Manicure #005: Tape Happy

This manicure comes to you courtesy of lots and lots of clear Scotch tape. Anyone can do this kind of manicure as long as you’re at least somewhat patient. The hardest part is waiting for a layer of polish to dry before using the tape. If you don’t wait long enough and you put some tape down, it can easily pull your polish up and totally ruin that nail to the point where you will have to start over entirely. This happened to me on one nail so I quickly realized it’s best to be safe and let everything dry 100% before moving on to the next step.

As you can see in the following pictures I messed up a few parts. Once I did the final layer of my middle finger (the aqua color) I made the mistake of using a topcoat too quickly and it spread that aqua color to the base of the nail. There’s also my thumb where I somehow ended up with a little of the orange in the grey. I decided it was best to leave it instead of trying to paint over it with more grey because it would have made my nails look, well, lumpy.

What I used:
– Audacious Asphalt (Maybelline)
– Siren (Revlon)
– Club Prive (L’oreal)

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Nail Tutorial #003: Preppy Pocks

Well, I promised a tutorial for my last manicure but this is going to be a tutorial for something entirely different. Today’s tutorial will be on polka dots! The cool part about my tutorial is that I can almost guarantee no one does it the same way I do and it looks just as good as any of the other polka dot manicures I’ve seen out there.

Here’s what you’ll need. (It goes without saying that you can substitute these polishes with whatever brand or color you desire!)

– China Glaze’s First Mate
– Revlon’s Sassy
– Revlon’s Siren
– NYC’s Lexington Yellow
– 12 gauge wire
– Scissors or nippers
– Q-tip and acetone for clean-up (optional)
– Quick-drying top coat (optional)

1.) Take your wire and nippers out. Cut off a piece of wire and straighten it out with your hands or a rubber hammer. In order to keep the ends even you will need to clip them perfectly. Try to keep from using your cutters in a crooked fashion and file the edges if necessary. (

Tip: The wire pictured here can be purchased at any Michael’s for no more than a couple of bucks. Wire of all sizes should be available in any craft store, Home Depot, Lowe’s, or Wal-mart as well.

2.) Apply a solid base coat in the color of your choice. Here I have chosen First Mate by CG as it applies smoothly and all around looks amazing. Apply two coats of polish and top it off with some quick-drying top coat if you’re impatient like me.

3.) Get out your first polish and dab a blob of it on a piece of paper. Do a few practice dots (as you can see in the above photo) and once you are sure you have a consistent size and shape begin to dot your nails in the first color.

Tip: After every couple of dots stick the end of your wire in some acetone and wipe it off so that the polish doesn’t begin to dry and clump up on the end. This will result in a messy looking circle instead of a nice, clean dot.

4.) Continue this process with each of your colors and in no particular pattern.

Tip: If you mess up a dot, soak a q-tip in a good amount of acetone (it should almost be dripping). Quickly wipe it over the dot you want removed. If this doesn’t take it off, try lightly wiping the q-tip in a circular motion. If you do it in a light, quick fashion it shouldn’t take your base coat off. Voila! No more messy dot.

5.) Apply a top coat of polish and you’re done! Allow your nails to dry for at least 15 minutes (the longer the better).

Please feel free to share your own polka dot manicures in the comments section below!