Two-Toned Teal Stripes

Design #12 in the 31DC2013 was stripes. It was amazing how something so simple could result in my complete brain-freeze about what to do for this one. There are tons of stripe design options, and after too much time over-thinking about it; I eventually chose basic vertical stripes.

I learned striping tape in the nail art world is this very narrow (approximately 0.8mm) metallic tape in different colors that is tacky on one side. You can either place it on your nails and leave it on as part of the design; or like I did here, use it like blocking tape by painting over it and then peeling it up to reveal what's underneath.

While placing it onto your nails and getting it on straight takes a lot of patience (and practice likely makes it easier); peeling it off is quite satisfying. As others have noted, having the tape pre-cut and tweezers handy is very helpful.

To create these nails, I first put a couple coats of a beautiful turquoise cream on my thumbs, index and middle fingers. The ring and pinky nails were started with a metallic dark teal, also 2 coats. I used a quick-dry top-coat to prepare for the tape (it needs to be dry or the tape can peel up the first color).

As it turned out, I didn't do the exact same pattern on each hand after that - some nails stayed plain, and some I used the opposite color to create stripes. I liked having two different, yet similar, hands. I didn't have a specific design structure in mind, the skittlette theme just happened. (Marta's gorgeous skittlettes are always in the back of my mind.)

(Thanks Mom for photo assist!)

Feeling quite proud of myself for trying out one new technique, I went crazy (Hah!) and did another new thing - added 3-D elements. I placed two half-pearls on top of wet top-coat and sealed them in with more top-coat to hold them in place. On my left hand I put these on my pinky and on my right hand I put them on my middle nail as accents.

These pearls were just over 2mm in size and I think next time I'll use smaller ones (especially on my pinky) for the look I was after. But - I was extremely pleased with the quality of them. They did not change color with top-coat and they stayed on my nails rock-solid for 6 days! By the 4th day, the white wasn't so white from all that my hands were into - but if I had re-applied the top-coat I bet they would have stayed pristine.

Well, once again, I'm glad I decided to use the challenge designs to push me to try new things. Now my head is swimming with all kinds of designs utilizing striping tape. a-England's Galahad was the perfect polish for a skittlette with its high-quality formula that made a "plain" nail look finished. Overall, I loved the two-tone teal combination, particularly the dark over light nails. Did these nails happen to inspire you?

Materials Used:

Polishes: (L-R) a-England: Galahad and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: Teal-y Fast

Also Used:

Winstonia: 10 Color Striping Tape Line Nail Art Decoration Stickers

Pueen: Wheel of 1.5mm-3mm Round Hemisphere Pearls

    (both tape and pearls were purchased through Amazon)

Inspiration Sources:
The colors of polish and pearls were loosely based on this postage stamp from my collection. While not a valuable stamp, I like the design and subject.

"31 Design Challenge" (more info in previous post here)

courtesy of Chalkboard Nails

Thanks for visiting!

Till next time,
Kimett