Hello and welcome! The plaid design that I chose for this week is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. But I wasn’t sure how to do it, so now I’ve chosen to go for it!
I was finally inspired to just go ahead and try this design from a Pinterest post of a Youtube video. This mani from @hannahroxit is just so clean cut and fresh that I had to try it for myself. But she did hers all freehand, and I am definitely not steady handed enough for that, so I will have to improvise with some striping tape. And since last week I had blue ocean nails, I went with the classic red plaid (gingham?) color.
What I Used:
- Base Coat: Glisten & Glow – Base Coat
- 1st Color: KL Polish – Coconut Milk
- 2nd Color: OPI – Elephantastic Pink
- 3rd Color: Sinful Colors – Ruby Ruby
- 4th Color: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear – Black Out
- Top Coat: Glisten & Glow – Top Coat
- Maniology (Bundle Monster) Poli-Peel cuticle protector
- Twinkled T striping tape
- Maniology (Bundle Monster) BM-XL352 stamping plate
- Maniology (Bundle Monster) dual ended pencil stamper & clean up brush
- scraper & lint roller sheet
- acetone nail polish remover
I started with my usual base coat and then two coats of KL Polish – Coconut Milk. Honestly, this is definitely not my favorite white polish, since it’s very milky. And after two coats, they still look very sheer. But for the purposes of this design, I thought it would work.
Next, I applied liquid latex around all of my nails, and striping tape in vertical lines. Unfortunately I only have thin striping tape, so I had to spend a lot of time on making the lines evenly spaced, and filling every other area with liquid latex. This took much longer than I had expected, and was a real let down. But I did not give up!
When I removed the tape and liquid latex, I was worried that I had made these lines too thin. But instead of trying to mess with them, I just let them be. When the vertical lines were dry, I went back to adding the striping tape and liquid latex. And made sure to have the horizontal lines match the thickness of the other ones.
Looking back, it would have been faster to paint my nails pink, and then add white squares on top with striping tape. But you live and you learn. The next step was to use a small nail art brush and add the red squares. At first I wanted to use striping tape, to make sure the lines were sharp, but I was too tired of striping tape at this point. I just added blobs of red, instead of squares.
And lastly, I added some cute butterfly stamps using black. I was so tired though, that on my left hand, I missed, and on my right hand, I added them to the wrong nail. I was in such a hurry that I wasn’t paying attention. Oh well, at least they’re still cute.
These needed two coats of top coat. And I didn’t make them matte, like Hannah, because I was worried it would show off my mistakes too much. But, the colors go together much better than I could have hoped. And they are adorable, and a good transition between summer and fall (since everyone seems to be in the fall spirit now).
Hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Update:
No chips, no scratches, and no wear and tear? What is going on!?… I take full credit for how well this mani lasted through the week. Although, lets be real, it was probably the double top coat. Normally I don’t double up on top coat because I worry about it feeling too thick and heavy. But it didn’t feel bad at all. So I might just have to keep it up.
Weekly Nail 