Tutorial Tuesday: Candy Cane

So sorry I've been slacking on the tutorials, I am having a lot of problems with my phone and that's what I use to take photos & watermark my tutorials :(

I wanted to do something fun and simple for the holidays, so this week's tutorial will be for Candy Cane design.

**There are TWO ways you can do this pattern.**

- One would be to hand-paint the stripes with a brush, and that's what this tutorial will explain.

- If you don't have a steady hand with a striper brush, another option would be to do a diagonal tape manicure using a white base and red polish over the tape!  My tutorial for the Tape manicure can be found here!

image via

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

I went with a typical red & white, but you could get creative and try to emulate one of the colorful candy canes!

Suggested Materials:

ANY brand is fine, listed below are the ones used for this particular mani

- Base coat - Seche Clear

- Fast dry top coat - Seche Vite

- Nail color - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Whirlwind White"
- Stripe Color - red nail art striping brush

- A clean, small paintbrush or cotton swabs, for cleaning the cuticles afterwards (optional)

- Nail polish remover (optional)

Before You Begin Painting Your Design:

These steps are optional, but definitely recommended!

- Put down some paper towels in your work area, in case of any spills.

- Be sure to remove any old nail polish.

- Gently file nails into desired shape and remove any ridges with a buffer.

- Push back cuticles with a cuticle pusher or orange wood stick and trim if desired.

- Apply a base coat to protect from potential staining from color polish; wait for it to dry completely.

 

Step 1:

Apply 2 coats of base color & allow to dry

 Step 2:
Begin painting your stripes on a diagonal.
I chose to start as close to the cuticle as possible.
You can do all thick stripes, or you can alternate between thick & thin.
Thicker stripes will be easier but if you are comfortable working with a nail art striper brush,
try to challenge yourself & alternate with thin stripes too!

 Step 3:
Make sure you have equal amounts of space in between your stripes.
If you are alternating thick & thin stripes, you can do 1 thick and 2 or 3 thin, since this is a very common pattern!

 Step 4:
Continue your pattern, spacing it out as evenly as you can, until you fill up the whole nail & top it off with your favorite topcoat.  Clean up cuticles for that extra finishing touch!
  
If you want to try this as a tape manicure instead of hand-painting the stripes, here is my tape manicure tutorial
Enjoy :)