Back to school Nail Art!

I wanted to try out the technique of blotting out areas of my nails to create precise shaped designs. So I thought these cute pencil nails would be a good design to try it on. It's a really handy technique using tape to create voids for patterns, just stick the tape where you don't want a certain colour, paint in the void and when you peel off the tape you should have a perfect shape. Sorry the picture quality is terrible. 

Colours - 

• Revlon clear base coat 
• LA Colors Black
• LA Colors Light Brown
• LA Colors Yellow 
• LA Colors Red 

Optional colours - 

• LA Colors Silver 
• Revlon Pink 

Method - 

1. Apply a coat of clear base coat and allow to dry fully - it is particularly important that you allow this to fully dry of when you apply the tape the polish will peel off with it. I painted the clear coat the day before so I knew it was fully set before I started the design. 
2. Apply 2 strips of tape to the nail to to create a pointed pencil shaped void in the centre of the nail. 
3. Paint a layer of light brown - wood coloured - varnish to fill in this void. Allow to dry fully. 
4. Using a small brush dipped in black varnish add the graphite tip. 
5. Paint the tip of the nail yellow and allow to dry before adding red stripes to it. 
6. Once the design has fully dried, carefully peel off the tape and you should have a perfect pencil design. 

Optional method - 

1. On every other nail paint over the base coat completely with half yellow (pencil)  and half pink (rubber). 
2. Cover the join between the two colour with a stripe of silver varnish to represent the silver rubber holder on some pencils. 
3. Then add the red stripes to the yellow section. 
4. Which ever designs you have chosen add a top coat of clear varnish to seal the design. 

The tape technique can be used to create loads of different patterns, other examples can be found later on this blog. Thank you for reading :)