A Striping Tutorial (Of Sorts) and a Side of Water Marble!

Hi loves, I feel like it's been forever since I've blogged even though it's only been a few days.  We have been fighting Hurricane Sandy for the past few days.  It got pretty scary for a while.  We didn't lose power like many people but we were without internet *gasp* for 2 days.  You would have thought my kids had been told their favorite puppy had been beaten.  They were totally lost and didn't know what to do with themselves.

We are very grateful we didn't have more damage and of course many prayers and thoughts to the people who are facing much devastation due to this pain in the ass of a storm.

Ok now the fun stuff...so over the weekend, my order from Born Pretty Store finally, FINALLY arrived.  I had been waiting for a very long 2 months!  I guess that's what happens when you order from Hong Kong.  Way to go Nicole!  In my order was a little roll of heaven, also know as striping tape.  For those of you who are not familiar, don't fret, I will let you know exactly what the dilly is after these pics...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, thank you so much super large out of place picture for showing up yet again!

 

I'm playing around with watermarks, I promise I will find one soon and stick with it.  

 

Let's talk colors first and then I'll get into the designs.  I marbled and striped with the same colors, Essie Butler Please and Where's My Chauffeur. Well, I kind of striped with the same colors, more on that in a minute!  These colors go together just lovely don't they?  I really am loving Where's My Chauffeur the more I use it but I am still at odds with Butler Please.  I don't think we will ever see eye to eye. 

 

 

The middle 2 fingers are just my regular old water marble.  If you're just tuning in, and you're not sure of how this is done, I have a tab on my home page with a very detailed tutorial.  I have heard it is very helpful so be sure to check it out.  The index and pinky fingers were done with striping tape. Let me just tell you, I am all in with the tape thing!  It is a little tricky to get clean lines but it certainly can be done.  I'll give you a quick run down of how I did mine, hopefully it will help those of you not familiar with this method of nail art.

 

 

First I painted both nails with Where's My Chauffeur (turquoise).  I did 2 thin coats and then a coat of Seche Vite.  Any fast dry top coat will do just fine, I just happen to be a SV junkie and never use anything else.  If I were deserted on an island you can bet your sweet ass I would have a bottle of Seche in my cute little "stranded on a desert island" nail tote.

 

  And I digress....so let that dry for about 10 minutes and then it's time to play.  Cut a small piece of tape off of the roll.  Make sure to bend the edge of the tape back that is left on the roll or you will be spinning the tape and searching for the start spot for 20 minutes like I did.  Place it on the nail making sure to lay it flat the WHOLE WAY down to the cuticle or the side of the nail.  If you just press it across you will have a gap and your line will come out uneven. I used a toothpick to push the tape down flush with my nail at the cuticle edge.  This is a very important step, don't skip over this one kids!

 

 Repeat this until you have all your pieces on.  Then it's time to put on the second color.  I attempted to use Butler Please but the formula was just so awful that I had to grab my trusty Sally Hansen Pacific Blue.  Since the 2 colors are so similar there was no issue.  And it was the right choice!!  PB worked so well!! 

 

You want to make sure that your second color is very opaque, a 1 coater is really the best thing for this.  Put a decent coat on top of the entire nail covering the base color and your striping tape. You don't want it too thick, but it can't be too thin or you won't get good coverage. (That's not confusing right?)  As soon as you have the nail covered, remove the tape strips one by one being very careful.  It is very easy to destroy the design at this stage.

 

I used cuticle nippers to pull my strips off, and I pulled at a little bit of an angle.  I don't know if it made a difference, but as you can see, my lines came out pretty darn clean! 

 

Do NOT let the polish dry before removing the strips!!  Make sure that you take them off as SOON AS you are done putting your second polish on. 

 

After you have all of your tape removed, allow the polish to dry. Very carefully and very gently put your topcoat on.  I used a very gently hand making sure I didn't smudge my design.  The dreaded smudge is enough to make you commit yourself to a mental institute.  You spend all that time perfecting your nail art, and with one swipe of that effing topcoat, all your hopes and dreams are down the toilet.  (Yes hopes and dreams, I'm committed ok?)

 

That's all there is to it.  It does take a little practice.  This is by no means the greatest way in the world to do this, but it's my way and I think it works really well.  I hope it helps those of you that are a little scared of trying this.  Yes, that little roll of tape can be intimidating but it's really not so bad! 

 

Make sure to send me pics if you guys do try a tape mani!  I'm on Instagram with the same user name, Young Wild and Polished and Twitter under YngWildandPolshed.  I hope to get lots of pictures!!!

 

 

Happy Polishing and Super Happy Striping!!