Work Wear Wednesday: Negative Space Tutorial

Guess what day it is?! It is again Work Wear Wednesday! Today I have a fun and really simple manicure to share with you. I really like playing with negative space in manis and I decided to do a simple intro to negative space for those of you who haven't tried it or maybe haven't tried it because you have stained nails (I have a solution for that!). I hope you like it! Tutorial is at the end of the post.

So, normally I have really stained nails. I don't know if it is just because I like dark polish or what, but I am prone to staining. And, yes, I always use a base coat (sometimes two). My solution for making it look like your nails aren't stained is to use a french pink color as a base color to start out with before doing a negative space mani. I used Rimmel London French Manicure PRO, which has been discontinued. I stocked up on it when it was discontinued because I like this one in particular so much, but I am sure there are tons on the market. I thought it was a great solution for difficult staining. In addition to the french pink, I used Northern Star Toil & Trouble for this look. It is a beautiful holographic sage green. I don't usually grab greens for work appropriate looks, but I think the type of green that it is makes it really work appropriate. I also really like dark greens for work. Here is the full tutorial:

1. Start with a good base coat and add a french pink base if you have staining, otherwise just the base coat will be fine.
2. Make sure your polish is completely dry. If you are in a hurry you can add a quick dry top coat to speed up the process. Add nail vinyls in the thickest and smallest widths next to each other as seen in the photo. Make sure to press down on the edges to make sure there are no gaps, otherwise polish will seep in underneath.
3. Paint a thick enough layer of your color to coat the nail completely, in this case I am using Northern Star Polish Toil & Trouble from the recent Macbeth Collection.
4. Quickly remove the nail vinyls before the polish starts to dry to ensure that your lines are clean. Clean up the cuticles and add a top coat (after the polish dries) and you are good to go!

I created this with two accent nails that I don't usually use as my go-to accent nails. You can switch it up however you want! I usually do my ring and middle fingers as accents, but I wanted to try my pointer and middle today, and I really liked it! I hope you enjoyed this easy tutorial for work appropriate nail art!