How to Build Short Nails That Look Expensive | Dimensional Nails

Have you ever tried to do a dimensional encapsulated nail on an active length nail? Well today I'm going to show you how you could accomplish that from start to finish and it not look super bulky. So let's get started. Okay so what we're going to do here I have an example. Her nail here is actually the length all her other ones were. This one kind of broke so we're going to extend just a little bit. So what I'm going to do is push back her cuticles and again you're not putting pressure you're just using the magic wand to show you where your protein, tritium and protein growth is. I'm going to take my arbor band and you can have it on six or seven. I am going to go around the cuticle and I'm not putting any pressure. All I'm doing is making contact and I'm doing this without my dust extractor because I want you to see how little of pressure and how little you actually prep right. You just have to cover the whole ground of the nail and from there I'm going to dust this off. I'm going to come in with my cuticle bit and I'm just going to go over it a little bit and I will do it at the end as well. So she has a little dry skin here. I'll come right here and you could see how much is actually coming off. Now the reason why this bit is very important see how tight and how close I could get with her prep. It ensures your adhesion around the perimeter of the nail for sure when you use this bit. Dust it off and then come in with swipe to change your pH balance. So I am going to protein bond both nails so there's two coats of protein bond. You know I may just extend a little bit there so let's go ahead and get two forms. I'm going to kind of come down and pinch it a little so you could see the c-curve going to come in and it doesn't matter if it's touching the other side. I'm really focusing on right here. So I'm going to use my clear sculptor in the pot. It's going to stay exactly where I want it and I could get it as thin as I would like. So this is my preference. You can also use clear sculptor in the tube. This is more a little more runny than this one. So what I like to do is I like to overextend it so I could trim it to where it will match her neighbor nail or her other pointer finger. So a lot of times I'll come like this see how I kind of bend her finger and I could see how much shorter this nail is. So I have it on one side of my brush and I am going to get it off my brush here and watch how I take a right on top of it. So I'm on top of my gel and I'm going to pivot my brush as I get to the side to connect it. So do you see how my product's always towards where I want to leave my product. This side there's no product on it because it's the outer perimeter of it. So it kind of isolates all your gel into one location. It's much easier to work with like that. Now notice how I brought it out a lot thinner. What that does is going to ensure that I could make it the same length as this and also keep my free edge very thin. So I'm going to wipe my brush and then I'm going to line it up with her sidewall, drag it straight, drag it straight, and then I'm going to go ahead and line up the cuticle to see how far I could go and or that I need to wipe and I'm going to wipe about right here. Maybe a tad bit shorter right here. Now the key is you don't have much room to where you don't have a bulky nail. So you want to make it as thin as possible. So see how you can see a little thickness right here. I am now going to do this again. Wipe your brush. It's a tad bit longer. I could come in a little bit more but you'll see how thin my free edge is now. I like to get it as thin as possible. This is the key to a successful encapsulated nail. Okay. You actually could fix all the nails at once because it is a thicker product so it's not going to run anywhere. It's going to stay exactly where you put it. So you could do all five fingers if it needs it. Okay. Wipe. I'm going to wipe off of this and I'm focusing just on the free edge. So I'm going to come right here, bring it down a little, wipe my brush and come in from the side and then come straight with your nail. So what I'm going to do is use my pink here. You could also have them go under the light if you would like while you're doing the other side. I'll cure it for 30 seconds. And the reason why I pin cured it, if she accidentally hits her form when she's going under the light, it's not going to move it and cure how I left it originally. So I like to pin cure it so it kind of starts the hardening process, the curing process, and that way she'll enter successfully and come out great. I won't have to fix anything. So now I'm going to come in with base synergy gel and I am going to base from cuticle to free edge. What this is going to do is prep with the base and hold on to my extension at the same time. So a lot of times I like to start down here where it connects and then I work my way back. Once I have it everywhere I want, I'm going to put pressure on my bristles here on her natural nail and bring it through. Okay, I am going to cure this for 30 seconds. So I like to take off my form right to where it wants to stop. That's right where I ended my gel. So I like to push right where it connects. You could go back and forth to kind of remove the form easily and then come up under. So there's just one side that's connected here. So I'm going to push right here underneath like you're going to separate it. So this is your best end to do it with. Come under and remove. Now I am going to come in with my nippers and I'm going to line it up with my sidewall. So this is her sidewall right here. Trim that off and you don't have to make it perfect. Just get it kind of close. Okay so now it's a little longer than that side but it doesn't matter. I want to leave it that way. Don't try to make it perfect because you could end up cutting off too much and have to reapply. So I'm going to start with my sides right here. Okay I'm going to line up her cuticle again. You can see how much longer it is. Not much. I'm going to come in right here and you'll actually see how much broke of her nail and how much her nail bed drew back. It's very common for your nail bed to do that. If you rip off your nail or kind of injure it, it does that but it'll go grow adhered great after that. So let's see. It's still a tad bit so I'm going to go a little bit shorter. It doesn't have to be perfect. I just want to get it close. So see how I like to build it out a little longer and then look at how thin my free edge is. That's what you want to achieve. So what I'm going to do is use a gel polish for the background and this color is called Hold My Baby. So this was just like really thinning it out for me on my bristles. So I'm going to start here and then start about right here and watch how I push my bristles up and come straight down. Now this doesn't have to be like perfect. It just has to have the color in the background and if you see any imperfections in your extension like it's a little dip or something, you're not going to see it because you're going to add. So you're just creating a background. Okay, so see how that doesn't look perfect there? I don't even, it really doesn't matter. I'm going to put a little bit of color right there, just a little, but you don't have to whip out the gel to perfect it. See how I just use a little thing here and you don't have to use your concealer pink. There's a piece of my form on there. Okay, go ahead and cure it for one full minute. Okay, so she cured one minute and this is what she's left with. I want you to look at it close. See how there's like some imperfections? That does not matter. Okay, it doesn't matter even if there's a little polish missing right there because I'm going to add. If you keep trying to add, you're going to build layers and you end up filing everything out. What I'm going to do from here is take my base, my synergy base. When you use a soft gel gel polish in your dimension, in your dimensional nails, I don't want you to worry about your imperfections here. The stuff I'm going to add like the nail next to it, it's going to camouflage all that and it's going to look perfect at the end and it doesn't look like you could see any mistakes or anything or something you didn't full coverage. Now this polish is a non-tack when it's fully cured. So I'm going to come in with synergy base and I'm just going to wet it on here. You don't need to put a lot. So see my bristles, how I'm pushing it down. You want to keep your layers very thin. Cure this for 30 seconds. So what I'm going to do is get some of my pieces out and I'm going to take some gold out. There's some rose gold. Okay I'm going to get my orange wood stick and I like to work with just like torn pieces. I don't like them really bulky. I like them to go to a point. That's just me. I like how it flows. So what I'll do is I'll come in right here, place that down. Another piece. So there's really no wrong or right way to do this. You just use your imagination. But I do like a point to it. It makes a huge difference in the appearance of the nail not looking so bulky. I'm going to kind of come in at an angle here. So I'll show you how I'm going to make these not look so chunky. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put my little rubber thing on my protector. So therefore I'm not touching nail product. I'm going to use another gold piece here. Okay I like this. Okay I like that piece. Let's come in here with this one. Don't follow your pattern from the other one. Kind of change it up a little. I'm going to put this big piece right here. I'm going to kind of do something neat with that. Okay so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to come in and kind of draw or cut into it a little. Okay I like that. Maybe right here a little bit. So it's going to give it a little bit of a dimension in there. So see the flatness of it? It's very thin. Okay let's come in here. I feel like I want to come right here. That one looks cool. This one's probably going to be my favorite. I always have favorite ones. Okay I am going to pan cure this like about five seconds each. They could go under the light as you do your other hand but if you're only working on one hand or one dimension you might as well just pick up your little pin cure. Okay so what that's doing is curing it into the base layer and holding on to it. Let's make sure our sides are clean. So next step. So you're going to be using your base throughout all the layers. Base really sticks on to everything very very well. It's my favorite to use in between my dimensional or encapsulation layers. So I'm lightly going to come down with this and encapsulate this a little bit. Seal it in basically. I'm not encapsulating it yet. I'm sealing it in. Okay what I'm going to do from here. Let me wipe my brush. I'm going to leave it wet. So I'm going to come in with my glitters. I'm going to use a little bit of crushed pearl, a wedding rumors, and a hint of numerino. So these are my colors I'm going to use. So if you notice I'm using three different sizes and cuts. That's going to give it a dimensional effect already. I'm using like a foil like a more metal color. So that's going to give it an effect. This is going to look like it's coming out when it's encapsulated and this is these little foils are going to make it look deep. Okay the first thing I'm going to do is come in with my crushed pearls and I don't want to overpower it. I just want to come in in little spots. So see how this kind of accented it right there and then I'll come over here and let's kind of get it here and maybe on the edge here. So you don't want to use it everywhere. You just kind of want to put it wherever you think it looks good and you'll see me kind of move my fingers in different directions to see where I want to add a little bit more. Okay let's dust this off. Now let's go into our fine one here and kind of go in a little different spots. Now you may not notice this right now but you will notice it when you encapsulate it. Okay it looks like I'm not putting anything on. This is where I think a lot of people like they say you know I put too much stuff on I really couldn't see the dimension. It's because you really can't see it when you're adding it too much. Know it's there. When you encapsulate it, it magnifies it. So what I'm going to do from here is wet my brush a little and I'm going to get little pieces of my mylar and this is going to add another dimension. Can you see how that looks right there? So it's really going to accent the dimensional nail and I'm using three different types. Hold on I'm going to pour a little bit out right here. I usually use a paper towel for this. It's really easy to pick up at that point but I'm going to have my table towel here and it will pick it up fairly easy. There you go. I'm kind of picky with my pieces because see how the reflection is? How it's different? You could put them wherever you would like. Really you could go a little faster. It's completely up to you. Okay see this one how it's chunky? I really don't want to use that how it's bent. I want more of the flatter pieces and shorter nails. Okay let's cure these for 30 seconds. Once they come out from the 30 seconds I'm going to use my base again. You can just go in and encapsulate it but I find it's easier to encapsulate it especially if you're newer to encapsulation. To put a little sticky layer here of base. This is also going to seal in everything very well and as you could see the layers I did it's a very fine line of what I'm going to encapsulate it with or how much. So I'm going to put it a little thicker but when I e-file it they'll come down a little and they'll all match. I'm just going to flash set this. Really it just needs a few seconds so it doesn't move. So now I'm going to add clear sculptor. I'm going to use fizz. I'm going to start with a little bit on my brush or not my brush my spatula. So the reason why I'm using a color to one is I could see how cloudy I'm making it and if I use it real thin I could see how much it's going to cloud. So because she has a shorter dimensional nail I am going to go a little more white because I'm not going to build it as high. I'll end up filing it out so I want it to look the white I want it to look when I file it. So let me show you what I mean. See how that cloud is right there? I like that. So that's probably what it's going to look like after it all comes together. So what I'm going to do is pick up some of my white and I'm just going to organically place it however I want it to go. Like there's really no messing up with this. You just use your imagination. I may add to it but I'm going to come in at a different angle here so I think I'm going to come in through here. So really there isn't any messing up. If you feel like you covered too much I'll show you what to do. Let's I think I want it more white here but let's say we want to kind of expose a little more there. You could come in and add it wherever you want or take whatever you want off. I'm going to show a little bit more of that. Oh I like that a lot. Okay from there what I'm going to do is get my micro detailer and I'm going to dip it in my fizz and sometimes I like to use my thumb and I'll go inside my gel. This is going to kind of give it like a little different dimension. Kind of like a little vein and kind of wiggle it there. Oh that kind of looks cool. So really you could see you're just using your imagination. There's no really wrong or right way. I think I'm going to come in through here too. Perfect. I am going to go under the light for 30 seconds. So now I'm going to encapsulate her nails with build pink. So it may look a little thicker at this point. It obviously is going to be but you have to file to shape it and there's that fine line with short nails. Like longer nails you're always going to get like a really deep dimension but by layering how we're doing now you will have like it'll look like more layers. So it doesn't bother me that the product is a little thicker because you're going to be able to file it. What matters is that you have your perimeter clean. So I'm going to have her go in for 30 or even 15 to tell you the truth because all I'm doing is stopping it from moving. Okay so I'm going to come in with my second nail and lightly touch it and I like to use a circular motion to one side and circular to the other and if you notice how I pivot my brush all the side that has the product on it is always facing to where I want my product to go. I never come out like this with it. It's always facing. Let's make sure that it's tight and now we'll final cure these both for one full minute. So I'm going to file them all into place and come back before I top coat or have to make any adjustments. So I finished filing them and I'm going to show you the results. If I need to make any adjustments I will. I don't think that I filed out anything but if I did I would add it. Okay so let's check it out. I really you can't really see it that great while it's matte like that so I'm going to come in with my protein bond. I'm going to put a little bit of the top coat on here because I don't see anything. I'm going to bring this out just in case. Okay I did save some of this color in case I wanted to make it more white. So what I'm going to do I'm going to get some of the soft gel base and just to wet it. Okay so I'm going to kind of wipe the majority off. The reason why I'm doing this is so I could see if I need to add and I could add it into this layer. Actually I don't need to add but I want to add one thing. I want to add a vein a little bit more of a vein on one of them or a couple of them. Okay so let's give it a little more texture here. I'm going to get a little bit of my fizz and I'll put it on my thumb like I had it because it's just easier for me to work with. I'm pretty sure there's a ring here somewhere for this but that's okay. It's kind of a speed technique here. So I'm going to come in right here and the wet gel not cured looks cool. It looks a little more white than I would like it so it's not messed up though. I like the vein there. I'm just going to come here with my brush and thin it out a little thinner. There we go. And I'm just going to pin cure her fingernail and come in with my final top coat. All right so let's go under for one full minute. Okay now these are cured for one full minute. I'm just going to make sure she doesn't have anything on her sides. So I kind of check her side wall and make sure it's not sharp anywhere. Just kind of fixing them up. Okay now one more thing to do. I am going to use my safety bit again. I'm going to put it on like 12,000 on 12. And I'm going to hold it as an angle at an angle I should say and lightly touch it. So what this is doing is just making sure it's very thin at the tip to where it looks almost like her natural nail. So as you could see down the barrel of her nail here you could see how thin they are. Can you see that? I put my finger here so you could actually see the thinness. So I hope you enjoyed this encapsulation creating a dimension video on Shorter Nails Active Length and have fun with it. Thank you!