Candy Cane Nails

 More Christmas nails!! I got this idea from the awesome pics on the Chloe's Nails blog I was telling you about. Mine don't look quite as awesome (I'll explain why in a bit) but I think they're still pretty sweet.

Attempt #1 - Smudgey

This was my first attempt at the stripes. I was just going to free-hand everything, but i thought it looked a little... smudgey. But it was still really pretty! And then I took it all off and started over.

Attempt #1 - I thought they looked better in this direction. Fingers look weird though.

Alright, here's the second pass at this look. I think it came out better AND I figured out the best way to do it.

1. Apply layer of white polish. I used one from Sally Hansen called "All the White Stuff." But it's just white, so get over yourself. Once it's pretty dry, apply a layer of Seche Vite (SV) and let that dry.

"But why are we adding the topcoat now, Laura?!" 

Because that clear layer prevents the tape (which is the next step) from ripping the white polish off. Clever, huh?!

2. Use Scotch tape to tape off a thin-ish line for one of the red stripes. You can attempt to do both stripes at once, but I wouldn't. One at a time is hard enough. Once you've got the tape in the right spot, smear some glittery red polish up in there. Try not to get it all over your hand, but if you do, it's no biggie right now. Once the polish is on, let it sit for a couple seconds, and then quickly remove the tape.

After I finished about three quarters of the stripes, I figured out that the best way to remove the tape was NOT to peel it off, but instead grab it in the middle of the strip and pull it up towards the red stripe. I hope you can visualize that. It's hard to describe, but easy to do. This prevented the red from shooting off tiny strands everywhere. If you do get some red outside of the lines, don't panic. Take a Q-tip and some polish remover and lightly blot the excess polish. If you remove a little of the white, that's ok, you can dab a bit more. The SV covers up a lot of layering mistakes.

3. Once the first set of stripes dry, add yet another layer of SV, let that dry, and repeat the whole process for the second set of stripes. Once it's all dry, and ONE MORE layer of SV, and you're done!! I won't lie, this took freaking forever. I think I went through like 5 TV shows (that's how I count the passing of time).

Finished product.

I went to the grocery store yesterday, and some old man followed me around the ENTIRE store, whistling "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Here's to you, Mr. Creeper -

MWahahaha Justin Bieber. I picked this one because: 1. I hadn't seen it. 2. The version I wanted wasn't on YouTube. 3. There's a hip-hop Santa bustin' moves. Enjoy!