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Friday 6 September 2013

Tape design with Barry M Lychee

Tape design with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee
Tape design with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee

I've been wanting to try a tape design for a while, and finally I got around to buying some nail striping tape. I'd been a bit unsure about which sort to get, but when Sammy at The Nailasuarus opened her nail art supplies shop, I thought getting what she uses would be a great start, since this girl really knows her nail art.

I decided to start out with something very simple; just parallel lines becoming gradually closer together. Once finished, it does look a bit like it could be based on the fibonacci number series, but this was not intentional; I just placed the strips of tape in an attractive (to me) layout by eye. Interesting that my random arrangement came out looking close to a fibonacci sequence - I have been taught this in some detail in the context of design of stripes for weaving but I was NOT thinking about this at all when I did this mani!

Since this was my first experiment with tape, I worked over an existing mani which I was about to remove - this glittery watermarble which has plenty of variation in colour and texture.

Tape design with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee

I placed the strips of tape on the nails of one hand at a time, making sure to press the ends of the tape down well at the sides of my nails so the polish didn't get underneath at the edges. Then I applied a thickish coat of Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee to cover the tape and the polish underneath. I removed the tape whilst the polish was still wet on each nail, waited a moment or two for the polish to become touch dry then moved on to the next nail. When I had the design done on the whole of my right hand, I waited a bit longer before applying Seche Vite topcoat to be sure the topcoat would not smudge the design. Then I started painting my left hand. I always paint my right hand first - partly because I think it's hard enough painting my right hand with my left in any case, so why make it harder by having wet nails on my left hand whilst I'm painting - and partly so I can use my right hand to *practice* on, since I always photograph my left hand!

Barry M Lychee is probably my most used polish this year - apart from the fact that I really love the colour to wear on its own, it seems to be perfect for nail art; it is really opaque and densely pigmented so it covers just about any base with ease.  I've used this colour with great success for dots and water marbling recently - I might try it out for stamping next!

Tape design with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee


The overall result is a bit 'segmented' - it reminds me of annelid worms (or maybe even the michelin man) but I rather like that. In fact I think I might try some combination with textured or matt polishes in the future to emphasise this effect!

Tape design with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee

There is a bit of shrinkage from the Seche Vite; the existing mani was already quite thick and I think the combination of a one thick coat of polish over dry polish and topped by SV was a little risky. In real life the tips of my nails aren't noticeable at all, but I can't hide the shrinkage in the photographs.

And a couple more macro shots to finish with:

Tape design with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee

Tape design with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee
Tape design with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee


I purchased my Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee from my local Boots earlier this year. I got my striping tape from The Nailasaurus Emporium.



15 comments:

  1. Ooooo girl! This is GORGEOUS!! Love it :D

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  2. Ooooo girl! This is GORGEOUS!! Love it :D

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  3. oh this is so great! i love the polish underneath!

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  4. Very cool design and great choices in color!

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  5. I have definite nail envy right now! This is an amazing design! You make striping tape look so easy, whereas I find it a massive nightmare, haha. Also, I've nominated you for a Liebster Award! Check out the post at http://neverending-nailpolish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/ive-been-nominated.html and just leave a little comment to confirm your acceptance of the award :) woo! xx

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  6. Hi, I've nominated you for a Liebster Award. Check it out here http://bitenomore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/liebster-award-again.html and send me a link in the comments when you have excepted, so I can see your answers to the questions :) Tracey x

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  7. Hi I have nominated you for the Liebster award :)
    http://justtalknails.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/liebster-award-nomination.html

    PS: Lychee is one of my favourite colours from this year!

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  8. I love all the fun angles you take your photographs with!

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  9. I love this. Using glitter as a base is an amazing idea, I need to try it out!
    I'm with you on that, Lychee is definitely my most used colour this year. I'm on my second bottle!

    Thank you for the mention Alison! xo

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