Spangley's Simple Steps: {Tutorial Week & Then And Now} "The Tape Mani" Nail Art

Hi everyone.  Back today with my third Tutorial and second Then And Now - combined! It is the "dreaded" Tape Mani! I was clearing out an old phone and found a picture of my very first attempt at nail art that I done for New Year 2012 into 2013.  I can remember being sooo proud of them and showed them off to anyone that would listen. Oh, I cringe even now... Obviously my execution has improved with time, because during that time I have learnt a few tips and tricks that you really need to use whilst working with tape.  You'll find these, along with my "Then" picture after the tutorial.

Before you start, make sure you have everything you need;

Your favourite Base and Top Coat

A Nude for the base colour: nails inc - Porchester Square

2 Colours for the "Blocks" 

Colour 1 is White: Barry M - White

Colour 2 is Glitter: OPI - All Sparkly And Gold

(It wasnt opaque on its own so I added metallic gold underneath)  nails inc - Chelsea Bridge Road

You will also need a few tools too;

Without further ado, below is the steps:

Start off by painting your nails with your base coat and letting it dry and then paint all your nails with your nude polish, whilst that is drying, paint on a thin coat of your fast drying top coat and...

***WAIT FOR 10 - 15 MINUTES!!***

By waiting for this amount of time, your polish will be dry enough to allow you to stick tape to without it lifting up.  Using your Striping Tape and scissors, cut 2 strips and stick them to your nail where you want your first "block" aka section to be.

Paint on your first colour into your section, mine is White.  You could use a small nail art brush for this, but the brush that comes with the polish was quite small, so I was able to manipulate it.

As soon as you are happy with your section, IMMEDIATELY pull the striping tape off using your tweezers and add a thin coat of your fast drying top coat and yip... You guessed it...

***WAIT FOR 10 - 15 MINUTES!!***

Again, by waiting for this amount of time, your polish will be dry enough to allow you to stick more tape down without the new layers lifting up.  Using your Striping Tape and scissors, cut 2 more strips and stick them to your nail where you want your second section to be.

If you are using the same colours as me, paint on a coat of your metallic gold and a coat of your gold glitter.  Again, you can use a small nail art brush or the brush that comes with the polish.

Again, immediately pull your 2 strips of striping tape off from the nail, using your clean up brush, remove any polish that may have got on your skin in the process, add a last layer of your favourite top coat and your done!

Okay Okay, so before I post the finished picture of the above mani, I know this is what you wanted to see, so as promised, here is my "Then" picture of my Tape mani from 31.12.2012.  (PREPARE YOURSELF!)

Tape Mani - Tips & Tricks

1. BE PATIENT!! This is my number one rule for working with tape.  Remember you working with freshly painted nails, yes a top coat makes your nails dry to the touch in 30ish seconds, but they are still "dentable" for another 10 minutes, which leads me nicely onto tip 2...
2. TOP COAT, TOP COAT, TOP COAT! Top coat is your best friend here. As long as your patient, top coat can really make or break a tape mani.
3. Always remove the tape when the polish is still wet.  If you allow the polish to dry round it, you will not get a clean line as the tape will dry into/in with the polish.
4. When removing tape, always use a set of tweezers.  You get a better, tighter pull and it also elevates your hand so you can see what's going on.

Please let me know if you try this design out by using the hashtag #LookSpangley on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, alternatively you can tag me in the picture - I'd love to see!

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