NOTD: Stripey Style with Sellotape

This Nail of the Day is actually two variants of a look inspired by a post that Kim wrote a couple of weeks ago over at DottieK, which I loved. I don't have a very steady hand, so it's fair to say that I am rubbish at doing freestyle nail art, so this idea was ingenious for me, because even I can do it.

I've used Sellotape to create a "tip" effect  at the top of my nail, but I've never used it to do stripey looks before, so over the past week I've tried it twice with two very different colour combinations.

For this look I used:

• Max Factor in Disco Pink
• 17 Supreme Shine in Wave.

I didn't do a very good job of this one, mainly because I did the brighter colour as the base, which in this case, didn't work so well, because I could see the pink showing through the greeny, blue. I also think that this one turned out really messy, but not too bad for a first attempt. You might also notice that it's quite chipped, which is my fault for taking so long to take a picture of them!

For this look I used:

• NYC in French Pink (No. 35)
• OPI in Extravagance

I absolutely love this look, because I think the boldness of the OPI colour worked beautifully with the softness of the light pink. I was a little bit annoyed that when I applied a Top Coat, even though I gave it a long while to dry, it still managed to smudge the OPI polish into the lighter colour, but reflecting on it, I kind of like the wispy effect.

Neither of these looks are perfect, but I'm still learning how to master it.

What I've learnt from my two test runs:

• I found it easier to cut the sellotape into strips using a carving knife rather than scissors, which I found to be too fiddly
• I preferred it when I cut the sellotape into really fine strips, rather than the thicker ones, but this is of course just a preference
• I also found that the best type of sellotape for me to use, has been the cheap stuff that we'd normally consider rubbish because it has little stickiness and/or doesn't work effectively because it's too fine. Nevertheless, I think this works in its favour for doing the stripes, because it allowed me to create lines with a crisper edge to them.

Has anyone else tried doing their nails with sellotape? I love these looks, and think it's just down to having the time, patience and working out colours that work well together :)


I know that mine definitely do not look as amazing as Kim's, but what do you think?