Beauty DIY: Striped nails or candy cane nails

December 13, 2012

If stripes are among the chicest patterns around, does that make candy canes the chicest candy?

Candy canes are among my favorite holiday treats and while I won’t wear candy cane earrings any time soon, I do like having a festive air in my look.  I created a red and silver look for a holiday vibe, but these colors could certainly change for the season.  Pink and blue would be a beautiful spring combination while black and gray would be a great dark nail for winter.

Striped manicure with gingermen grater by Chic n Cheap Living

What kind of stripes would you wear on your nails?

Here are the materials you need to create your manicure:

  • base coat
  • top coat
  • 2 shades of contrasting nail polish (I recommend one glittery shade and one bright shade)
  • pieces of scotch tape, cut into stripes about  1/8″ thick  – 3 per nail

Here are the steps I used to create this manicure:

1. I trimmed and shaped my nails and painted on the base coat.  Then I layered on my base color, Chanel Fire, which is a true rich red.

2. I let my nails thoroughly dry and then cut a 1″ strip of scotch tape into several even strips.  Each strip was about 1/8″ thick and I tried to make it as parallel as possible.

3. I knew I wanted two stripes on my nail so I used three tape stripes.  The first strip was placed diagonally on the bottom left corner of my nail with most of the tape on the skin.  I left a small space before applying the next strip a little less than 1/16″ above that (basically a thin marker mark away).  I placed the third piece of tape  1/16″ above the second piece of tape.  Basically, you will have 3 parallel pieces of tape running diagonally across your nail with 2 exposed areas (with a possible third exposed area at the nail tip if your third strip is thin enough).

Striped manicure with tape by Chic n Cheap Living

4. I let the tape sit on my nails for about 5-10 minutes.

5. I applied the silver nail polish, Zoya Trixie in the gaps between the pieces of tape.

6. I let the striped color set and finished the pattern off with a clear top coat.

Striped manicure with purse by Chic n Cheap Living

little luxury list

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  • Girlie Blogger December 13, 2012 at 01:57

    Tape – so clever. And this is really easy too. SCORE!

  • Elly @ Caribbean Living December 13, 2012 at 04:28

    Aaaah, I always wondered how people did such tiny little stripes, it’s all become clear! Love the look, very festive!

  • Emma (Fluff and Fripperies) December 13, 2012 at 04:29

    Super pretty! Loved the striped accent nails xo

  • Sam December 13, 2012 at 09:16

    This came out so pretty and charming, love the festive idea!

  • Kim December 13, 2012 at 09:30

    Your nails look great – so fun and festive! I’ll definitely be trying this out for Christmas!

  • Cafe Fashionista December 13, 2012 at 09:59

    YES! Ohmigosh I LOVE this mani – gorgeous for the holidays!! 🙂

  • Amber December 13, 2012 at 10:44

    TAPE!! Oh you genious lady you. You see, I actually tried doing the candy cane stripe nails for my last manicure, and it came out looking so bad – the lines where all squiggly and whatnot. Tape. That is what I was missing! (I ended up doing dots.) I will try this one for my next manicure.

    Great post!

    • Chic 'n Cheap Living December 14, 2012 at 01:42

      Thanks for the sweet comment. I just do whatever is easy! My next uplift manicure is all about bells on my nails so we will be mani twins!

  • Erika ~TiptoeButterfly~ December 13, 2012 at 10:53

    cute DIY!

  • krystal/village December 13, 2012 at 15:01

    that is so pretty!

  • Krysten December 13, 2012 at 16:16

    That is SO cute!

  • Blond Duck December 13, 2012 at 20:32

    SO pretty!

  • Kim December 13, 2012 at 20:32

    Your candy cane nails are So CUTE!!! You did a great job! I love them.

  • Rowena @ rolala loves December 13, 2012 at 20:56

    So fun and festive! I like you varied the stripes! You always do such a great job with your nails.

    Rowena @ rolala loves

    • Chic 'n Cheap Living December 14, 2012 at 01:44

      Can you tell I get bored and like to vary the pattern? Thank you so much for the sweet comments. I do try to make sure my nails look nice, especially if they are going on the blog!

  • lyddiegal December 13, 2012 at 23:53

    these are really pretty! festive, but not over the top.

  • honeymyheart December 14, 2012 at 00:00

    this nail polish design is so fun and perfect for the season!! i really like the whimsy of it.

  • Kimberlee December 17, 2012 at 14:32

    Great job! Love holiday nails 🙂

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