Snow Day/Mid-Week Mani Inspiration

A snow day in March, I was not expecting! After holding out for snow (that actually resulted in substantial accumulation on the ground) this entire winter, it finally came…and boy was I excited! No surprise, I used my day off to come up with a fun-tastic mid-week mani. The inspiration behind my manicure stemmed from a lovely ensemble that I spotted on J.Crew’s website earlier this week. Pink and white stripes + black and white polka dots are one combination that’s never tiresome, and I just love it! As we’re currently between seasons, still in winter but on the verge of spring, I couldn’t foresee a better color palette/design to embrace.

• Nail Polish- Essie (Splash of Grenadine), CoverGirl (White Night), Rimmel London (Black Satin), Urban Outfitters matte gray polish and a sparkly lacquer
• Large Paperclip
• Scissors
• Hole Reinforcers
• Tape

1. Remove any remnants of previous nail polish and apply base coat if desired.
2. Prepare tape strips for the stripes by painting a 2-inch strip of tape with white nail polish. Let dry.
3. To create the polka dot effect on your pointer finger, cover your nail with white polish. Once that’s dry, take a paperclip and bend it so that the metal end can be used as a dotting device. Dip the end of the paperclip in black nail polish and test it out on paper to make sure that you’re getting the dot size that you wish. Don’t worry if the polka dots aren’t uniform, imperfect dots lend it some charm. (Repeat same process for your pinky nail.)
4. Next, I went ahead and painted my middle nail with pink polish and my ring finger nail with grey. Though I couldn’t resist doing a glittery accent nail, you could forgo it and continue with the polka dot or stripe design instead.
5. If you’ve never applied nail strips before, then let me assure you that the process is very easy. Once you’ve left your nail strips to dry for about 10 minutes or so, cut them in the desired width. When placing each strip, you’ll want to take your time and space them out accordingly on your nail. If you mess up, no worries, they’re easy to remove (and if worse comes to worse, you can always make more strips!).
6. If you’re an avid follower of The Beauty Department, then you probably already know how to achieve a half moon manicure. If not, then, simply place a hole reinforcer over the bottom portion of your thumb nail. Paint the top part with two coats of pink polish. Then, remove the hole reinforcer and cover the exposed area black. Once dry, use your paperclip to create a handful of white dots.
7. Lastly, when you’re satisfied with your design and all of your nails have fully dried, add a top coat.