Star Trek Uniform Shirts

I am a bit of a Trekkie, so I really enjoy creating Star Trek nail art.  I saw a picture on Pinterest and really liked the design, so I recreated it on my nails:

I painted 2 coats of base color on all my nails.  On my thumbs I painted Sally Hansen Black Out; on my index fingers I painted Avon Sunshine; on my middle fingers I painted Covergirl Out of the Blue; and on my ring fingers and pinkies I painted Rimmel Stiletto Red.  After all that was dry I painted on a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and then put strips of masking tape a little away from the tips of my nails so that I could achieve a clean black tip.

As soon as I painted on the black, I removed the tape.  Then I used a small nail art brush and painted on the black at my cuticles, which is supposed to look like the collars of the Star Trek uniform shirts.  (I used Black Out for all black details.)  After painting on the black details I cleaned up around my nails with a nail art brush dipped in acetone.  Then I used a nail art brush dipped in Sally Hansen Pumping Iron to add the Star Trek insignias.  Here's the easiest way to draw these:

After step 3, fill in the center with your color.  I have made Star Trek insignias on my nails multiple times now and this is the easiest way, in my opinion, to go about it.  I finished off this manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly, which is my favorite top coat, as you have probably noticed.  I have been through many bottles of it.  "Live long and prosper."  ; )  

Silver and Gold

I love incorporating tape into my manicures.  You can do super cool things with such a common item.  Today I used masking tape instead of scotch tape for my first time:

This manicure is based on a manicure that Bubzbeauty did one time.  The first picture was taken under fluorescent lighting and the second was under sunlight.  The silver is Sally Hansen Pumping Iron, the gold is Sally Hansen Golden-I, and the copper dots are Essie Penny Talk.  I used Sally Hansen Dries Instantly as my top coat.

I actually liked using masking tape better than scotch tape.  Masking tape is more flexible and can stick close to your cuticles, avoiding paint going under the tape and you having to clean up with polish remover to create a sharp line.  Scotch tape is just not flexible enough.  I will probably use masking tape from now on.

So, I cut squares of tape and applied a corner to the base of my nail.  my silver polish wasn't opaque enough with just one coat, so I waited around 30 seconds and applied a second coat before immediately removing the tape.  That worked really well and the lines still came out sharp.  I applied another layer of the gold after removing the tape.  One coat looked pretty good, though.  I used a toothpick to make the copper dots around the edges of the silver and gold polish at my cuticle.

Here's just a quick fact about my chevron manicure:  I applied at least 2 coats of topcoat to all my nails.  Some had 3 coats.  The day after I did the manicure, though, edges of the tape were sticking out and were very scratchy.  I had to take it off on the third day that I wore it.  It was a lot of fun to do and very cute, but mine didn't last long.  It was easy to remove, though.  The tape pretty much dissolved when I used nail polish remover.