Yo A Ra, Jerhume Brunnen G

Tutorial time! Woot! This time around it’s all about rainbows! If you want to learn how I did my Rainbow Brite, click the read more.

Here are the materials you will need:

• Polishes of your choice (I used Sinful Colors Summer Peach, Neon Melon, Dream On, Pink, Color Club Raspberry Rush, The Lime Starts Here, Icing Hypnotized
• A white (Sinful Colors Snow Me White)
• A black (L.A. Colors Circuits)
• Optional: Glitter (China Glaze Fairy Dust)
• Tape, either scotch tape or painters
• Scissors, craft scissors or plain
• A striper brush
• Scratch paper or the back of a stamping plate
• Tweezers (not pictured because I’m a moron and completely forgot about. Oops.)

Before you start painting your nails, cut your strips of tape. Make sure the tape is pressed firmly to the blade before cutting so you get a clean cut. You can certainly use normal scotch tape if you prefer it or don’t have painters tape. I like to use painters tape for this kind of tape mani because they’re thicker and easier for me to get nice thin strips.

When you’re cutting the bottom of the strip, make sure you’ve lined up the zig zags so they look, well, like a zig zag. Depending on how small or large your nails are will depend on how wide you cut the tape. Same goes for how wide you’d cut the tape if using normal scissors. I cut mine pretty thin. Press the tape firmly on the blade before cutting to get a nice clean edge. 

You should a nice thin stripe like these:

The straight pieces I cut are a little roughly double the width of stripping tape.

Now your tape is cut, set them aside and prep your nails. After applying your preferred base coat, apply two thin coats of white. It’s alright if it’s not opaque, it’s going to be covered up by your colors. Let that dry completely.

Plop some of your polish onto your scratch paper or the back of an image plate, then taking your striper brush add a line of your polish to your base. Your stripe can be as thick or thin as you want.

Repeat with all your colors.

This next step is optional, but you can add some fine holographic glitter for some sparkel sparkle before adding a layer of fast drying top coat. Let your nails dry completely, 100%. You don’t want to ruin your base with the tape.

I applied two layers of Out The Door and let the polish dry for a couple of hours. You can easily do this half of the design at night, add your fast drying top coat and let your layers dry overnight if you’re worried your base isn’t completely dry.

Once your polish is completely dry, add on the tape onto all your nails. You can add as many stripes or as little, all zig zags, all straight, or a mix. You can place the tape diagonally or straight across. Make sure your tape is pressed firmly to your nail, specially on the sides, or the polish will seep through and ruin all your hard work.

One nail at a time, take your black and paint an opaque layer over the entire nail. Make sure to get the sides and to wrap your tips.

Quickly remove the tape before the polish dries with your tweezers. Repeat for all your nails, going one nail at a time.

It’s alright if there’s a bit of black strings, you can go in with your striper brush dipped in acetone and quickly clean it up with light touches. You don’t want to accidentally remove the top coat and your base. Let your nails dry for a couple of minutes before adding your final layer of top coat. You don’t want to streak the black.

Shazzam! It’s super easy, but time consuming. It’s totally worth it thou. You can use any color combination you want, pastels, jewel tones, muted colors, teals, purples, reds. The possibilities are endless.