I have tried this technique a while ago in a pedi, but never attempted a manicure before. There was definitely some trial and error involved. First, I'll tell you how I did this, and then try and give you some tips!
First I started with one coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls... let's take a second while I gush about this polish... Perfect grey-ish white, great formula, love it! I had seen a lot of my favorite nail art bloggers use this polish over and over again so I knew I would have to get it. Every white polish I have ever used is really so streaky and annoying to use, but this one went on very nicely and was so easy to work with. I didn't have to put it on thick just to cover the streaks. I highly recommend it!
Okay, back to the design. I started with one coat of My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and then one finger at a time I added a second slightly thicker coat of the polish (so it wouldn't dry too quickly on me while I was working). I didn't glob it on, but I put on a thicker coat than I would have for just normally painting my nails.
When it was wet, I had my Finger Paints Ch-Art-Coal Black Striper open and ready to go, and put on 4 or 5 stripes diagonally up the nail. These do not have to be neat looking stripes, as you can see by my picture below. These stripes should be a little on the thicker side as well so that it blends together and it makes the next step a bit easier. Again, you don't have to glob it on, but I noticed that if I used really thin stripes without much polish I didn't like the final product as well.
As soon as you finish adding your stripes, grab a needle and drag from the bottom corner of your nail, on a diagonal outward to the tip of your nail. Repeat this process until you have the desired look that you want.
A few tips that I have is to use a light touch when dragging the needle across your nail. I noticed if I wasn't steady and pushed too hard that I would get some of my bare nail to show underneath. I tried to do this technique with a toothpick and it wouldn't work for me. Every time I tried it with a toothpick I could see SO MUCH of my bare nail, and it didn't blend the colors as well. I know some people have used toothpicks before, but it just wouldn't work for me at all.
Finally, I added a coat of Seche Vite to smooth everything out, and added little orange rhinestones into the corners of my nails. Thanks for looking!
Wow, very cool looking. You make it look so easy!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! You should give it a try... it's not as hard as you would think! :)
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