This week’s nail art technique is another simple and easy one – using ordinary scotch tape to help you paint anything from basic to more intricate patterns on your nails.

The basic idea is to paint your nails one colour, stick your scotch tape on top of that as a ‘guide’ and to then paint the exposed part of your nail with another colour, before removing the tape to reveal your chosen pattern.

The most important rule of this technique, is to let your 1st colour dry 100% before applying your tape! The last thing you want is to take the tape off, and then the polish underneath neatly comes off with it… :p

Now let’s have a look at a couple of examples to feed your idea vault 😉

Here I painted my nails white, and used tape on 2 opposite sides of each nail to paint a chequered black and white pattern.

Or try this simple pattern, where I painted vertical sections going down the length of the nail (to give an interesting twist on the French / the two-tone mani):

A 3rd option is to cut a thin curved section out of your tape, which you stick onto the middle of your nail, and then you paint a different colour on each side of it:

Or how about a fun diagonal line:

Then there is this idea – which I haven’t tried out myself yet – but it is definitely on my to-do list:

Its really all about being creative! Use an arts & crafts scissor that cuts patterned lines or design your own pattern on the tape with some small nail scissors. The options are endless.. Just have fun with it!

Final tip: It is best to paint your nails one by one, removing the tape as soon as you have painted, because if you leave the polish to dry before you remove the tape, it becomes more difficult to remove neatly.