Mani Monday: Jailhouse Rock Mani

Good day you lovely beings! Today I was inspired by the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley! I had his classic song, Jailhouse Rock stuck in my head and thought it best to let it inspire this weeks Mani Monday! I added in some girly detail with cute ‘lil red hearts dancing all over my nails :)

This was quite a tricky mani to get done, as the white stripes were more than just a ‘little’ tricky to achieve! I’ll fill you in on my first two tried but failed attempts below, third time was the charm!

I used x1 Sally Hansen Instant Strength for the base coat, x2 coats of Essence in Black is Back, x1 coat of Tipp-ex on striping tape, x1 coat of Rimmel in Red Carpet for the heart details, x1 coat of Essence in Gel look Topcoat. Read on to find out how to get this Jailhouse Rock mani!

You will need:

• Base coat nail polish
• Base coloured nail polish (I chose black)
• Tipp-ex (Correction fluid) or a white nail polish with good opacity…I tried two different brands and it didn’t work as well as Tipp-ex
• Scissors
• Red nail polish for the heart details
• Orangewood stick / Toothpick / Dotting tool
• Top coat nail polish

Method:

1) Apply base coat to nails, wait for it to dry completely

2) Apply coloured base nail polish to nails, wait for it to dry completely

3) I experimented with trying to achieve white stripes on my nails, my first two tries were unsuccessful. I initially used Yardley French Tip Whitener and tried to paint stripes directly onto my nail…I do not have the steadiest hands…this is very apparent from the pic below! Secondly, I tried cutting a white sticker into thin strips…however I couldn’t cut the strips thin enough and they all ended up being different widths…I didn’t have the patience to measure the width with a ruler etc ….however if you have the patience…go for it…let me know how it goes!

Two failed attempts!

4) On my third try, I struck it lucky and was pretty stoked with the end result! The striping tape I have is the perfect width for the white stripes on my nail, however all I had was gold striping tape…initially a small problem but this was solved when I decided to paint the gold striping tape white!

5) I initially tried painting the striping tape with white nail polish, I tried both Yardley French Tip Whitener and Revlon White on White…however I found that these nail polishes were not opaque enough when painted on top of the striping tape. I then thought about using Tipp-ex (correction fluid) and it is a very stark bright white and would definitely deliver the opaqueness I was after! All in the name of Mani Monday! :)

6) Cut a long piece of striping tape (if you don’t have striping tape…you could try cutting thin pieces of sticky tape) and stick the striping tape to a piece of paper

7) Now apply the Tipp-ex to the striping tape evenly so that the Tipp-ex covers all of the striping tape

8) Wait a few minutes till the Tipp-Ex has dried enough that you can touch it (do not leave it to dry for too long as the Tipp-ex may then start to crack when you lift the striping tape off the paper)

9) Now carefully lift a little bit of the striping tape off the paper, and cut a small piece of the now white striping tape

10) Carefully place the striping tape on your nail and carefully press down so that it sticks to your nail...the striping tape was still fairly sticky and was easily able to stick to my nail and the top coat which I applied after further helped in keepings the striping stuck to my nails

11) Keep cutting small pieces of ‘white’ striping tape and place it on your nail creating a striped design

 

Success at last!

12) Continue with step 9 – 11 until the ‘white’ striping tape has been placed on all nails in a striped design

13) Now get ready to apply the red heard details to your nails, grab a piece of scrap white paper and practice the heart details first until you are confident to do it on your nails (you really don’t want to mess your mani up now with a wonky ‘lil heart detail!)

14) I have showed you how to do the heart detail before over here, but here’s a ‘lil refresher

15) Tip a small amount of nail polish out onto a scrap piece of paper, make sure to work fairly quickly now. Dip the orangewood stick (toothpick or dotting tool if you prefer) in the small pool of nail polish and place three dots of nail polish in an upside down triangle shape.

16) Now take the orangewood stick and carefully pull each dot into each other so that it joins in the middle…the dots once all joined will now resemble a heart shape

17) Once you are confident that you are comfortable with the heart design technique…you can then go ahead and go wild and apply as much or as little heart design detail to your nails…I went ahead and added one cute little heart per nail in different positions

18) Totally be jazzed that you aced such an awesome mani and remember the King of Rock of Roll put on some Jailhouse Rock on your iPod and don’t be afraid to sing along, I know you want too….and totally rock out some jazz knees ala Evlis …Lets rock, everybody, lets rock, Everybody in the whole cell block, Was dancin to the jailhouse rock….la la la :)

Has a song inspired a mani or outfit choice for you before?

 

As always, linking up to Mani Monday below, with the fabulous Heather and Heather!  I will also be joining the ladies over at The Nail Files. 

Join the fun side of life and link up to Mani Monday and The Nail Files below :)