Technique: Vday x 3!

What kind of Valentine are you???

Valentine’s Day is only 1 week away… so it’s time to pick a flirty polish for the holiday of love! First you must decide what kind of Valentine you are: Sweet, Sexy or, Sassy! This post has 3 looks to satisfy all! Of course, if you hate Valentine’s Day you could always stop reading here and go paint your nails black haha.

Base colors... I wanted to show you these three colors first because if you don’t feel like designing or don’t have the time, these are great Valentine’s colors all by themselves. From the left we have: Burgundy by FLARE (from Urban Outfitters I think.. but burgundy is a popular color for most brands), mod square by Essie, and it’s in the bag by Essie.

Sweet:

For this sweetie pie look I used two coats of this bubble gum pink nail polish called mod square by Essie. For the hearts I used my Sally Hansen French Tip Pen. I have the pen with the pointed tip, not a flat tip, so it was easy to make these teeny hearts. I would suggest only doing one finger on each hand (thumb or ring finger would be cute) because it takes a while to do all these little hearts.

Sexy: 

This look was super easy. I was going for a black fishnet look over a pale pink, but you could also use a nude/beige/tan color for the base. I did 2 coats of this base because it was very sheer and made sure it dried COMPLETELY. If you don’t let the base dry all the way, this next step will fail miserably, trust me.. haha. To make the black cross hatch it was pretty easy. I used a black SH nail art pen. The key to make the stripes look more like fishnet is to make the crosshatch elongated, not square. Basically, more like diamonds and less like tic-tac-toe squares.

Sassy:

If anyone knows me they would say I am definitely a sassy valentine… so of course this was my choice. It was also the most time consuming so I did a more detailed description of what I did. First I let the burgundy base color set completely. I actually ended up doing the base color one day and the detail/tip the next day. This is because I used French tip tapes (which I usually hate) and they can tend to remove the base polish if you use them when your base isn’t dry... it’s a big mess.

So here is what my nails look like with the tapes on them. The key to applying these buggers straight is to start in the center of the nail. Tap the tape to the center of the nail, and then if it lands a little crooked you can tip the edge up or down to straighten. Then flatten the tape ALL the way to the skin. I even use my other hand’s nail to crease the tape into the area between my nail and skin... if that makes sense? 

Anyway after getting the nail tapes applied, I filed my nails to be the same roundness/arc as the tapes. It’s not necessary, but I think it looks a lot nicer.

Then I used this awesome magenta tinted SH Gem Crush polish called Lady Luck. It went really well with the burgundy but would also go well with a bright magenta. Anytime your using tapes the key is to dab fairly heavy strokes of the polish so you don’t have to apply a second coat. 

After this dries, remove the tapes and apply a heavy clear coat. I used my Essie top coat because it seamed a little thicker than others. The Gem Crush polish is pretty think so you want a thick top coat to level out the rest of the nail.

Below is the lovely finished product.. sassy no?

Have a SWEET, SEXY, and SASSY Valentine’s Day!!!

<3 <3 <3