I have to confess I’m not very adventurous when it comes to painting my fingernails. Call me fickle, but I change my mind so often I just can’t decide on the right colour to pick. And on those rare occasions when I do try anything bolder than a French manicure, I generally forget I’ve done so and shock myself when I look down at my hands a few hours later, only to think, ‘Argh! Those aren’t my hands! Whose red talons are they?’ Scary.
But I really like the look of painted nails and how they finish off an outfit – and I’ve been especially curious to try creating my own nail art. So I armed myself with two nail polishes and a roll of sticky tape and set to work. Here’s what I did…
1) I love using dark colours in winter, and there’s nothing darker than black, so I chose Max Factor Nailfinity Nail Enamel in limited edition Onyx and teamed it with Essence Vampire’s Love Nail Polish in Gold Old Buffy to add some extra bling.
2) First ensure your nails are clean, filed and buffed (to create as smooth a finish as possible). Then apply two coats of black nail polish. Let this dry for at least 20 minutes.
3) Cut yourself two pieces of sticky tape per finger and remove some of the stickiness by pressing the strips into your hands several times. Then stick them on to your nails so they form triangle shapes. To make the look less uniform, I reversed the triangle on my middle finger so it pointed downwards.
4) Use the gold polish to paint into the triangle shapes. I gave my nails two coats and left them to dry for five minutes.
5) The moment of truth: carefully remove the tape from your nails (really slowly to avoid pulling any of the paint off).
6) Voila! Your finished nail look. Tip: for extra staying power, add a final layer of top coat such as Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat.
Have you tried creating your own nail art? What’s your top tip for getting great-looking nails at home?
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