A Walk Around the Color Block

My husband and I were out doing some outlet mall shopping recently, and as we breezed through the Kenneth Cole outlet, this mixed-pattern blouse caught my eye. As you may have already guessed, I always love a good mix of color blocking and patterns—and this combo in particular was so striking to me that started recreating a version of it on my nails almost as soon as we walked in the door at home.

Since my last manicure featured stripes, I decided to change up the pattern a little for this one and go with giraffe spots instead. My teal is also a bit darker and greener than what's used for the blouse, but otherwise I think the basic idea is the same.

This is one of those manicures that's not particularly difficult—just time-consuming. Here are the steps:

1. Start with a base of white (OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, here) on all nails and some quick-dry top coat. Let it dry.
2. Use striping tape to mark off the areas you want to add the solid black (a england Camelot, in this case).
3. Add the black and let it dry. No need for top coat on this layer yet.
4. Use scotch tape to cover up the white areas where you'll want the teal. With the tape in place, stamp on the spots. Mine were done using MoYou London's Pro Collection 04 plate and Camelot.
   Note: I didn't bother covering up my black areas before stamping because any spots that got stamped onto them blended away with the top coat.
   Another note: do this step on your nails one by one, so that the scotch tape is on your nails for the shortest amount of time possible. 
5. Add another layer of quick-dry top coat and let it dry.
6. Use striping tape to mark off the edges of where the teal will be and then add the teal. I used OPI Amazon... Amazoff.
7. Let everything dry for a bit and then add one or two more coats of quick-dry topcoat.

Whew! So many steps! It occurs to me now that this might be the kind of design that would benefit from a tutorial? I've been wanting to try my hand at a video tutorial because I really enjoy the ones that other bloggers make, so this might be a good candidate for the video treatment. Stay tuned, and let me know if that's something you'd be interested in seeing!

The perfectionist in me isn't overly thrilled with how patchy my teal areas look on certain nails. They definitely looked much better and much more even in person! Direct lighting and close-up photos can be harsh mistresses indeed.

Oh, and one quick plug before I wrap this up: my giveaway ends in a couple of days. Have you entered? There aren't a huge number of entries yet, so your odds of winning some awesome geeky nail wraps from Espionage Cosmetics are really good!

Thanks for reading!