Candy Cane Christmas Nails

Merry Christmas and Happy Whatever Holiday You Celebrate! Apologies for the blurry picture, but check this awesomeness out.

And it only took me three tries to do it! Well, two tries and a practice run on my toes.

ANYWAY, it wasn’t too bad, considering I’ve literally never in my life tried to do anything fancier with my nails than one coat of nail polish.

What You Need

• red nail polish
• white nail polish
• top coat
• base coat
• Scotch tape cut into thin strips
• toothpicks

Put on your base coat, let it dry, and then paint your nails with the first color. I did my toes white first, but the white I have has sort of a weird consistency, so I did red first on my fingers to make it easier to apply the white.

NOW APPLY THE TOP COAT. Sorry for shouting at you, but from my three attempts I can tell you this part is *super* important. Otherwise the tape will strip the polish from your fingernails in addition to sometimes breaking and sticking to your nails in other spots.

So apply the top coat and let this layer dry 100% completely. (I let them sit while we went to dinner.)

Now put strips of Scotch tape on your nails. They’ll be easier to take off if you make sure they hang over the edges of your nails, but press them into the corners of your nails so the next layer of nail polish doesn’t sneak underneath and ruin the pattern!

Paint the second color overtop the tape and then peel the tape off, VERY SLOWLY, so it (mostly) doesn’t break. If any pieces break and leave small bits of tape in the middle of your nail, wait until the second color of nail polish dries and then pry the tape off with a toothpick. Since you used a topcoat between colors, the toothpicks can unstick the tape without ruining the first layer of nail polish.

But if you don’t wait until the second layer dries, you’ll end up scraping that color off the top and dragging it across the first color.

Add a second topcoat to prevent chipping, and voila! The perfect mani for the holidays.