Friday, March 23, 2012

Purple and blue laser tape manicure!

Good morning! I am really pleased with the manicure that I am featuring today. I had been wearing butter LONDON Lady Muck for about a day or so and wanted to jazz it up a bit without getting rid of the color entirely. So I channeled Nailside and did a tape manicure!

This manicure is really eye catching. My boyfriend described it as "designery" and I can see where he is coming from. It's surprisingly easy if you have the right supplies! Keep on reading for the info. Swatch shots of Lady Muck can be found at the end of the post as well.


As with any tape manicure, you want to start by painting your nails a base color. I obviously used Lady Muck. Your nails must be completely dry before going on to the next step! If you don't want to wait a day or so like I did, you can use a quick dry topcoat like Seche Vite and give it a few minutes to set before continuing.

Next, you want to take striping tape and tape off random sections of your nails. Striping tape can be bought on eBay for ridiculously low prices -- as long as you don't mind waiting a few weeks for it to be delivered from China. I think when I got mine it was 10 rolls for $1, but it took a month or so to get here.

Here's a photo of what my nails looked like after I taped them off.


Then, you just need to paint over the nail completely with your second color. My second color is OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? from the Holland collection. Slowly peel off the striping tape and you will be left with lines in the color of your base!


The hardest part about this manicure was peeling off the striping tape, and that wasn't even that difficult. It just got a little problematic when I couldn't remember which striper lines were on top of one another. I'd be peeling off a piece of tape, and it would get caught underneath another piece of tape that I had applied after it.

It was simple enough to work around, though; you just need to stop peeling a piece when it gets caught (leave it halfway peeled) and come back to remove it once the tape above it has been removed.


I've also got swatch photos of BL Lady Muck for you. It's a beautiful color, sort of a dusty blue gray with a very very fine silver shimmer.

As with the last butter LONDON I tried, the formula was excellent, and only required two coats. It went on very smoothly and cleanly. I didn't have to do any cleanup on this manicure, which is always quite nice. :)

I also had the chance to try the butter LONDON Nail Foundation base and Hardwear topcoat combination. As for the base, I haven't had any problems with chipping yet, though it's only been about two days so it's hard to say for now. It has a beigey color to it that is more opaque than other bases that I've used, and it dries semi-matte. The polish applied nicely over it. The topcoat was nice, too. It's billed as a quick dry, and while it's not as fast as Seche Vite, it was still surprisingly speedy. It also gives a really high gloss finish.




butter LONDON lacquers retail for $14 and can be purchased at butterlondon.com, or in high end retailers like Ulta, Dillards, and Nordstrom. Check their website for locations.

The butter LONDON products in this post were sent to me for review.
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32 comments

  1. omgahhhh~ SO MUCH I love about this....Colour combo looks awesome!! Now I shall head on down to ebay to buy the striping tapes.

    Thanks!

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  2. That is so awesome! I have to get some of that tape. :D

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  3. Such a wonderful mani, Sarah! Love the colors you used :)

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  4. That is a cool way to use the tapes! I might try this later on :)

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  5. Using the striping tape is a great idea! I could never be bothered to cut that many pieces of tape that small!

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  6. love it ! It's funny because I've almost the same thing on my ring finger today ! And you made me laugh because I had the same problem as you yersteday when I did my mani. I didn't know which striper line I had put at first lol So my first nail was a little chaotic lol ... And by the way, I'm in love with the association of these 2colors!

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  7. Wow. It looks great. I will definitely try it myself :)

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  8. A really creative idea, I am really in love with them, I am thinking of doing a style with tape, I always take the tape off too early though haha!!

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  9. How similar is Lady Muck to the two blue-grey colors from OPI's Holland collection?

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    1. I only own I Don't Give a Rotterdam! but I will try to remember to check it out once I get home today. :)

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  10. Really cool idea! I love your blog! ^_^

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  11. Beautiful mani! And I just adore Lady Muck to no end. It's gorgeous. /sucker for blues

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  12. Oh, I love, I'll do it now!

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  13. wow looks amazing! love the colors

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  14. I love it! Could you send me the link to the ebay seller your got the nail tape from? I've searching beauty supply stores and none have it. Thanks!

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  15. Really awesome! I love the combo of Lady Muck with a vibrant purple. Great contrast!

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  16. pretty! need to get some tape now :-D

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  17. I'm so tempted to be snarky and say something like designery is not a word and this looks like caca BUT I just can't because I ,3 you! As always this is AHmazing!

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  18. GORGEOUS!! Awesome, awesome combination and I love the stripes. I need to get this striping thing, i love the thing stripes it creates.

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  19. Beautiful manicure! Love it. I will have to try it too :)
    I love the photo with the striping tape all over!

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  20. Ok I tried it, but my striping tape was much thinner than yours, so I am not crazy about the results. Going to try again!

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  21. You have beautiful nails and this manicure is awesome. I keep coming back to this post again and again

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  22. When do you remove the tape? Like while its still wet or totally dry or right away?

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    1. I tried this and removed the tape while it's still wet, but not right away. Because the tape is too thin and if you have a couple of layers of polish, it might blend with the other side :)

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  23. awesome idea!

    www.denbelle.blogspot.be

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  24. how many coats of the top color before you peel the striping tape off??

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  25. It depends on the opacity of your second color. I think I only used one coat for this manicure but if your second color is sheer, you may need to use two.

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