Nail tutorial: How to take your mani through the week

Greetings from London, where Summer requires a few layers, a scarf and a jacket. I was in Bristol where my internet access was irregular-to-nonexistent, so it's good to be back online. Since I am trying to do a gazillion things here as well as find time to eat and live, some of my friends are kindly helping me out here for a while. Today, it is Nidia Doherty of Lit From Within. You have to visit Nidia's blog and look at that cute firefly, the way she matches her manis to her skincare and makeup products and her trove of trivia on all topics from essential oils to moisturisers. Over to Nidia now.

Hello, Readers! My name is Nidia, and I run a little blog called Lit From Within.  I'm excited to share a little nail art with you today! When I was putting this look together, I was thinking about how to take a mani through the week.  Maybe you have to be more conservative with your nails during the workweek, or maybe you don't have time to do anything other than a one-color mani most of the time, but you want to change it up for an event.
For this look, I started with CoverGirl My Papaya, a bright coral creme.  I wanted a bright, not quite neon color for this look, but you can use any color you like.

If you're handy with a polish brush, you don't even really need striping tape for this next step, but I wanted crisp, straight lines, so I used tape. I made a narrow X with the tape that would give me a small, narrow triangle with the base at the cuticle, and the tip about halfway down the nail.

I have an unnamed nude polish from a Bonita set that is the perfect match for my skintone, but you should use whatever nude polish matches your skintone.  The more contrast between the base color and this skintone color, the more the color will pop. I love this for a subtle pop of color, and if you have short nails, this type of triangle detail can give the illusion of longer, narrower nails.

If you want more contrast, use a black striper to outline the triangle.

Maybe you're starting to get some tip wear by the weekend, and you want to take this look up a notch.  Take the original color and paint a chevron French tip, and then clean up the lines with a black striper.

Because the nude I chose is so close to my skin color, it almost looks like a negative-space mani!  I love the impact of the black on nude, with the pops of color.  You can reverse the colors if you want for a different look, or replace the coral with a neon for a bright summer mani, perfect for the music festivals.

Bottle shot:  CoverGirl My Papaya, no-name Bonita polish, black striper.

Thanks to Renu for letting me invade her blog today! If you liked this nail art, and enjoy other beauty stuffs, please feel free to stop by my Facebook page, check out my Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or check out my blog, Lit From Within.

Thanks for that, Nidia! I'm definitely going to try this out as soon as my sadly-damaged-by-air-travel nails grow back. It was very kind of you to help me out with my blog. Hope to see you here again soon!