Sparkly Lattice

Today is a fun sparkly manicure that doesn't scream "I want to be a 12 yr old girl still!". Sometimes glitter can seem like you're trying to hard to be young, and there is no reason why glitter has to be off limits to those of us who have been an official adult longer than they'd been a child. 

Layering glitter UNDER a solid color polish, with glints shining through, is a fun take on glittery nails. 

I started with a simple black polish. It doesn't need to be a well executed layer; it is OK if there are uneven spots. It is basically just a base color to give the glitter some interesting depth.You can use a color that coordinates with your top color, use your top color for a bit more of a monochromatic look, or skip it altogether. I used Wet N'Wild's Halloween black, that I got on clearance for I think 25 cents. 

Next, I added a layer of dense, holographic silver glitter. This is one coat, since it was late and I was too tired to finish the manicure. 

 To keep my nails from getting jacked up while I slept, I used a new quick dry polish that I got at CVS called OutTheDoor. I let it sit for about 2 mins, then went to bed, and there only were two tiny little nicks, that I probably got while closing the polish bottles. So it did pretty good. It is a thin polish, so it doesn't do a lot of smoothing, but it does good enough to keep your polish from getting sleep lines.

I added a second coat of glitter the next day, when I was ready to finish my manicure. I like the more solid coverage of the second coat. 

To make my lattice grid, I cut strips of scotch tape of differing widths and laid in a pattern across my nail. (You can also get striping tape, or use painters tape)
The time you are most likely to mess up the polish is when you are removing the tape strips. To help prevent this, I always lay my tape strips in the same order.
First I place the strip closest to my cuticle going from lower left to upper right (in the picture below)
Second is the strip going from lower left to upper right closest to the tip.
Third I place the strip closest to my cuticle going from lower right to upper left.
Lastly, I place the strip going from lower right to upper left closest to the tip.
The two bottom strips I usually make thicker than the top two, because I like the variation in size when I'm done.

 Now you coat the entire nail with your solid polish. This is two coats.

 Very carefully and slowly, remove your strips of tape. This is where knowing which are on top comes in handy... if you grab a strip that is under another, you're likely going to smudge the paint.
If the tape begins to pull up the base layers of paint, STOP! Try to pull up the tape from the other side, and gently pull away from the loosened edge.
Lastly, cover with a coat or two of quick dry top coat. I used the OutTheDoor to quickly set the polish and blend all of the edges, then used Seche Vite for a final coat, to smooth everything out nicely and give it a great shine.

 Here's an up close, so you can see just how sparkly the glitter polish is!