Buying new nail supplies for giving yourself fun manicures is always a fun process. It can, however, add up quickly and get rather expensive if you don’t pay attention to your price tags carefully. Given how quickly nail trends change and evolve, it’s easy to get carried away with wanting new colours and types of polish when the things you have are totally still useful! That’s why we’ve taken to making our own manicure supplies at home for less whenever we can.
Check out these 15 awesome tips and tricks for making your very own DIY nail supplies so you can have the trendiest manicures all year long!
1. DIY colour changing thermal polish
Have you ever seen those amazing colour changing nail polishes that people only ever seem to get at very expensive salons? They tend to change fro one shade to another and back when your hands change temperature outside or under water. Well, lucky for all of us, MsNailDecor has figured out a homemade hack for creating your very own DIY colour changing polish and was nice enough to share it!
2. DIY nail polish
Do you have a whole collection of nail polish colours and yet, somehow, you still can’t find quite the shade you’re looking for on your shelves and in your bins? Well, instead of spending even more money on even more polish, why not try mixing some custom colours from the polishes you already own? Cutepolish shows you how it’s done. This technique is especially useful if the shade you have in mind is uncommon and you couldn’t find it in the store even when you tried!
3. DIY matte polish
Usually when you paint your nails, the polishes give them a shiny, glossed finish. Lately, however, matte finished nails have been all the rage, meaning that everyone has rushed to the store to buy either a special kind of polish in different colours or a special top coat that will turn any old polish matte. An Na, however, has hacked this technique and shows you how to make your own matte top coat for less!
4. DIY gel nail remover
If you’ve ever had gel or acrylic nails before then you know that they’re much more difficult to remove than the average nail polish or glue-on fake nails. Usually, you have to go back to the salon that did them for you and have them dissolve the gel nails safely in a solvent to avoid ripping them off and damaging your nail beds, and that usually costs money. Instead, try using this homemade gel nail remover from Lulu & Sweetpea that works just as well as the salon product but might even be gentler on your fingers!
5. Lemon and vinegar nail polish remover
Have you run out of nail polish remover but you don’t have time to go to the store for more, and the nail disaster you’ve had is far too urgent to wait until your next opportunity to pick some up? Then it’s time to start rifling through your kitchen cupboards instead! Saving Money, Living Smart is here to show you how to make your very own polish remover from vinegar and lemon juice, both of which we already have in our pantry.
6. DIY nail growth recipe
Do you have slow-growing nails that never quite seem to reach the length you want before breaking off? We had the same problem as well and it was totally frustrating. That’s why we started researching natural nail growth solutions and we were lucky enough to stumble across this DIY tutorial from Ela Gale! It might not seem like much, but we promise you from experience that it actually works.
7. DIY liquid tape
Even though we’ve had years of practice in painting our own nails and can create quite nice designs now, if we do say so ourselves, we still tend to accidentally get nail polish all over the skin around our nails on occasion. Some people try to prevent this put sticking tape around their nails, but it tends to stick at weird angles because your fingertips aren’t a flat shape. Using “liquid tape” like the professional salons is easier, but it can be pricey. That’s why Nails by Jema is here to teach you how to make your own! Paint it right onto your skin to catch stray polish, do your nails, let everything dry, and peel the “tape” off after.
8. DIY glow polish
Okay, we admit that we know you can already buy glow in the dark nail polish at some stores, particularly around Halloween, but is the idea of being to make your own at home not way more exciting than buying something that’s already made? If you ask us, learning to make something glow that didn’t before feels like you’re doing a cool science experiment! Find out whether there’s chemistry or magic behind this DIY project on Sofia Styled.
9. DIY nail art stickers
Whether you’re looking at an actual store or browsing what you can buy online, there are plenty or premade nail stickers out there that will help you take your nail designs to the next level. When there are also tutorials out there that will help you make your own for free with things you already have in your kitchen, however, why would you spend the extra money? Check out how Janelle Estep makes nail stickers from pieces of plastic snack bags!
10. DIY water marble nail sticker
If you’re anything like us then you already know how water marbling manicures are usually done and you’ve already tried them a thousand times. You might have also succeeded but, like us once more, you probably also made a huge mess dipping your finger into the polished surface of the water. Instead of doing that, why not try a new technique that’s a lot neater? Dearnatural62 shows you how to make a water marbled nail sticker instead of dipping and hoping for the best!
11. Baking soda nail scrub and stain remover
If you often find yourself doing jobs, housework, or DIY projects that stain and discolour your fingernails, or even if you just accidentally dyed your nails red when you were trying to dye your hair, then you know how hard it can be to get that colour out. Nail stains can last for weeks at a time and that’s never a great base for building a pretty manicure on. Instead of waiting it out, try this DIY nail stain remover from Christene Carr. It helped us out when our nails were black for weeks after using furniture stain on an old wooden table!
12. DIY cuticle cream
Even though our cuticles are an important part of our nails and overall hand health, we find that we often forget about them. In fact, sometimes in the winter we actually neglect them to the point that they dry out and start to peel, which is never great when you’re trying to paint your nails. Help your cuticles stay healthy and pleasant looking by making your very own natural cuticle cream, just like Loepsie did here!
13. Healing cuticle oil
Are your cuticles so damaged that you fear it might actually be too late for cuticle cream, or you’re not sure it’ll help until they’ve healed up just a little bit? Then first, mix yourself up a batch of this soothing DIY cuticle healer by Say Not, Sweet Anne. It contains different essential oils that are proven to have antibacterial properties, discouraging your poor, worn out cuticles from getting irritated or infected.
14. All natural nail strengthening serum
We already talked about one kind of DIY nail growth solution, but if you’re going to go out of your way to try and get your nails to grow longer, you should probably make sure that they’re strong enough to last without breaking too! If your nails aren’t strong, they won’t grow anyways, no matter how often you soak them in a healthy growth serum. Check out this lemon and garlic recipe from Tip Top Home Rememdies. That might sound like a strange combination to spread on your nails, but it worked for us!
15. DIY nail growth oil
Just in case you’d rather not bathe your fingertips in straight orange juice like the previous recipe suggested, here’s an alternative recipe using lemon and some essential oils! Young Living suggests applying this serum to your nails with a brush like you would with polish, rather than soaking your fingers in it directly.
