Zig Zag Patchwork

So I've been thoroughly useless at updating my blog all week....and I've got about ten million manis to upload! Typical. I'll start with this weeks Polish-aholics Anonymous challenge- for those who don't know, there's an awesome facebook group for those of us with an, ahem, addiction to polish! Every week they do a new challenge (e.g. candy themed, or taping) and people upload their versions of it. This week is patchwork, and I thought I'd do something different using tape.

I used 2true as the silver base (it's a cheapy polish from Superdrug). I thought it would be really thin and crap as it only cost about £1.50m but I was pleasantly surprised with it's opacity! I'd already cut tape into a zig zag pattern and lined it up on my dressing table, so once I'd made sure that was secure on my nail I painted over it with Avon Vintage Blue. I put it on pretty thick, and it would have taken YONKS to dry if I didn't pop some Seche Vite over the top to speed it up. Then I got my next layer of tape, put that over the blue and painted Shocking Pink by China Glaze over  it.

A few helpful tips if you're layering tape manicures-

1) Make sure that you use one coat polishes, not ones that need several coats 

2) Whip the tape off your nail the minute the polish is down, otherwise it will drag the polish when it dries and ruin your clean lines

3) When taking off the tape, try and lift it upward off your nails simultaneously from either side, rather than peeling from one side.

4) Try to de-tack the tape before using it. Stick it on your hand a few times before going on your nail, as that way it won't leave an annoying sticky residue on your nail (which is impossible to get off!) 

5) Work out how many strips of tape you will need and cut them in advance- faffing about with scissors and a wet manicure is a recipe for smudges. Starting from scratch when you're on the last layer is never fun!

Hope you found my tips useful! Send me any links to favourite tape manis you've done, I'd love to see them.

Alice

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