anarya-c:

chibistarz reblogged your photo: I could use my artistic powers for good, like…

OMG want…so much want…TUTORIAL?! :D

WELL OK!! I’m glad I saw this comment before I finished all my nails.

1. Materials. You need:

Red, white and black/charcoal polishes. I used OPI Big Apple Red and Sally Hansen White On, which are “creme” finish polishes, for the stripes, and OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees Suede (a charcoal matte finish polish) for the “background”. I like how the mix of matte and shiny looks together but you can use whatever you want, naturally.

Scotch tape, scissors

Optional: base coat and top coat, a brush and acetone for cleanup, the Normandy

PREP: Apply base coat, paint your nails white, apply top coat, let dry completely.

Cut thin strips of tape and stick them somewhere handy for later. These will be the white stripes so make them as wide as you want your white stripes to be. I got a little bit of grey polish on my tape as you can see, ignore that…

STEP 1: Position two tape strips on your nail where you want the white to show up. I put the first strip in the dead center of my nail and positioned the second one about a tape-strip’s width from the edge of my nail, so that the N7 stripes would be offset. Tweezers help for handling the tiny tape strips.

STEP 2: Paint between your tape strips with your red polish. You want to make sure you cover all the area between the tape without spilling over into the “background” area, but it’s not the end of the world if you do overshoot, especially if your grey/black polish is nice and opaque in one coat.

STEP 3: Paint the rest of the nail with the grey polish. You want to work as fast as you can without messing it up. Don’t worry about getting polish on your skin; you can clean it up later, or just wait for it to peel off in the shower.

STEP 4: Peel off the tape strips immediately (but carefully) and discard. This nail did not have as clean an edge as most of the others. Of course it had to be the nail I used as an example.

FINISHING: Clean polish off your skin with a brush and acetone, apply top coat. I put top coat only on the red and white parts because top coat makes matte polishes shiny and I wanted to keep the finish.

Repeat process x10. Hope your chair is comfy ‘cause you’re gonna be there forever.

Please excuse the shittiness of the pictures. My apartment has terrible lighting and I had to do all this and take pictures with my left hand which is very, very clumsy.