Neon Stripes

Yep, neons again! But this time set in black to make them stand out even more! This wasn't an original idea of mine, I saw it in Nail It! magazine, a magazine all about nail polish and nail art, but in their version the black was a textured polish. I don't have many textured polishes (pretty much just a purple so far) so I used my favorite black Orly "Liquid Vinyl".

Step by step on how to do this manicure after the jump...

I started off with a basecoat and white nails. Painting the nails white first will make your neons stand out brighter. Then I used Sinful Colors "Pink" to paint random areas on the nails.

Then Sinful Colors "Summer Peach" tucked up against the pink.

And Sinful Colors "Neon Melon" next to that. You can continue using other colors, but I thought the 3 was enough.

Now I don't have any striping tape yet (it's on my wishlist :) ) so I took some regular scotch tape and cut it into thin slices. Run the sticky part over your skin a few times so its not as sticky anymore. If you don't, when you go to peel it off again it might pull the polish off your nail as well. I placed about 3 strips per nail in random configurations. If you have an interesting pattern on the neons you want to show in the finished mani, make sure you get tape over it. Or if you bumped the nail or there is an ugly mixing in the neon or a bald spot, make sure to avoid it with the tape.

Next paint over the nail and tape with black. Go lightly over the tape or you risk pushing polish under the tape and that defeats the purpose of taping it in the first place. Before the polish dries peel the tape off and it reveals the neons below it. If you wait for the black to dry the polish might tear or pull up the neon with it.

Ta-Dah!