're not pressing it down.
We're just leaving it up.
So again, divide this in half.
You want to do 3 on one side? Right, and then you have plenty of room to do 3on the other, and then you've got a 6-petaled flower.
So you want to always think, okay do the math in your head, divide it how many petals am I planning on putting on there, and that's going to give you where you're going to lay everything out.
Then you start changing up your flowers.
So let's just say.
one of my favorite ones to do, is a hibiscus.
So again, I start with this whole idea of a circle and the center of the flower, but with the hibiscus the center kind of takes over, so I'm going to pretend to make my hibiscus corner here.
I start with that first petal.
So I'm gonna follow that around and the one thing about adding petals to flowers that really makes it beautiful and unique, I think with 3D art, is when you start watching the lines of your petals.
So when you're laying these in see how they laid right up next to each other and they have a little bit of a line and a little bit of a space throughout the same thing happens when you start doing like roses and hibiscus.
So this is petal number one the second petal.
I'm going to kind of put my bead here and I'm going to press it out to where it follows that line.
And comes around.
So now I've got this kind of shading that's coming out here and I'm following the circle right around and then I'm gonna go with the number two and again following that circle around.
to create number three and then again keep that Circle.
Number four and then again and see how the petals kind of get smaller because we're kind of the perspective.
Gives it a little bit more 3d effect.
And then you're gonna put your Your Center there.
So a lot of times I start my hibiscus with actually putting the the stem in first and that way I can kind of work that first petal around it.
So if you kind of think about it.
Again, let's look at a rose.
If you start doing a rose, you're going to do the same thing, you know kind of think of of this circle, right? So you start with a rose petal and then you kind of work your way around.
I like to stack my roses and I'm going to show you how to do that as well.
But you start putting your petals around and then you start stacking the next set of petals and the next set of petals right on top overlapping but eventually You end up with again that circular shape.
So remembering when you're laying those petals down when you're laying that bead down and you're opening up to create that pedal remember that that outside shape you want to keep it in a circle.
So even if it's not shaped like this, even if it's shaped like this. You're still keeping everything? In that circular shape leaving.
the center of the flower Then when we start to add in and we start to add on to this so we want to do a flower then we want to add some leaves.
The best thing to do is to go in between our petals.
So we want to add some leaves to this.
We're gonna go in between you want to add two leaves to that.
You're going to go in between this petal and this Leaf right? So now you have If you want to add another flower in addition to this, you're going to create the center of the flower between these two petals and then you're going to go one.
Two three and here's your center of your flower.
Then you want to add a leaf to that.
You're going to go in between you're going to go in between.
So anytime you're laying out and I mean you can build this forever and go on and on and on and start another center of the flower and do four petals if you want to and then a leaf here and you just keep building on and on but it all stems.
from going in between the start of your petal.
So always remember where the center of your flower is always remember where the outside of your flowers so, you know how far you want to open up the pedal and then keep an eye on those little cracks? That create all the detail and all the interest and give you the perspective of that 3D design.
So now that we've seen exactly how to create our beads.
We've practiced making our beads.
They're all the same size and shape and they're nice little pretty pearls and now we've already talked about composition how to lay out our flowers.
Let's try to make a flower and I like to start on, you know, again just using our practice pad and the reason why is because laying out those flowers and getting those beads perfectly the right size it's harder than it looks.
so we don't want to make any like hair barrettes or belt buckles.
We really want to make these teeny tiny little flowers that fit on the size of a nails.
So it's actually really hard the the composition doesn't seem near as hard as it is to make this guy so so small, so we're gonna place that first one down and again the point the tip of the brush towards the center of your flower.
Remember to keep in mind where that Center is and then you're just gonna lean your brush back.
Okay, don't be so specific on how that pedal turns out.
Let it just be who he is and we're gonna dip in again.
We're going to wipe out.
Pick up our bead.
Try to get it the same size.
At the excess liquid place it down.
And remember we're thinking about half of that Circle.
We want to make three petals on that side.
So we're gonna turn and angle and lean back.
You can see that that bead will still move.
even after a little bit of time so you can kind of shape that the way you want and again another little bead right off the excess place it right on this side.
And again half of that Circle.
We want to keep those three on half that Circle we want to put the tip of the brush towards the center of the flower.
and lean back if you feel like you're flowers getting a little big you can kind of Kick the edge in there to get the shade because remember we're trying to make that around circle on the outside.
So keep an eye on the shape of the outside.
And then we're going for petal.
Number four.
We're still doing good.
We haven't closed it into a four leaf clover yet.
So we're going to place that one right here.
And tip of the brush towards the center of the flower.
And lean back and isn't that funny that pretty much every time? You put that fourth Petal on there's really only room for one more.
So we're gonna finish it out with our five petal flower.
That one last little bead on there place it down.
Right in that spot and remember to give that guy a little bit of room because a lot of times we place those when we start putting this together and creating a flower.
We'll put that bead really close to the center and he doesn't have any room to move.
So let's put it right in the center of the space where we want it to go.
Tip of the brush towards the center of the flower.
and lean back So nothing's perfect in nature.
You don't want to have these two perfect and you don't want to spend a ton of time on this because this is supposed to be quick nail art that you can actually make money at in the salon if it takes you 45 minutes to do this, you're not making any money. So we don't want to take all of our time up.
We just want to do something really simple.
You can put a little bead of product in there and I like to stack it when I'm doing something like that so that it stays nice and high gives you a little bit of difference.
Just makes it a little bit more interesting or if you wanted to put a stone in there or some little bullion beads or a little bit of glitter.
That's kind of fun, too. So again when we were talking about composition, maybe you want to add another flower to this.
Or a leaf.
So we're just gonna add another petal.
And where does it go? The center of the flower goes right in the center of two petals? So I'm going to put that over to one side.
And the point of the brush towards the center of the flower and lean back.
and again that was a little bit big.
So again just kind of drag a little bit of that off.
There's no rules in this you just want those beads to be about the same size.
and in fact on this Connection flower you may even want this one to be a little bit smaller.
So however you want to do that.
But I like to kind of remember that half of that.
Is what we're dealing with we only get half of the circle here.
So I'm going to put that bead.
Over here and create that second petal.
Direction and that leaves me and that space to put my last little petal right here.
Now I love working with just white when you're first starting out doing all of the 3D stuff because it keeps consistency.
You know, you're picking up the same amount of liquid.
You're picking up the same kind of powder because as soon as you put pigment in a powder boy, does it start acting different.
So if you're picking up green or you're picking up yellow you're picking up pink depending upon how they formulated those colors all that's gonna feel a lot different.
It's gonna stand up different.
It's gonna behave differently.
So being consistent using one color kind of figuring out your composition to everything you're doing and working on that when you first start is really the best way to to gain some great consistency, and then you can move into You know adding color later.
And you know what if this doesn't look like it's connecting very nice.
You can even just go like this and then it looks like you have Three flowers connecting look at that.
Really easy no matter what you do.
You can't really make a mistake doing this and if we want to add a little bit of a leaf the same thing we're just gonna go in between two petals and we're gonna lean back.
And sometimes I just you can make your face almost look exactly like your flower.
But what I like to do is bring my brush flat.
And I just cut that leaf right now and it brings it to really sharp point.
You get over on the end like that.
really easy That's just a quick little leaf.
What's a real fun thing to do when you're trying to try some different flowers is to go ahead and look at drawings Illustrated drawings on on the internet and then you can see kind of the way the lines go and then you can use your brush just like you're drawing a pencil.
So if you wanted to make little lines inside these leaves you could do that with your brush.
Again, I'm just flattening that out a little bit and then I'm going to cut into it and just cook it over.
You want to spread that leaf out a little bit you can do that.
So it's very soft little gentle Strokes.
If you press on it too much.
It's gonna go too flat.
So if you want to keep that 3D the less you touch it until it's more dry the higher it's going to be and I mean you could just build this on and on forever if you wanted to so I'm gonna start again and this time instead of making just one bead.
I'm gonna go ahead and flatten my brush a little bit and I'm going to grab a little line of product.
That way I can stretch it a little easier.
And with the Hibiscus, I like to have a little bit of thickness right there at the base.
So I'm just going to drop a little bit of a bead right on top of that base.
Just to give it a little bit more height.
And once I have the start of my flower.
I'm ready to go.
So again, it's as simple five petal flower. It's just laying down a little bit different.
So dip in white pick up your bead.
And that first with a hibiscus what I love about it is it has a lot of Dimension to it just because of the way that the petals are laid down in shape.
So the first one I actually have a little bit more powder and I create it a little bit bigger leaf or a little bit bigger petal and then as it as we work our way around I get it.
I do smaller petals.
So we're gonna start this first one.
Tip of the brush towards the center of the flower.
I'm going to spread that petal out.
and create our first hibiscus petal Let's take about half of that.
Place it down.
Touch it until it turns creamy.
And then I'm just gonna kind of guide this petal around the other petal.
right on top guide it around.
Until it wraps, right? And remember we're making that Circle so think about the circle as you're spreading that petal out.
And paste it right on the other side.
guide the top of that bead and then guide that to wrap around.
The other petal to create that Circle.
and then I like brush towards the center of the flower and just get that petal a little bit.
And if it gets a little too close just go right in between.
And separate it.
And again, we just create it.
We're creating a very simple five petal flower.
But just the way that you kind of lay those petals out and using these different sized beads.
really creates a whole new effect.
So again think of that as a circle.
I'm going to wrap that around.
the other one and if you need to divide that line.
And there's nothing perfect in nature.
So don't try to make it.
Perfect.
Just try to fit it and keeping those rolls of it being just a little bit thinner towards the center of your flower.
Outside of your flowers should be shaped more like a circle.
Cute little Hibiscus flower exactly the same technique except just changing up the size of those petals a little bit and a little bit of that placement.
And your cute little hibiscus.
so isn't it fun to take those petals and make them into a flower.
It's not quite as easy as you thought they were every now and then you get the four leaf clover.
It doesn't actually turn out exactly the way you want.
So again, this is all about practice practice practice.
I remember the first hibiscus.
I made it probably took me 30 minutes.
And then now it takes me just a few minutes but it's because I've done hundreds of them.
So practice making those flowers don't feel bad that it's on just a little sheet of paper because it really does help you to get that composition down because on the next episode we're gonna put those flowers on to nails.
So keep practicing and I'll see you next time on Back to Basics.