nailaholic stripes

This is a public service announcement to alert you all to the best show on television: Workaholics. It's on Comedy Central (and also Netflix because who has cable in this day and age, anyway?) and is like Office Space on nitrous oxide. If you like bear puns, wizard rap battles, and "dropping shrooms," then it's the show for you. ANYWAY, since you're probably wondering why I'm ranting about this show, I'll cut to the chase: in the opening sequence of Workaholics there's a shot of a black and white striped coffee mug (with a plastic frog swimming in it, but that's beside the point). I used to have said mug and I loved it oh so much, but while unpacking in January I dropped it on my foot and it shattered everywhere. So now every time I watch Workaholics, I'm reminded of my poor deceased mug. 

Lil babby 18-year-old me holding said mug. I guess I loved it enough to have a Photobooth sesh with it...

And without further ado, here is a manicure inspired by the mug's irregular stripes!

I started with two coats of OPI Did You 'Ear About van Gogh? and then put on a coat of Seche Vite because, as I've said a zillion times, I'm too impatient to let polish dry naturally. Next I cut three strips of tape, all thin but varying in width. I used the same three strips for all nails, because I am lazy and cutting 15 tape strips sounded hellish.

Going one nail at a time, I applied the tape and painted over the nail with Wet n Wild Black Creme and then immediately pulled of the tape strips. I put on the tape in different orders/patterns on each nail, so the stripes would be irregular.

Also, I should probably thank those of you who read this blog for actually, you know, reading it, despite my tangents about TV shows and broken dishes. So thanks! All the support I've gotten for this silly habit of mine has been really wonderful. Y'all are da best.

80s film

Last week I got suckered into Zoya's Good Morning America promotion, because apparently I have zero willpower when it comes to nail polish sales. I mean, three bottles from their summer 2012 Surf collection for 50% off?! I added that baby to my cart without even thinking about it. (Oops.)

Anyway, this lovely dusty teal is Zoya Wednesday. It seemed a lot brighter and bluer in other swatches I've seen on the internet, but I still like it a lot. Since I'm in capable of having plain nails, I used tape to create colorblocks using OPI My Private Jet, and a dotting tool to add little dots of Wednesday. I'm not sure how I feel about this; without the dots, it looked totally 80s--too 80s for my taste, and that's saying something. Once I added the dots, it started to look like film strips, so...here we are.

Using tape is an easy way to get crisp lines in a manicure. My tips are pretty much the same as they were for a half-moon manicure:

• Cut your tape strips BEFORE you start painting your nails
• Let your base colo dry completely before applying the tape, otherwise the tape will badly smudge the base polish. It's probably a good idea to use a quick-dry top coat to speed up the process.
• Stick the tape to your hand/arm/leg before putting it on your nail, to make it less sticky.
• Remove the tape immediately after applying your second color.

I've been really into stripes and geometric shapes lately, so perhaps they'll be more tape manicures on here soon!