As much as I am a girlie-girl, I’m not very good at doing beauty things. I just didn’t get the hair and makeup gene. I can do basic things, but usually when things are more than using concealer or putting my hair in a ponytail I’m pretty much a failure.
When I was in college, I used to get my nails done fairly regularly (maybe every other month or so). Back then, $10 manicures weren’t much since I didn’t really have bills to pay. Nowadays, I can’t afford them (especially since they seem to chip right away), so when I do get my nails done, it’s a pedicure not a manicure.
But I still like my nails to look nice, so I’ve tried to do at home manicures. Normally it looks like a 5-year-old coloring outside the lines. So I pretty much stick to just putting some top coat on my nails so they are shiny (and a little stronger since my nails tend to peel).
But a while ago, I saw an idea online to make patterns on your nails using blue tape (also known as painters tape). So I decided to try it out and it worked really well!
Here’s what you’ll need:
Base Coat, Top Coat, Color of Choice, Blue Tape, and Decorative Hole Punch.
First step is to do a basic base coat on all of your nails.
Next, tear off some of the blue tape and use your decorative hole punch (mine was a star shape) to punch a hole in the middle of the piece of tape.
Then, put the tape on the nail that you want to have the design on. Press the tape down so there are no air bubbles next to the hole (that would ruin the design).
Take the nail color of your choice (mine was a silver glitter) and paint over the piece of tape. I did 2 coats because I wanted it to be very sparkly.
Then you need to let the colored polish dry. And once you think it’s dry, let it dry for a few more minutes. If it’s even a little bit wet still, the borders of the design aren’t going to stay clean. Trust me on this. I made that mistake on my first attempt.
After the polish is dry, peel off the blue tape and you can see if you need to do any touch-ups.
I thought that it looks pretty good as it was, so I didn’t do any touch-ups. Also, I’m sure if I tried to do a touch-up, I would screw up the design.
After the touch-up, paint all your nails with a coat of topcoat. You might have to do 2 coats on the nail with the design for it to feel smooth.
That’s it! I have another decorative hole punch that make a heart design (I bought the set on Amazon), but I’ve also seen a design that uses a bandage to make polka dots on your nails (I might try that one in the future).
While I might never really be able to do a full at home manicure, at least I can feel cute and girly with designs on my nails.
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