Lacquer Up: Negative Nails

I have seen a lot of negative nails in the blogosphere of late.

Merricures       One Nail To Rule Them All    Nail That Accent

So I thought, for this lacquer up I would do my best, easy interpretation of a negative nail for you all to try. 

I have done a simple, diagonal negative nail on my first try as I haven't the steadiest of hands. 

In order to make sure the line is clean, I have used surgical tape to ensure a straight line.

Surgical tape is my new, best nail art friend. It's cheap and easy to use and can be cut and shaped with a pair of manicure scissors incredibly easily. Just like the manicure strips that I have written about before if you are wearing another colour underneath make sure the polish is bone dry before applying the tape. You will ruin your under polish otherwise. If you have time, put your base colour on the day before for the best results.

I applied my base coat and allowed to dry before adding the tape in the direction I wanted it to go. Once I was happy with it I applied my first layer of polish. 

I left to dry and applied another coat. Here I am using Ciaté's Mink, this needs a couple if layers for the colour to really shine through. 

This is now a discontinued colour, a similar colour that will work work their range is Cream Soda. 

Leave to dry completely. If not you'll end up with a jagged line, like one of my failed attempts 

Once dry, peel the tape of and apply a quick topcoat. I have added a couple of metal nail art hearts that I found on Amazon. I bought these to add interest to my manicure because it is a bank holiday carnival weekend and I have gone a little nail appliqué crazy since my last post; it's a simple and fun and easy addition to nails that require minimum effort. 

I completed with a more thorough layer of a high shine topcoat.

It's super easy and I will definitely persevere with it. I like how modern this looks, this can be formalised for a job interview; the colour above works well for that (above sans appliqué hearts obviously) or you could make it fun by slicking on a neon colour like Model's Own Toxic Apple. All winners in my opinion.

Go on, bag yourself some surgical tape and get negative!