Vanity + Wearables

Triangle fingers.

doorsixteen_trianglemanicure_01

It’s been a looooong time since I did a manicure post, but I couldn’t resist sharing this latest one. I’m a little bit obsessed with it! I can’t stop looking at my fingers.

I’m still really into Calgel manicures, but custom designs can get pretty expensive. Lately I’ve been getting solid-color Calgel (expect to pay ~$40 and for it to last about four weeks) and painting my own designs on top with regular nail polish. Last month I added white dots to a black base, and yesterday I took a little more time to paint black triangles on top of the palest, prettiest pink.

I wish I had process photos to share, but I did this at 1AM and I honestly wasn’t expecting it to look so nice! It’s easy to explain how to do it, though. You really just need two things: a bottle of nail polish and regular old Scotch tape! Use the Scotch tape to mask off the area you want to paint, carefully brush on the polish, immediately remove the tape (remove the tape strips in the reverse order of which you applied them so you don’t make a mess), et voilà!

A few things:
1. Painter’s tape doesn’t work well for this. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t. Stick with regular Scotch tape.
2. You can definitely do this on top of a regular nail polish base, but it needs to be really dry first. I’d suggest waiting at least 4–6 hours.
3. If you have a little smudge to clean up, just carefully use a clean orange stick dipped in non-acetone nail polish remover. Yes, even if the smudge is on the actual nail.

doorsixteen_trianglemanicure_02

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17 Comments

  • Reply Reidunn July 19, 2014 at 9:05 pm

    WOW! So good.
    This I have to try

  • Reply Lizzie Modern July 20, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    That’s really cool! Will definitely be trying it.

  • Reply Jessica July 20, 2014 at 11:20 pm

    Whoa that’s a tough look! I can imagine it with a leather jacket and lots of bling 😉

  • Reply kylie July 21, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    LOVE LOVE LOVE this look – so fierce!

  • Reply katrina July 21, 2014 at 7:09 pm

    i’m such a noob. before reading your post, i thought you drew the triangles freehand. tape makes total sense. i can’t stop looking at your nails either, they’re beautiful!

    • Anna @ D16 July 21, 2014 at 9:47 pm

      Hahaha, if I freehanded them, they’d look verrrrrry different!!

  • Reply Ferren July 22, 2014 at 3:17 am

    I tried this once and I wasn’t patient enough to let the first layer fully dry. It looked awful.

    You are patient and yours look LOVELY!

    x

  • Reply JAY July 22, 2014 at 11:03 am

    I am always so scared to paint over my nails after manicures!

  • Reply Roberta July 23, 2014 at 1:42 pm

    I loved it and I’m gonna try it out this weekend!

  • Reply Mabel and Zora July 28, 2014 at 3:37 pm

    This is flawless! It takes so much patience to complete this I bet…. get it, girl. Such a golden girl in the nail world right now.
    xoxo

  • Reply Teresa July 28, 2014 at 11:57 pm

    Your hands are so pretty. I really love the pink, which looks so nice with your skin color, and the severity of the black triangles. Very “you.”

    • Anna @ D16 July 29, 2014 at 12:05 am

      Thank you, Teresa!

  • Reply Gladys July 29, 2014 at 1:11 pm

    Dear Anna
    Beautiful nails ! Loooooove your ring though !

    • Anna @ D16 July 29, 2014 at 4:17 pm

      Thanks, Gladys. The ring was a lucky $5 find at H&M!

  • Reply wendy July 31, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    aubrey plaza copied your nails!

    http://tomandlorenzo.com/2014/07/aubrey-plaza-in-tanya-taylor-in-new-york-city/

    • Anna @ D16 July 31, 2014 at 3:45 pm

      Hahahahaa, awesome.

  • Reply JoGi September 7, 2014 at 4:27 pm

    Beautiful nails, fantastic idea and perfect realization! Bravo!!!

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