Painting nails is a form of art, but every day you paint them one singular colour is another day that you are missing the chance to add a bit of art and flair to your nails.
With visits to the salon on hold right now, you may think you can’t have sexy nails, that you are stuck with the old boring ones for now. Of course, you might feel like you need all those fancy brushes, tools, and the professional skills of a nail artist. But, there are actually countless ways you can decorate your nails with a combination of colours, shapes, drawings, and interestingly enough – using tape. Sounds complicated? Not at all, it is actually very easy, you can go as wild as you want, or keep it simple, it’s all up to to you. That being said, here is how you can spruce up your nails:
If you want to see it in action, check out this great Youtube clip with the Do’s and Don’ts from Gabby Angelique
The things you will need
The first thing that you will need is the colour nail polish of your choice, you can choose different colours for the combination. Rember? You can go as wild as you want. The next things you will need are base and top coats to keep your nails colour-lasting and healthy. The next one is a quick-drying manicure spray as it shortens drying time and adds a great scent to your nails. Of course, you will need striping tape, which you can buy from retailers like Dollar Nail art where you have a rich assortment from which you can choose your preferred one. You will need nail scissors to cut the tape. And finally, you will require scotch tape if you want to do colour blocking. Optionally, you can use a wooden cuticle stick to hold down the ends, or you can use your fingers.
Bejeweled nails
Striping tape
Now that you have everything you need, let’s get started:
- Step 1: Apply a base coat on your nails, this will keep them shiny and healthy.
- Step 2: Paint your nails with your preferred colour that will be base colour and let it dry.
- Step 3: Apply quick-drying manicure spray to shorten nail polish drying time
- Step 4: Place the scotch tape on the preferred place to use it as a colour block.
- Step 5: Color the preferred part of the nail and remove the scotch tape while the polish is still wet.
- Step 6: Place the striping tape on the place between the two colours and/or on any other place you want.
- Step 7: Cut the striping tape excess with nail scissors and voila!
You can use white or black as a background colour as they give you the best contrast, and combine them with any colour of your choice. You can combine white and blue with silver stripes, black and red with golden stripes, you can choose between endless combinations.
Striped painted nails
Reinforcement stickers for holes
You can make good use of those stickers that are shaped like a doughnut as a tool for your nail-art. If you are a student or live with one, you might already have them, if not, you can buy them for a few dollars in your office store near you. Start by applying the base colour of your choice and let it dry and then place the sticker where you want and press it down. Gently brush the second colour that you want and be careful not to paint more than you want. For the finish, add a top coat and you’ve made it. You can once again be playful with shapes and colours, this time we chose a combination of white and red. And, if you want a french tip, it is even easier. Apply a clear base to your nails and let them dry, place the sticker on your nail so it leaves only the tip uncovered. Paint the tips with white colour and topcoat afterwards you are ready to go. Perfect if you need elegant nails quickly.
Bobby pins
Bobby pins and toothpicks
Things can get really messy here, but also very interesting and fun. Using a toothpick and a combination of nail polishes allows you to decorate your nails in endless ways. We will share with you one of our choices. First, apply your base coat to your nails. Then apply the first layer of your colour (we will use pink) and let it dry. Then apply the same colour again, and immediately after add spots of the second colour (in our case light blue) and then apply a bit more spots of primary colour again. Right after that take the toothpick or bobby pin and gently swirl the colours to make abstract art.
Need a tutorial? Check out this tutorial with deesnailjourney