It’s Not A Trick, It’s An Illusion

I had the day off today and, like most grown women, I was really excited to have the time to do something cool to my nails.  I decided on a pretty simple but still super sweet shiny-nail-illusion look.  Here are the steps:

1.  Put on that base coat!  I use Seche Vite because they literally have the greatest top coat in the universe and I like to be fancy and have my base and top coat match.

2.  Grab your white nail striper and select three polishes of the same color that are progressively lighter in tone.  Here are mine!

That’s just a plain ole white Sally Hansen nail striper followed by Find Me an Oasis, Truth or Flare, and Mezmerised all by Essie.  Can you guess my favorite brand?  Also, you’re going to use the colors in the opposite order I have them photographed.  You know, just to add a touch more confusion to this blog post.

3.  Paint your entire nail the darkest color.  Wait a minute for this to dry.

4.  Paint your second darkest color on most of your nail, leaving a border of the previous color on the right and the left.  Let that dry some.

5.  Apply a single stroke of the lightest shade in the middle of the nail.  This will leave a border of both colors on either side.  You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

6.  Take your nail striper and paint a thin line down the dead center of your nail.

7.  Apply your top coat!  As I mentioned before, Seche Vite fast-drying top coat is of the gods.  It takes, like, three minutes to fully dry over two coats of polish.  It’s given me a new lease on life–I can now enjoy my favorite activities like eating and watching tv without having to worry about smudging a nail!

8.  Take a bunch of pictures and post to various social media sites.

If you ladies are weird and don’t spend half your paycheck on nail polish, you can use one color and some white polish to create the same effect.  On a piece of aluminum foil or a paper plate, pour out two decent amounts of white polish; to one of those, add one drop of your chosen color.  To the second, add three to five drops of the color, depending on how dark you want it.  Stir ’em up with a clean brush and voila!  You have your two lighter shades.  Check out my super sweet and not at all blurry visual below.

 BECOMES  !!!

This look is great for all occasions, from a fun date night to watching The Office for the third time alone at home with a bottle of wine.  Which reminds me, I should go.  I have plans.