Panda!

I seem to be updating from my phone more and more these days. I did only this one nail because I'm still unsure of what to do with the others. I'm going to see the pandas in Edinburgh zoo next week and felt inspired.
I uses:
Orly in White Out
NYC nail polish in 138 Classy Glassy
And my two faithful Nail Star art pens in black and white.

Summery studs :)

Quick rushed job so can't be done properly. :)

stripes!

So.
I saw something kinda similar to these on tumblr and thought I'd give it a go because I'm going out on sunday night, but I'm busy all of tonight and tomorrow, which is why it's been done so early. You can tell that my little finger one messed up. The problem was, the black nail polish I was using is fairly old and quite clumpy (I should buy new, I know, I know) and was my only option, and of course, when nail polish goes lumpy it can be a bit gel-like. One of the gel lumps managed to squidge it's way under the tape and messed up. I wasn't too happy, but I've sorta corrected it with a tiny bit more yellow on top.
How did I do it then?
I used Color Club nail polishes (I bought these in a seven pack in TKMaxx for my mother's birthday and oh my lord they are AMAZING!! I only just took the yellow one off to do these and I'd had it on for weeks!) but I can't find any colour names on the bottles! If I do, I'll update this entry. For the black I used Sinful Polishes in Voodoo. It was a seriously good black when I bought it all those many moons ago. It's nearly completely empty now anyway as black's my go-to colour if I can't think of anything to do with my nails.
And the magic ingredient? Tape.
I painted my nails with the five colours (I used the Color Club ones because they're soooo bright, they stand out massively compared to the black) and left them to dry. Then I painted a clear coat over the colours before adding the black. I call this the 'insurance layer' because obviously, usually when your nails come into contact with tape, any polish that touches the sticky-side tends to be pulled off, ruining whatever you've done with your nails. By putting the clear coat over, if any polish was coming away, it would be the clear (which wouldn't matter because it would all get a fresh coat of clear in the end anyway. Plus, Color Club polishes dry fast). I cut a strip of average, every day selotape down into really thin strands then literally stuck them to my nails, making sure bits of them were sticking out at the sides of my nails so I had something to pull the tape off with. I did cut 30 strips, thinking I'd do 3 strips on each nail but that went out the window and I just went for it, which i why on both hands there's a different amount of stripes and thicknesses of stripes on every nail!
When the tape was stuck down, I gave it a few seconds then painted over with the black. I did a very thick coat of black too, which was not only because my black's dead as a dodo, but to really make sure the bright colours popped when they were revealed again. I gave my nails about a minute to dry with the black on top and the tape still stuck to my nails to make sure there would be no running or smudging (obviously didn't work on my little finger...). When the minute was up, I pulled the tape strips off and viola! Brightly coloured stripy nails! Then I gave them another thirty or so seconds to make sure they were definitely dry, then added the clear coat to make them ultra glossy.
The picture's from my phone and doesn't look too great, but honestly, they look SO effective in real life. Really eye-grabbing.
So if you want simple, but effective nails, give it a go. You won't be disappointed!