I wanted to do a French tip manicure at home but I don’t have the steadiest of hands when it comes to painting. I was looking at Chloe’s Nails Blog and liked that she uses tape to get the designs she wants and was inspired to find something similar to achieve my desired effect. I decided to try band-aids. But they have to the plastic or sheer type because the polish will soak through the fabric band-aids. For my first couple of tries, I am pretty pleased with how my nails turned out and decided to share what I did.

Things you need:

• base coat
• main color
• tip color
• top coat
• band-aid
• time
• maybe nail polish remover

How:

1. Clean and prep your nails by filing, pushing back cuticles, etc
2. Apply base coat and allow to dry.
3. Next apply a couple of coats of the main color to get your desired color.
4. Wait a few minutes and then apply a thick layer of top coat.
5. Now you’ll want to wait awhile for these coats to dry, so catch up on a show or something. Also, while they are drying take out your band-aids and put the sticky side on your palm a couple times in order to take away some of the stickiness so it doesn’t pull up your polish.
6. After your polish has dried, carefully place the band-aid towards the tip of the nail, just exposing the area you want to paint.
7. Paint the tip. Carefully and quickly pull the band-aid off.
8. Continue on the rest of your nails, you might need more then one band-aid to avoid a mess.
9. Next clean up your nails. I like to use an angled craft/paint brush dipped into nail polish remover. It’s much easier for me to be more precise around my nails with a paint brush.
10. Apply top coat and wait for it to dry.
11. Enjoy!

My product list:

• OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
• China Glaze Traffic Jam
• Essie Vested Interest
• Seche Vite Top Coat
• Band-Aid Sheer Strips
• Glitter Polish – OPI Pirouette My Whistle
• OPI Expert Touch Lacquer Remover