5 Minutes to Perfect DIY Nail Art: Your Quick Guide to Stunning Manicures

5. Speedy Striping and Linear Designs

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Make striking linear designs fast with small brushes or striping tape. Start with a completely dried base colour and then lay striping tape in your intended pattern. Remove the tape right away while the polish is wet for neat lines and paint over with opposing colours. Alternatively make freehand stripes, geometric patterns, or abstract lines with a fine brush. Confidence in your strokes is the secret to speed; hesitate produces uneven lines. Remember that basic patterns usually have the most effect; practise creating straight lines in one continuous motion. Use many closely spaced strips of striping tape to produce flawless parallel lines. Layer perpendicular lines in several colours for a fast plaid effect. Experiment with negative space designs by leaving some unpainted sections of the nail such that the natural foundation or colour shows through. For a dramatic impact, try a simple style with one strong stripe down the centre of the nail or diagonal stripes. Create connecting curves or wavy lines to get a more natural feel. To preserve accuracy, remember to run your striping brush between colours. Before the polish dries, rapidly clean a mistake you make with a little brush dipped in acetone. Using these methods, you can produce a great range of simple, sophisticated linear designs inside your five-minute limit.