31 Day Challenge 2013: Day 1 - Red Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is Day 1 of The 31 Day Challenge! For those of you who have never heard of it, this challenge started 3 years ago and takes place every September. A few days ago I saw Cristina of LTHP post the following image and I was so excited to finally have the time and chance to join her, chalkboardnails, thesammersaurus (thenailasaurus), and so many amazing nail bloggers and artists for an entire month of nail art awesomeness. 

So Day 1 of the challenge calls for red nails. I decided to go with a striping tape design inspired by a manicure done by @mcpolish on instagram. She did a simple yet chic striping tape manicure over her nude nails using a black polish. I switched up the pattern of the striping tape and went with a red polish (of course).

For this manicure I didn't apply a basecoat. I cut pieces of striping tape and placed them on my nails, keeping the same patterns on my pinky, index, and thumb & creating another pattern on my ring and middle fingers. I applied one coat of Zoya Livingston over the tape and removed it while the polish was still wet to reveal the pattern. This manicure was complete with a coat of HKGirl topcoat. 

I really love the way this manicure turned out! Next time I will use a nude polish as my base just so that the color change between my nail bed and free edge isn't so apparent. I'd love to hear what you think of this manicure and if you plan to join this challenge please leave a comment below with your blog link so that I can check out your red nails! As always, I hope you all enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica