So after my polishing binge last night, I ended up with Kieko on all of my nails and decided to spend a few extra minutes to make something quick on my middle fingers. I got asked by a few people on Instagram how I did this design so I decided to put together a quick little pictorial to share how easy it can be for you to have it as well!
Since it was getting late I decided to use some of the striping tape I got from Amazon instead of spending the time to hand cut painter's tape like I usually do. This tape is super cheap (thought it can take a little while shipping wise) so I didn't feel too bad using it in this way. You'll need 3 colors for this design and to make things easier, a small paint brush (striping brush works as well). You can always use the polish brush as well, though you'll have to be very meticulous to make it happen (or use thicker stripes).
1. Create an 'X' with your striping tape across the middle of your nail.
2. Carefully create 'V' shapes with additional tape in triangles of the X. If the tape is being finicky I'll use tweezer to grab each strip so my greasy/sweaty/clumsy fingers don't have to. This will also help keep the tape from losing its tackiness before getting it on your nail.
3. Dollop out the colors you'll be painting on. I recently started using the cap of a contact lens container to dollop my polish and I'm liking how it's working so far. I used to just dap the polish onto a piece of paper but I found I had to work REALLY quickly because the polish would dry so fast. This seems to reduce the dry time. That being said, this step is up to you for how you procede.
4. Choosing one of the colors and your choice of brush, paint in the negative space created by the tape. If you're paying attention, you'll see I totally failed on my design when I first painted this on. No harm done though. I easily painted over this with my silver glitter and problem solved.
5. Using the other color, paint in the final negative area on the nail being careful to not overlap what you've already painted. If I'm using a glitter based polish I like to paint this last so that when I remove the tape, it's had less time to dry and therefore less change of the polish 'tearing' when you pull the tape up. It helps to make a cleaner line.
6. Carefully remove the tape.
7. Wait for the polish to dry slightly before adding a top coat to help reduce streaking.
This look took me about 15 minutes total so if you've got the time and patience, it's definitely a doable mani and an easy way to add something unexpected. Let me know if there are any questions or if you think you'd ever be up for trying something like this! :)
Happy Polishing.
