Nearly Plaid & Barefoot

Wow! 336 votes in the People's Choice Contest so far! Haven't voted yet? Click here. Then come back to see this week's nail art design.

Haircare Discounters, an online company who sells the entire line of OPI polishes (for less than you'd find it in stores - links in the sidebars) was kind enough to send me a couple of free polishes this month. OPI "Barefoot in Barcelona" was one of my free bottles, a sort of dark rose pink that I think is a wonderful neutral. I was late getting to my manicure this week, and tired, so I decided to use my black and white migi pens to create a simple design.
First, the base - two coats of OPI "Barefoot in Barcelona". It's been awhile since I dug into my OPI collection, but this formula is to die for! Notice my cuticles (yeah, aside from the serious dry skin)? Most of my polish jobs are messy to start, but this polish was just a dream to control going on. Far less mess than normal.
Then, after using my thumbnail as "practice" to see how far I'd take the design, I decided on just two offset crosses in sort of a beginning plaid design. I started with white.
Then added black on top. If you try this, you can do it while the polish is still wet. Just make sure not to let the tip of the pen touch your nail or the paint.
A couple coats of top coat, and it's all done (you can see my "experimental" plaid thumbnail here too). Remember that most nail art colors "drag" or bleed when you go to apply top coat, so do the first coat in one swipe over the artwork, not letting the brush actually touch the nail. After that dries, you can brush the final coat on as normal.

My lines aren't all that straight - my hands were shaky from a day's worth of physical labor. But I don't think it turned out too bad. My husband says it reminds him of some popular art style.

Next week starts four weeks of Halloween nail art, starting with some brand new Halloween decals the folks at Cina sent me to show you. They'll be available exclusively at Sally Beauty Supply during the month of October...come back next Tuesday for a peek!