How To: DIY chevron decals + Neon Overload!

Hi dolls! Today we have a bit of a smorgasbord going on! We've got dots, gradients, glitter, chevron, leopard, zebra! What DON'T we have on these nails! Haha. Well, me and DJ of @djsnails on Instagram teamed up again for #bestietwinnails! While I was in Las Vegas last month I bought us some of the same Island Girl Polishes and when I sent them to her I suggested we do matching nails using them! She basically had full reign on this one! She picked the colors and design and I copied lol.

I used:

Island Girl: "Aloha Girl" "Mohalo Color" and "Sugar Cane" (although I'm pretty sure it's labeled wrong).

Don't worry the decal tutorial is coming! Now usually when I do a chevron design I just paint my base color, let it dry, cut tape, apply it directly to my nail and paint my coordinating color over it then peel it off to reveal the chevron design. But, when I want multiple different colors in my design, that becomes kind of a struggle because if you don't work fast enough with all your colors they start to dry over the tape, then when you peel off your tape your top polishes come right off with it. So then I turn to the Ziploc Method. I did not create this and I have no idea who the originator was.

How To: DIY chevron decals

1. Paint the color(s) of your choice in big enough sections for however many decals you will need, on a Ziploc (sandwich) baggy and let it dry for a good few hours. Do enough coats so that it is opaque. Here I've done three coats of each color. What I like to do is do it the night before and let it dry overnight. If you need to speed up the process you can also stick it in your fridge and it will dry faster.
2. When your polish is dry, lift up the edges with tweezers or an orangewood stick. Something pointy that can lift the edges then it should peel right off.
3. Using your pinking shears or craft scissors, start cutting your strips. You can do them as thin or wide as you want. Here I've done them a bit thinner than I usually do because I wanted multiple colors.      
4. Once you have all your pieces cut, paint your base color on your nail. Here I've just used white. I forgot to show this part in the pictures. If you already had your nails painted from before and it's fully dry then just apply a clear coat over your color.
5. Let your base color (or clear coat) dry most of the way but while it's still tacky, start laying down your strips. Because you are putting polish on top of polish it will adhere to the tacky polish underneath. Trim off the extra on the sides and make sure they are pressed down good. You can also clean up any leftover pieces that go over the sides or edge of the nail with a small brush and acetone just like you would with regular polish. Then apply a topcoat over everything and you're set!!

You can make anything with these, not just chevron! If you go to a craft store you can get heart hole punchers and stars, you can cut out shapes like triangles, anything you want!! You follow the exact same steps just change your tool! I hope this was helpful for some of you! I'd love to see what you come up with! Let me know if you try this out! Tag me on Instagram @lusterlacquer and use my hashtag #lusterlacquer in case I miss the name tag!

And here are mine and DJ's #bestietwinnails!!! Go follow her on Instagram @djsnails. She will be holding a contest/giveaway coming up!

xo, Colleen