Mani Monday: Easy Tape Manicure

This week's Mani Monday is another simple one that has a lot of bang for not a lot of work. Like last week, this will use materials you probably already have at home or can get for very cheap. All you will need are two polish colors, a clear top coat, painters tape (scotch tape or masking tape will also work), and decorative scissors. If you don't have decorative scissors and don't want to purchase them, you can easily use regular scissors instead.

4 items is all you need

For this manicure I did my base coat in ELF cosmetic's nail polish (quick drying) in Desert Haze, which is sort of a nude mocha color. For my second color I also used an ELF nail polish, this time in Purple Drea (Dream? Spelling error on a bottle?) which is a shimmery purple. I have a large collection of decorative scissors so I let my son pick out which ones I would use and he picked Kraft Edgers LKE-25, which is a large scallop edge.

My base coat, which oddly enough matches my sink

First you want to have a nice, smooth base coat in whatever color you want as the primary color. Make sure you do enough layers (I did 3) because you won't be able to fix any mistakes once we move onto the next step. You MUST let it dry completely, otherwise the tape will pull bits up and mess up your lovely manicure. You cannot speed up this step, so do it while watching some TV or a good movie.

You want to cut your tape with the scissors and tape off the bulk of the nail so just the tip is sticking out. You can do it at an angle if you want, I just did straight across. I did one finger at a time but you can tape them all off at the same time, it doesn't really matter. Just make sure the tape is pressed down well so the polish won't seep under the edge.

 Now one finger at a time paint the tip your accent color. Make sure you get the edges and that you have enough on it that you cannot see the base color through it.

Once you paint the nail you need to pull the tape off. If you let it dry or start to dry it will not remove smoothly and your edge won't look clean. This is why you do one nail at a time, especially if you use a quick drying formula like I did.

And tada! Your manicure is complete, well for that finger at least. Repeat the process for each finger, then top with a clear top coat to help prolong the life of it. And you've got an awesome two toned manicure that took you minutes to do, and cost you nothing.