The pictures aren't very good as they were taken pre-cleanup and look messy (tip: taking a shower after polish had dried cleans it right off) but I think you get the idea. I took these photos in a rush because it was an impulse kind of thing!
If you like this look anyway, feel free to follow through these simple step by step instructions!
Note: I already had nail polish on, so put and dry your bottom colors on if you haven't already, before the stripping part. I only did my ring nail (and my thumb on impulse) and it was already in a different color (black with blue glitter) beforehand.
1. As with anything, the first step is to gather what you need.
Scissors and Tape
I use some regular scissors and this blue tape I got years ago; you can use any regular scotch tape that doesn't stick too much and leave residue. this one peels clean off, i like it! the color is like paint tape but it's more like thin plastic.
And your preferred nail polish, of course :)
Here we have my favorite Super Nova from Bobbie, and the lilac polish I got a while ago from Caronia, a nice bright blue from Face Shop, and a colorless top coat, from Caronia again.
Try to pick very liquid polish formulas! No thick or gummy formulas because it will be a mess when you peel the tape off.
*tip: for glitter x regular patterns, it's better to use the glitter polish as the bottom color as this leaves no risk for glitter pieces being caught by the tape and messing up the lines.
2. You will need to prepare the tape strips ahead because it can be annoying to fiddle with scissors with wet nails. You have to get the scissorwork out of the way.
Cut the tape into thin strips
It will depend on the pattern you like, but it's generally a good idea to cut even widths. In my case, i found it a bit hard (Brooklyn Nine Nine was very distracting) so I cut much more than I needed and paired off equal ones to make a varying pattern. try to cut them as parallel as you can.
3. Apply tape strips in desired pattern !!!
Apply the strips, leaving space for the top polish.
Remember that the spaces you will tape over will be the spaces in your bottom polish that will show up. So in the case of glitter polish, you can maybe pick areas with the best looking glitter and move your pattern around to show it ^w^
The pattern I wanted was a V pattern, so I paired off even strips and applied them one by one, center first, making sure that the angles are perpendicular and aligned so that the two strips look like one V. Push down up to the edges of your nails. The tape needs to be laid flat all across your nail for it to work like a stencil. Otherwise, polish would seep under. Try to also apply the strips as parallel as possible. Unless, of course, you don't want a parallel design. (Who knows! Could work.)
4. Apply your top color onto the spaces between the lines
Try to apply it smoothly, unlike the sleepy sloppy genius that I was last night.
5. Peel off the strips to reveal pattern!
Before the polish dries, peel off the strips.
This needs to happen before it dries, because you don't want the liquid particles to form an emotional bond with each other and try to stick together when you peel their friends off with the tape. It will make your nails really messy and it will be very sad to watch them be pulled apart.
You can opt to now apply top coat - it will make the edges smoother and in the case of glitter polish, it will enhance the sparkles!
There you go ~ I hope you give this a try. There are many different patterns you can do and you can use more than one color. Make sure to link me to the pictures if you do!
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