New Lagos = New Set.
If your interests live at the intersection of thought-provoking books and bold design on some DIY press-on nails, this one is for you!
Weirdly, I feel like this custom press-on nail set forced me to create it. One of my favorite authors of all time is Akwaeke Emezi. When I’m in a reading slump, Emezi is my first call. I pick up one of their books and don’t put it down until I have to. Emezi’s writing has a way of making me feel uncomfortable while forcing me to think deeply about how I see – or don’t see – others.
I have about five of Emezi’s books in my collection, and my most recent read was Little rot. As many of the BookTok folks said soon after it was released, there was nothing “little” about the rot in the book. The story is set in “New Lagos,” which is supposed to be a fictional, futuristic version of Lagos, Nigeria, but as a Nigerian-American who lived in Nigeria for a few years, there’s a very thin line between fact and fiction in this case. This isn’t a book review blog, so my notes on the book stop here, but do yourself a favor and go read it.
Back to being forced to create these DIY press-on nails. I finished reading Little rot a few months ago, but I swear the book has been calling on me to do some book cover nail art ever since I put it down. I’m not entirely sure why I am so drawn to the cover – it could be the abstract design, the intentional randomness of it, or maybe I just love the neon green font.
Whatever it is, I had to have it on my hands, so let me gist you on how I created these Little Rot, Big Energy custom press-on nails.
The Vision
As always, I use The POLISH Method to help me through the nail art design process. Here’s a walkthrough on how I thought through the design of these DIY press-on nails using The POLISH Method:
Point of View
As I said, this design was literally commanding me to create it (I saw it in my dreams!), so it didn’t really matter what vibe I wanted to set for my nails over the next two weeks; I was going to have orange nails. Sometimes, the hands want what the hands want, and you just gotta let them guide you. I know this is giving very “woo-woo”, but stay with me here.
Origin
The sole inspiration for this set was the Little rot book cover. I know there is at least another version of this book cover, but I purchased the orange one, so that’s the design I modeled this nail set after. The cover for the version I have was done by Vi-An Nguyen (cover design) and Sarah Bagshaw (cover art), and since I’m basically recreating this design as best as I can, I want to give the artists full credit here.
Whenever I use a sneaker, book cover, or piece of art as a source of inspiration, I fully acknowledge that a lot of the creative heavy lifting of the nail design was done by the artist(s) who created that piece of work. The color combinations, the neon-colored block text, and the irregular shapes did not come from my brain, so I must give credit to whom credit is due. Shout out to Vi-An and Sarah! I clearly love your work.
Layout
This step of The POLISH Method is typically very cut-and-dry for me. 99% of the time, I’m rocking a medium-length almond shape nail. But medium-length square press-on nails were the best fit here because I was following the shape of the actual book. I’m actually really happy I went with square this time around because I forgot how good they can look when executed properly (I’ll talk more about this in the Execution section below). I think, moving forward, if I’m doing a book-cover-inspired set and attempting to directly replicate the cover design, I’ll likely lean toward square nails.
Inventory
You’ll get a complete list of the products I used further down in this post, but to keep a long ting brief, I pulled out a product that I don’t reach for often – the Show Me Korea Powdery Embo Powder. The embo powder is great to use when you want to make a certain element 3D, or when you want to thicken a gel polish a bit so that it stays put before curing when doing nail art.
I also decided that since the book cover is matte, my nails would be (mostly) matte, too (such a copycat!). That said, I used one of my go-to gel matte top coats, Yogurt Nail’s Cotton Matt Top Gel.
Sketch
Below is a picture of my sketch. My notes aren’t actually that messy this time around!
Normally, I like to pull different elements out and let each finger tell a piece of the entire set story, but again, this set told me what it wanted. I decided that the irregular shapes would be different on each nail, so technically, each nail wouldn’t have the same exact design.
Since there wasn’t going to be too much variation between each nail, this wasn’t the time for a “hero nail”, so I opted for a “hero element.” The text on the book cover is bold, all-caps, sans-serif, neon green text. Now, I could have attempted to recreate the text as part of the nail art, but nah. As much as I love nail design, I am still a busy mom who does self-taught nail art, so I didn’t want to spend a ton of time trying to perfect lettering with this set. Instead, I opted for bold, neon green, thick rectangular lines that mimicked the look of the text. The bright neon green makes this design element pop on its own, but I wanted it to literally stand out, which is why I mixed in the embo powder with the gel polish, so I’d get that 3D nail art effect.
Highlight & Harmonize
During the sketching process, I already knew that I was going to use a matte top coat this time around, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about the neon green hero element being matte as well. I wanted it to really be highlighted, so I decided I would use a glossy top coat, just for the hero element, and I think I made the right call.
The Execution
As always, this is a gel polish custom press-on nail set, so I’m going to walk you through how to do gel polish nail art on press-ons. I don’t think I’ve ever even attempted to use nail lacquer for nail art on press-ons because it’s just harder to correct mistakes when the polish starts drying immediately. With gel polish, no design is permanent until you cure it, which makes it less frustrating when doing nail art.
For this set, the design was done mostly with line brushes. The only “special” technique I used was for the hero element. Because the embo powder thickens the gel polish, I am able to manipulate the shape a bit on the nail tip without making a mess. Since I wanted the rectangular lines to have sharp-ish edges, I took a dry lint-free wipe and “pushed” the gel into the exact shape I wanted. One day there will be a link here with a video of how I do it!
Nail by Nail
First step-prep: Buff & etch the nails!
I etch the underside of each nail using an e-file to help create a rough surface area so that the nails stay on for at least 2 weeks once applied. I then buff the top of each nail to ensure the gel polish does not peel off.
There wasn’t much variation within this set, so each nail design was achieved in the same way.
Okay, it’s time to dive into this press-on nail art tutorial.
All Five Nails:
- Clear base coat, 1 coat, cure
- Solid orange polish all over the nail, 3 coats, cure in between each coat
- Major tip here: Make sure to paint very thin coats when polishing the entire nail. Square nails look great when the edges are sharp. Painting on thick coats will create rounded edges which isn’t the look we’re going for here.
- Matte top coat, 1 coat, cure
- Use small flat brush to create on purple abstract shape with gel polish, cure
- Use small brush to lightly go over the purple shape with black gel polish, cure
- Gently mix white, black, and burgundy gel polish (you should still see all colors individually); use a short liner brush to pick of some of the mixed gel polish and create “squiggle” design next to all purple & black shapes on the nail
- Clear builder gel, 1 coat, cure
- Matte top coat, 1 coat, cure
- Mix green gel polish with embo powder until you get the desired consistency (it should be like a loose paste); use a liner brush to create thick, rectangular lines; Take a dry lint-free wipe and use the straight edge of the wipe to push the shape you just created into place so that the corners are sharp and the lines are straight.
- Finishing matte top coat, 1 coat, cure
- Glossy top coat on the neon green rectangular shapes; use a short liner brush to top coat only the green 3D elements, 1 coat, cure
Before you start, a few non-negotiables:
- Always follow the curing instructions based on the safety guidelines for each specific product.
- Use an appropriate UV/LED lamp – at least 48W. Those handheld flashlight ones and tiny 1-nail-at-a-time lamps do not completely cure gel polishes.
- Always wear nitrile gloves at all times when handling gel products!
Here’s a process I never skip when making homemade press-on nails:
- Wipe each nail with a lint-free wipe dampened with 70% isopropyl alcohol.
- Wipe each nail with a lint-free wipe dampened with water and a small amount of Dawn dish soap.
- Do a final wipe down of each nail with a fresh lint-free wipe and 70% isopropyl alcohol.
Doing these three steps gives me peace of mind that any residual inhibition layers are completely wiped off.
The Toolkit
Now that you know how I did this set, I’ll fill you in on all of the products I used below.
Don’t be alarmed! I know it looks like a lot, but most of these things are items you buy just once or a couple of times a year. They’re mostly items you likely already have in your DIY Press-on Nail Design Starter Kit.
Base & Prep:
- Full cover gel nail tips
- Nail stands
- Adhesives to secure the tips to the stand
- Disposable pads to cover the working area
- Nail Drill/E-file
- Nail drill bits
- Nail buffer blocks
- 70% Isopropyl alcohol
- Push-top container for alcohol
- Lint-free wipes
- Clear base coat
- Clear builder gel
- Nitrile gloves
Colors:
- Orange – DND 713 Orange Sherbet
- Blue/Purple – Yogurt Nail Grocery #56 (Denim Jeans)
- Burgundy – PLA-40 Ridiculously Good Looking
- Bright Green – Mix of DND 2520 Area 51 + DND 2523 Garden Games
- Black – DND 888 Master Black
- White – DND 448 Snow Flake
Finishes & Effects:
- 3D Powder – Show Me Korea Powdery Embo Powder
Tools:
Top Coat:
