NOTD & Tutorialette: Neon Ruffian

Hello!

Do not adjust your screens. It's not them--it's the crazy neon polish.

For my third entry in the Tri-Polish Challenge over at Crumpet's Nail Tarts, I decided to do a funky ruffian, since I've seen the style be sort of reborn lately (well, it's been popular again, with interesting pairings). I figured what better way to go for it than with these three funky polishes?

I took the pictures for this before I realized people might like a tutorial on it, so I'll show you the picture and break it down into steps after. :)

To refresh your memory, the polishes I'm using are:

1) Orange: LeChat Kiss-N-Tell
2) Pink: Julep Avery
3) Turquoise: Zoya Zuza

Here's my funky ruffian, which was so bright it freaked my camera out, lol:

How I did it:

Step 1: If you are using a sheer or uncooperative neon, start with a base of white undies (I did this here).

Step 2: Paint your nails as you would normally with your orange polish. Some people paint only the bottom half of the nail, since they will be covering up most of the nail. I don't like to do it that way, for two reasons. One is, you can usually tell where the underwear leaves off slightly, and that annoys me. Second, I like to have my ruffian edge extend far up the sides of the nail, as you can see. (Tip: turning a mani with tip wear into a ruffian is a cool way to extend your manicure.)

Step 3: Pretend your nail bed starts a small bit higher than where it actually does, and then paint your nails with your second color (turquoise here) as you normally would; in other words, leave a bit of the first polish showing, and polish otherwise normally. I use the three-stroke method (push bead down in middle, stroke up, then stroke around the right side, then around the left); I do it just the same here, except I start a titch higher than I normally would. If none of my rambling explanation here makes sense to you, check out a really clear diagram from Tastes Like Glitter by clicking here. 

Step 4: Put two dots of white polish on the tips of each nail. When they're dry, put dots of your pink polish on top of them. (If your pink polish is opaque enough, you might not need the white undie to pop the color).

Step 5: As always, finish with a topcoat. This is pretty important on a ruffian like this because you'll have several layers of polish. :)

And there you go! Thanks for taking a look, and please check out the other Tri-Polish manicures linked below. :)

Big hugs,
M.