The WAH Nails Book of Nail Art

The minute I saw that WAH Nails had released a nail art book, it had to be mine. I have been a big fan for ages, and although you can find nail tutorials on the internet, I thought this would be a nice addition to the reference section of my book collection, and also a cool coffee table book.

WAH, for me are one of the originators of funky nail art and I love some of the designs I see popping up on their social media sites.

The book, The WAH Nails Book of Nail Art by Sharmadean Reid is half for the WAH fan, half for the nail art fan. There is background info on the history of WAH with some photos of some of the nails they have done in an Instagram stylee collage, some of their official artwork, cartoon images of 100 of their designs, tutorials for 25 different types of their classic nail designs, blank hands to design your own nails, and some cute WAH nails stickers.

There is info about how to prep your nails and the tools you will need to create their looks. I like that they are quite general about things, even though they endorse the Models Own nail art pens, they don't say 'use a WAH nail art pen do x, y and z' - and they do recommend the odd thing, like my favourite item in the world - Seche Vite.

Each nail tutorial comes with a photo of one of the WAH girls and a bit of info about them. There are also handy hints to change up the design slightly. The tutorials the book includes vary from quite simple to fiddly and complex. They are:

Leopard
Candystripe
Half-moon
Aztec Tribal
Half Stripe
Camouflage
Basketcase
Letterhead
90s Hip Hop
POW!
Fash Life
Stained Glass
Shatter
Zebra
Bows
Roses
Drippy
Eyeball
De Stijl
Graphic Stripe
Lips
Glitter Fade
Marble
Rhinestone Rain
Double Studs

I had a go at some of the designs - here is how my first try turned out.

The Glitter Fade. They used gold glitter, I went for pink. A really simple and effective design - love it, will definitely do it again (and again!) I think it's the kind of design you could keep on all week because if it chips you can easily top up the glitter!

I used Ciate Ghetto Fabulous & nails inc Pinkie Pink

The Eyeball - it was quite fiddly but I really liked how this one turned out too, it's very effective - I may do it for Halloween!

I used Collection 2000 French White, Models Own/WAH nail art pens in black, blue and white, & Revlon Cherries in The Snow with a brush for the red

Drippy - I think this is my favourite - I really love it and it was so easy to do. I think it would look cool with all the nails painted a different colour too.

I used Barry M Pink Flamingo & Models Own/WAH nail art pen in black

The Rose - I like it, but think I need to practise my technique with the nail art pens to perfect this.

I used Collection 2000 French White, OPI Do You Lilac It? OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, Revlon Cherries in The Snow, Models Own Jade Stone & Models Own/WAH nail art pen in black

The POW! - this one didn't turn out great, again, I think I need to practise my technique with the nail art pens and also realise that I needed to wait for the white to be completely dry before I tried to write on it. Next time...

I used OPI Ogre The Top Blue, & Models Own/WAH nail art pens in black and white

Because that one I hadn't turned out as planned, I removed it and tried a different design - the Shatter - it has a gradient of blue to yellow under the shatter, and in the book they used black shatter polish over the top, but when I opened mine it had turned to a solid lump which is totally unusable, so I went for the only other shatter polish I had which was gold. I think the colours go nicely together and this would be great for a beachy look.

I used OPI Ogre The Top Blue, Ciate Lemon Sherbert & OPI Gold Shatter

The book is priced at £9.99 but I ordered mine from Sainsbury's for £6.99 including delivery, it arrived really quickly. If you're a WAH fan, or want to get more creative with your nail art - this one's for you!