Tuesday, December 11, 2012

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!


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 :)

6 comments:

  1. You're always so creative dear Lauren. :) This candy cane looks so cute! How I wish I can do them do. Mostly, I just rely on my manicurist hehe. :)

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    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Chai! I bet your manicurist could do this for you:)

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  2. This is creative :) I love candy designs even on nails :)
    Noor @Noor's Place

    ReplyDelete
  3. I asked for this on one nail when i got my fillin n it looks horriblle... wish u were still in ny!

    ReplyDelete

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