Candy Striped Nail Art

It's Suuuunday!

As I got so much good feedback on my floral nail art post last Sunday, I've decided to post another one today, but in a more 'tutorial' style format so you can all have a go yourselves!

To achieve this look you will need a base coat, two pastel nail polishes, a white nail polish or nail pen, a clear topcoat and some nail polish remover. For my nails I have used:

Topshop Nail Polish in '201 Green Room'

Nails Inc Nail Polish in 'Basil Street' (the best basecoat ever!)

Rimmel London Nail Polish in '415 Instyle Coral'

Models Own Nail Polish in 'Snow White'

Sally Hansen 'Hard as Nails' in 'Clear'

Nail Polish Remover Pen

I started off by painting one layer of base coat onto my nails. Using a base is really important as it stops the nail polish staining and discolouring your nails. Base coats also help to 'smooth' out your nail which will make your nail polish look more polished when finished.

I then painted my nails in alternate Green and Coral colours. You don't have to go for the same colours as I did, I just think they clash quite well and will contrast with the White I am going to apply afterwards. 

Now for the tricky (ish) part. Using the Models Own White polish, I drew stripes down my nails from the cuticle to the tip. If you use a nail art pen this will look more polished and you will have smaller stripes, but unfortunately my White pen has ran out so I made do with this instead. Oddly, I found it easier to paint these with my left hand (I'm right handed) which has never been the case before, but my left hand ended up with straighter stripes somehow!

Inevitably, when painting the stripes on the edges of my nails, due to the size of my brush I managed to paint some of my skin. This is easily removable with the nail polish remover pens I got for Christmas, or you can just dip a cotton bud into your nail polish remover and swipe away at the edges.

Finally, to preserve your nail art for as long as possible I would recommend painting a clear top coat over the top. Make sure you wait until the stripes are fully dry before attempting this however, or they will smudge and leave them looking like a White mess! Using a top coat smooths out all of the teeny bumps your nail polish can leave and will make your nails look shiny and professional. I used Sally Hansen 'Hard as Nails' for this as it keeps your nails strong, healthy and prevents chipping.

What do you think of my nails? Would you like to see more posts like this? Let me know by leaving a comment below!

xxx