I really love the traditional candy cane manicure. I was going to do different colours again but I couldn't resist the traditional colours. It looks so Christmasy (if that's a word lol).
I used striping tape which is an absolute pain to use but worked to give me the desired look. The most difficult thing about this mani was finding the right top coat to not make the stripes bleed. I had to do a couple of attempts and even with an hours drying time on this one there is still a small amount of bleeding. I'll explain below a few tips I learnt while doing this mani.
For the white base I first used two coats of Nubar faded putty - this is a just off white with a hint of beige.
I then used one coast of Essence to go - Sparkling Water Lily. I used one coat of top coat and gave it half hour to dry. I then used striping tape placed like photo below.
Once I made sure all tape was stuck well and had pressed the sides in with a cuticle stick I added one coat of Sally Hansen Ruby Stilettos.
I first did this look with Essie After Sex and Leading Lady but they bled a lot. With SH ruby stilettos I found wiping my brush dry two times and applying a thin coat worked well, I then waited 1 minute 20 seconds before carefully removing the tape. It helped to pull the tape slowly and carefully not in the whip off manner I have used previously. The end result was worth it and the bleeds you see in the photos are not noticeable in real life, the camera truly does magnify everything!
UPDATE As Robyn noted I forgot to say about top coats. I tried both HK girl and Orly sec'n'dry and both made the polish bleed badly. This may not have been their fault as I could have waited longer, though with Orly it was 30 minutes. I eventually used my fav seche vite, it only bled a small amount, so much so that I didn't know it had until I saw the photos. This was added one hour after the last red nail polish.
