Watch my nail art videos to get this look: Easy Donuts with Sprinkles DIY Long Gel Nails
Most of you know I can’t shut up about Apres Nails gel extensions and how I love them so much. I decided to do my first ever youtube how-to do DIY nail art on the subject (and then a few more!). In these easy nail art videos, I’m going to show you my nail art tutorial, how to apply the Chaun Legend’s XXL Pink colored gel nails, then show you how to do my “donuts with sprinkles” nail art. I’ll also be including the text version of the tutorial and include the where to buy links for the how to nail art video, AS WELL AS where to go get similar products (if you’re on a budget). In addition, I’m also going give away A FREE VECTOR FROSTING STENCIL you can use just in case you can’t freehand the art.
Watch the Nail Art Videos below:
Looks easy! It really is! Apres nail extensions are the best of the best as far as quality goes. And this only took me about 30 minutes to do the two nails, about an hour for the full set.
Supplies List for Nail Art & Apres gel Extensions:
(fyi, these are paid links below, I’d love if if you buy here as I make a small commission! if you’re wondering why I prefer ordering off of amazon, its because their products arrive faster and sometimes apres is sold out)
You can also get all of these products below in my Amazon Store!
- Apres Nails Ph Bonder – looking for a less expensive product? Here’s another ph bonder and primer I’d also recommend as a bundle
- Apres Nails Gel Primer
- Apres Nails Sensitive Gel X
- Apres Nails Diamond X topcoat – OR BUY THESE 4 PRODUCTS IN A BUNDLE AND SAVE!
- Apres Nails get color in French White (white) – looking for a less expensive product? Try this White gel color instead
- Apres Nails gel color in Electric Lolita (flouresent pink) – want a less expensive color? Try this pink instead
- Apres Nails gel color in Once and Floral (lilac) – want a less expensive lavender? Try this color instead
- Apres Liner brush ( I like the Apres liner brush) – want less expensive liner brushes? try these instead
- Acetone – 100%
- Nail file or nail drill – This is the one I have had in use for a couple years now… and I love it!
- Curing light – I recommend this brand ….
- Stone for placing small amounts of color – optional- (I used a plastic lid!) but just ordered this one
- and don’t forget your Chaun Legend XXL long nails! (or any of these apres gel nails will do)
DOWNLOAD THE FREE STENCIL FILE HERE
Instructions:
Step 1 – File Nails
Step 2 – Apply Ph Bonder
Step 3 – Select Nail Tips
Step 4 – Apply Gel Primer
Step 5 – Apply Gel to Nails
Step 6 – cure nails
Step 7 – apply gel to tip
Step 8 – Apply tip to Nail and cure nails while pressing
Step 9 – apply base color & cure nails
Step 10 – Add white frosting and cure
Step 11 – Add the sprinkles!
Nail Art Video Transcript from video:
Hi everybody. I’m Sarah. I have a channel called Sarah the Maker, and my design channel called Fake Gold Watch. Today I wanna show you how to do donut nails. So I’ve got my nails here that I’ve done, previously, and I’ve got two nails that came off because, , you’re gonna laugh at this, y’all. My dog actually, , \likes to chew on my nails when I’m sleeping.
And so they got ruined, so I removed them and , I’m gonna file them down and show you how to apply the Apres nails also. And then I’m gonna show you how to do the cute donut designs that you see here. , I’ve got my pink donut with white frosting and sprinkles, so I hope you enjoy this video.
And if you like this video, 📍 📍 📍 📍 please take a moment and smash that like button and hit subscribe to my channel. If you do, I will send you free stuff and all kinds of how-tos and show you how to do all the things that I’m doing. All right, so let’s get started. I’m gonna quickly go through my list of materials.
Everything you see here today that’s laid out is everything that you’ll need if you wanna get this look at home. So I told you I’m a fan of Apres Nails. I’m using the 📍 pH bonder, which is the nail dehydrate. So you put that on after you file. And it dries out your nail so you can apply the gel.
The next thing I’m going to use, which I’m gonna show you, is the 📍 Gel X Prep. This is an acid free tip primer. This is really great. It makes it so you don’t have to file that nail because sometimes filing the smaller nails can be a little bit tricky and you can ruin the integrity of the outside of the nail.
So we’ll use this bonder. You don’t have to use it. You can file instead if you like. And then I’m gonna be using today the extend gel sensitive formula. This is the gel that you put on your nail that adheres the nail to
the tip
that you put on your nail and then you dry it and then it adheres the nail tip to
your nail.
And then I’m going to go over it with a 📍 top coat. I love this top coat. It’s Apres gel top coat. It’s a scratch resistant. It’s amazing. If you can’t tell by now, I’m a huge fan of Apres nails. I buy. probably way too much of their stuff and I spend probably way too much of my own money on it, but I absolutely love it.
To me it’s the best nail product that they make out there right now. And I love that you can add long tips and get the long nail look that you like without having to build the gel yourself and do all of that or file down acrylic nails. It just saves me so much time. The colors I’m gonna be using today.
And you can choose your own colors, right? You don’t have to use the same colors, but if you want this exact look, then these are the colors that I’m using. So this is the French manicure set. I like the French because they have the angled tips. I’ll show you over the quick here. 📍 I love the angled tip.
See how that’s a little bit different? So their French set has these they were selling a ton of these and a ton of different colors and styles over last summer. 📍 So this color is once in floral. Get it? I love the pun. That’s my lavender and that’s what I’m gonna use for sprinkles. And then I’m using
fluorescent pink from their fluorescent line. It’s called Electric Lolita. So that’s what you put on first. And then I’ve got the white from their French manicure. Set. And this is a French and white is what they call it. So I love their white. And then the other things I’ve got today is I’ve got this box of 📍 Apres Gel X.
This is a special edition, Chaun Legend. This is a sculpted square double X long nail. I just got these in the mail, so I’m super excited to put on this extra long nail. This is the first time I’ve actually had the really long ones. I’ve been using the the mediums and the longs prior to this. So this is just for comparison.
This is the natural square medium. And what’s great about these styles that they have is that they already come colored. So you can pick all different colors, you can You know, save yourself a ton of time and just wear them as is. You don’t even have to go over them with paint. But, you know, I love my nail art.
So that’s what I’m gonna do today. Also I’ve got 📍 a liner brush, and this is actually an opera liner brush. This is the long liner. And then I’m gonna be using a shorter liner as well. So I’ve got kind of this tip and then I might pull. One of these guys also. So I’ve got a couple different options that way I don’t have to, you know, clean the brush in between.
And then I also have, over here is my jar of acetone. So I can wash brushes in between. And and then I’ve got this, I didn’t have my stone. I couldn’t find my stone, I found like a, 📍 a lid of an inside of like another lid and just used it. This is plastic. It’ll work for today. Not my usual, but it gets the job done.
So, you know, when you’re doing your detail work or your line work, you just put some of the color right on top of that and just put it out there, and then you can just. Dip your brush into it, so it makes it a lot easier. So I’m gonna set this all aside now. Oh, the other two things that I have here is 📍 my drill which is what I’m gonna use to file my nails down before I apply the nail.
And then of course, 📍 a curing light. So these are all the things that you’ll need. And let’s get started. So, all right, the first thing I’m gonna start out doing, I’ve got two nails that need applying and that’s the ones that I’m gonna demo. So I’m gonna file these two nails down. And then we’ll go from. 📍 So, I don’t know if you wanna watch my filing technique.
I just go over it really gently just so you can basically take off that top layer. You just want to get a nice, like rough surface on the nail. You don’t wanna over file. I have thin nails, so I’m really careful about overfil and that’s why I like to do my own nails. But I have mad respect for all of my nail artist friends out there.
I just like to do my own. I don’t want anyone filing my nails down too much, so I’m gonna get a nice rough surface. I did file these a little bit before and I did prep my cuticle a little bit before, so you might wanna do that as well. And I’m gonna file this one down. This one has like a broken edge, so I’m just gonna fix that, clean up that edge.
I’m gonna set my nail, my file aside, 📍 and then the next thing I’m gonna do is take this pH bonder. And I’m gonna apply it to these two nails so it dries out that nail
and set it aside. And then the next thing I’m gonna do is select my nails from this box. So the ones that I’ve got here, the sculpted square, long or extra x, x long I don’t know. I’m gonna show you what the difference between a sculpted and a natural nail. I actually have a combination of both on my hands.
So some of my nails are flat, some are more sculpted. So this is the. You can see the difference between the two. This is a sculpted angle, so, or a sculpted. It’s way more curved than this one, which is much more flat.
So this is the natural. And then this is the sculpted, and these are the two styles that they make. 📍 So for today, since I’ve got the sculpted Chaun Legend nails, I’m gonna use the sculpted ones.
And then I also sometimes like to just flatten this piece out a little bit on the bottom. It helps me apply it a little bit easier, helps me get that gel on there. And then I’ve got my other size over here. So these are the sizes that I already sized for my pants. . This is gonna go right here. This one I think is a eight, and then the smallest.
I have tiny, tiny fingers. So this is a nine. So those are the sizes that I’m using. And then instead of filing these down, cuz these are the two smallest ones, and filing can be a little bit tricky I usually do it, but I do wanna show you the Gel X prep. So let’s use that and we’re 📍 gonna put this primer right on the part that would stick to your nail.
and we’re gonna get that surface nice and rough by applying it. And what it does is it kind of makes it sticky. It roughs up the nail a little bit and it makes it perfect for the gel. Apply a little here to my pinky.
There we go. So those are ready to go now. Apres also makes these new sizes that they just came out with. So they’ve got like a 6.5 or a six and a half size. Six and a half. I love that they have the half sizes for some of their nails now. It makes it easier for people like me that have different size nails, not as big as some people to get just the right size.
So these are. Refill bags that you can buy. If you don’t wanna buy the whole set and you already know what sizes you have you just buy these refills. They’re great. They’re fairly inexpensive. I think it’s about $3 and like, I wanna say 19 cents for each. So the next thing I’m gonna do is I’m gonna put the gel, 📍 the sensitive gel on my actual nail, and then I’m gonna cure it.
So I’m just applying enough to cover the nail, but I want a decent size coat
that looks good to me.
There.
So now I’m gonna 📍 cure it. You only have to cure this for 30 seconds. 📍 📍
📍
All right. I feel like these are probably quite cured, see? All right, so the next thing I’m gonna do is 📍 I’m gonna put the sensitive gel on the back of my nail that I’m gonna apply. I wanna get a good amount, but not too much. , that’s probably good. And then I’m gonna do this one.
It’s probably more than I need. Be surprised you don’t need as much as you think you. , sometimes I’ll use a little bit more on the sculpted nail. And then the way that 📍 I apply this is I put it on my nail, I make sure it’s straight, and then I press it down. So I’m gonna do that in the lamp. You might not be able to see it so well, but I’m gonna try to show you how I get that angle.
I know for me, when I first started doing these, it was really tricky to try to get them right, get them straight, make sure that they were on all the way. It definitely took me a few tries. The one thing I wanna mention any of the nails that come pre colored, you wanna actually cure those for 60 seconds.
Sometimes I’ll even do up to 90 because it takes a little bit more curing to get through versus the clear nails. So the clear nails you only need to do for 30 seconds usually.
Great. That one on nicely, I’m gonna just give it a little bit of an extra cure here just to make sure it’s on and super dry.
Sometimes I’ll even rotate my hand a little bit in the lamp just to make sure it gets all of the light and that my big ha other hand isn’t blocking the nail from drying or any of the gel from drying underneath that color.
I feel like that feels really dry. See, it’s on perfectly. And then next I’m gonna apply this. So I’ve got a good straight application. I’m gonna press it down and then I’m gonna put it under the lamp.
Now I’m curing the second nail.
Sometimes I’ll even move my thumb around a little bit under the light just to make sure my thumb’s not covering up. Some of that gel be really careful about it. I’ll then usually move my thumb a little bit back and I try to apply as much pressure as I kind of. To make sure that there aren’t any bubbles.
Oh, these are looking good. I’m so excited. So now, if I was in a hurry, I might. Put these nails on and go since they’re already pre colored, which is just something that I absolutely love about Apres Nails. All right, these cured. Cool. So you can see I’ve got my two nails on now. They look great.
I don’t see any bubbles in there. I don’t see any spaces They’re on pretty straight.
All right, so that would be the way that you would just apply these extensions if you wanted to leave them as is. 📍 I’m gonna take it a step further and do the nail art. So I’m 📍 gonna start out with my pink base color, and I’m left-handed mostly, but I’m gonna do this with my right hand. I’ve gotten pretty decent at doing both.
going up left-handed. You have to do a lot of things right-handed. So I’ve found that in some ways I’m probably a little bit ambidextrous. I’m gonna do one nice thin coat and then do another thin coat. Oops, I got a little bit extra around. That’s okay. I’m gonna show you how to clean that up.
In just a second. Let me do my other one. My pinky.
Make sure I get the edges the top really well. Sometimes doing a pinky is kind of hard to see. This side over here. You wanna make sure it’s covered.
Oops. Got this guy. Okay, and now I’m gonna clean up the edges of this one. So what I usually do is I grab a brush, I just dip it in my
acetone, and then I just clean up the edges like so.
So you don’t have to be perfect because none of us are perfect, even though we try, right? We certainly try, right? So those look good to go to me. I’m gonna cure them. I’m gonna do a little bit more than 30 seconds. And then while I’m curing, I’m actually gonna add some of these color. Over here, since I’ve got this one out, I’m gonna add a little bit of pink to my,
my lid. Normally it would be my stone. Do a little bit of white since we’re gonna do that next. Can’t do it one-handed. It’s okay. This is nearly done curing. I’m gonna give about a little bit of extra time. Let’s see if I can do this one. One-handed. Ah, see, there we go.
Multitasking. Y’all add some color to that lid that I’ve got. Great. These are done, Carrie. Actually, it looks like I’ve got enough nail color on here to where I don’t need to do a second coat, so I’m just gonna do the one coat, put that aside, and then 📍 next we’re gonna do the white.
Looks like I’m running low on white. I’m gonna add some white. dish hair, which you can hardly see cuz it blends in white, which is why I really like having that stone. Now I’m gonna show you how to make the, the frosting. So typically I’ll do like a drip or like a circle, like a round shape. So I start at the bottom and then I’ll make like the line up so you can see how I did.
and then I’ll do maybe a little lower on the other side.
So I wanna match my other nail if I can a little bit. They don’t have to match. Kind of give it a round circle, give it that round frosting vibe. Great. And then I’m just gonna paint up the nail.
Let’s see. Let’s fill this in so it’s a little bit more round in here. Let’s do these guys a little bit more round. Now, if I had a wider nail, I might do more of like drip style, but since these are my little nails, I’m just gonna keep it kind of round and like a natural frosting shape would.
Looks like frosting to me. Okay, let’s do the other one. So I’m gonna repeat what I just did. Let’s get a good angle here. Do kind of a round drip down here.
Extend that up. and then I’ll do another little round rip. Now, you could also use maybe like a more circular brush. However you’re comfortable getting your circles on here is all that matters. See, so I’ve got that circle. Now I’m just gonna extend up the nail and fill it in.
Make sure I get this edge over here. Always guilty of not getting that edge. All right, so I’ve got my frosting look so you can see how that looks. And now I’m just gonna cure it for another 30 seconds.
You can also check out my website, which is 📍 sarah the maker.com or even fake Gold Watch will get you there. That’s Sarah with an h s a r e h, the t h e maker, m a k e r.com. And I’ve got tons of tutorials and how-tos and where to buy all of this. I’ve also got the transcript so you can just read it read the steps along and I’ll make a blog post for it.
All right, now here’s the fun part, 📍 adding the sprinkles. So I’m gonna take a Langer brush and I’m gonna do the white first,
all right, now that I’ve got the things I’m gonna add my sprinkles. So we’ll start with the white. I’ve got kind of a funny angle going here.
Maybe I’ll do like there’s a little line here. Maybe do one over here.
There. Do one over here. Do one.
Let’s see. Let me get the right angle. Get lots of weight on my brush so I can just touch the nail with the like, so see, and then do one here. Is there some white sprinkles? I’m gonna use a different line of brush for the pink sprinkles, which I’m gonna do next.
Just do a couple sprinkles, like so do a different angle.
Make my cute sprinkles. Now. I’ll do this. Now
let’s get more.
The angle’s a little tricky here. Let’s see. There we go. Just touch it
and it creates that nice line. There pink sprinkles are done. Okay. And I like this brush, so I’m gonna actually clean it and use it for the lavender. So there we go. Ready? Do the lavender. Now I’m gonna put the lavender on the pink and the white area. So, oops. Maybe do like one right here. We could kind of go anywhere at random.
One there. One here, one there.
Let’s see. Then I’ll do the pinky. So we’ll do, let me get that right. Angle one there, one here, one there, and then maybe one like here and there. . So there we go. So now all I have to do is just cure this for another 30 seconds
and then I’m gonna add the top gel coat x, that’s the Apres X top gel coat and it’s scratch resistant, which I love. You can see it on some of my other nails that I’ve got. I’ve been wearing these for a couple days. No scratches.
All right, so they should be cured. I might do just a couple extra seconds just because the dots are a little bit thicker, so I just wanna make sure they’re cured before I put on my top coat.
All right. That should be good. All right, 📍 so just the top coat and then we’re gonna be done. See, that wasn’t so hard. I feel like you could do this at home. I’ve been doing my nails now for God, I don’t know, 20 years
maybe.
So just apply that top coat and scoot this out of the way.
Apply the top coat.
All righty. Don’t they look cute? I love these donuts. They remind me of donuts. All right, so I’m just gonna cure this for a little bit longer and get that top coat nice and hard, and I’ll show you the final product. Now I don’t have to wipe this top coat down, I’ve noticed also, which is super great.
Thank you, Apres.
So usually it should take about 30 seconds. Like I said, sometimes I cure it for just a little bit longer. I don’t know if it’s a slight or what, but I wanna make sure they’re nice and dry.
All right. That should be good. . So here you go. That’s the final product. What do you think? Cute. If you like it again, please subscribe to my channel. Hit the like button and I will keep making more videos. Here’s all of them together, aren’t they? So cute. I just love.
📍 If anybody wants, please request certain nail styles and I will try to show you how to do them. All right. Thanks for tuning in. I’ll see you next time.
