gel manicure & metallic striping.

Here are the exact products I used to create this design.

1. Red Carpet 'Prep' $3.99

2. Sephora by OPI gelshine 'base coat' $17.50

3. Red Carpet 'White Hot' $9.99

4. Sephora by OPI 'what's a tire jack?' $17.50

5. Sephora by OPI 'top coat' $17.50

I cure each layer for 120 seconds, I might not need to do it for that long, 

but I don't want to take any chances.

You will also need a UV lamp but you can literally use any UV lamp to cure your polish. I'm sure some of them are less harmful then others, but mine is a simple one I found on eBay for $35 a few years back.

The last thing you'll need is some silver metallic nail striping.  Which will cost less then $10 for a few spools. I just use my cuticle scissors (and try not to touch the sticky side) to size each piece across my nail bed. Then I then press down the corners to make sure it's secure with my fingers and then sandwich it between two layers of top coat.  

I do occasionally get a small amount of lifting in the corners but I've sort of figured out to just add extra top coat. But it'll last longer the thinner the application.

Very last step: 

Use a cotton ball with nail polish remover on to and sweep across each nail to remove any weird residue and really make your nails shine. I know this one sounds weird, but I saw my manicurist do it and it really works without messing anything up.

indigo child.

1. paint your nails with two coats of blue polish.

2. sponge paint* half of each nail with lighter shade of blue polish.

3. with a detail polish in black paint a V (as shown above).

4.  repeat the V shape in the opposite direction, creating a diamond.

5. paint a line through the center.

6. fill in triangles of your choosing.

*the sponge painting technique is simple, 

wet a make-up sponge and squeeze out excess water.

in the light blue polish, paint the sponge until a section is covered.