Technique: Diagonal 2-tone

I got the idea for diagonal 2-toned tips look from one of my good friends Kaci’s stylish nails. A picture of the nails she did is to the left. She did a diagonal two tone with nude and black on the ring finger. I thought this look would look awesome on all my nails so I tried it out...

Since I am obsessed with glitter polishes lately I used a glitter instead of a solid as my tip color. The colors I used... Base: “Violet Vixen” by L’Oréal Paris. Tip: Gem Crush in “Big Money” by Sally Hansen.

Other great color combos would be:

- light color base, darker variation of same color as the tip.

Example: base= pale blue, tip=navy

Or...........base= pale pink, tip=bright red

- neutral color base, black or dark brown or dark grey tip

            Example: base=nude, tip= black (like Kaci’s nails!)

- bright and light base, brighter and darker tip.

Example: base=neon yellow, tip= hot pink.

Or.......... base=neon orange, tip=lime green.

 I started with the base color I new I wanted (Violet Vixen) and painted all 10 nails that color. Then I tried the diagonal tip on just one nail to make sure I liked the color and made sure it turned out opaque enough to cover the base color. That’s why all my above combo’s have the lighter color for the base... you want to make sure your tip color completely masks the base color. The glitter polish I used was very thick and I wanted it to completely mask the violet... which it did!

So then I moved on to tape all my nails with clear scotch tape (above). It was useful to use this kind of tape because you can see if the tape is rising up anywhere on the nail.. you dont want your tip polish to bleed under the tape! For the most part I tried to leave a little more space for the violet.. I thought it would look nice if the diagonal was closer to the top so it looks more like a tip accent then half and half. I thought half and half might be a little overwhelming on all my nails with that much glitter :) 

Dont forget to angle your right hand the opposite direction of your left hand! It looks more symmetrical that way. Above is my right hand after I painted on the Gem Crush polish.

 Now comes the tricky part: peeling off the tape. I would recommend doing this right after you paint the tips on one hand... This way you can fix up your messes right away because the polish is still moldable. In the second picture on the left I am using a nail art stick, but I found that even a light press of my finger worked just as well. As you can see in the top picture the tip polish fans up a little bit right where the tape was.. If you just tap it down with your finger it flattens out and looks great!

So here is the order of how I did this, it worked out pretty easy with no mess ups this way:

    1.     Paint all 10 nails the base color. Let dry COMPLETELY. Optional: one coat of quick dry topcoat.

    2.     Tape one finger and test out tip color.

    3.     If you like it, tape the rest of the fingers on that hand and paint on the tip color.

    4.     Remove tape and press down mess ups, one finger at a time.

    5.     Paint on a thick, clear top coat and let dry.

    6.     Repeat steps 3-5 on other hand.

 Violà !  Here’s a final look at the tilted 2-tone tip technique (say that 5 times fast haha).