the ari

this gray and yellow manicure was inspired by a facebook friend, ari zapata. ari is one half of the duo of erikmotta.com. she is a photographer and especially loves wedding photography. what's her favorite wedding colors you might ask? yellow and gray! being an august baby like myself, she is fierce and knows what she wants and so "the ari" manicure was created.

step 1: apply the base coat, orly's lemonade.

step 2: once the base has dried completely, rip off a piece of sotch tape. using the corner of the tape, point the tip towards the center of the nail, leaving room for the next color. push down all sides of the tape, so there’s no bleeding then paint the top part of the nail using essie's chinchilly. for the black leopard  i used a black  '2 way nail art brush pen' from ebay (please see my "leopard' post for the link).

step 3: peel off the tape IMMEDIATELY after painting the nail, pulling from the center upwards

step 4: for the additional accents i lined the "v" of the chevron with a silver glitter nail polish and topped it off with a small black rhinestone (see the link on my "leopard" post). 

i love how scotch tape can be easily used to create a nail design. the only downside is the wait time. i recommend to paint the base one day and the design the day after or if you have the time, wait an hour or two before applying the tape so that you don't ruin your base color.