Ikat Nails
Finally time for my first post since my holiday and I’m ready for a cool print design I’ve had my eye on for a while.
Ikat is a fabric dyeing technique a bit like tie-dye but normally only on one direction of fibres. It creates linear patterns normally in contrasting colours and it’s really striking.
While I was on holiday another nail broke and I decided it was time to go for the chop and cut all my nails down. So this is a design that works well on any length of nail, luckily!
Here are all the tools and polishes I used:
I started by filing the corners of my nails down. An oval shape works best for me as I find corners catch and break more easily.
I’ve got a glass file (mine’s from Ciaté as it was the cheapest I found atBeautyBox.com) which are good for filing – they work quickly – but keep a smooth edge on your nails so you don’t have a raggedy finish which you can sometime get with emery boards.
First up Nail Envy base coat – these short nails need all the help they can get! Followed by two coats of Essie Turqouise & Caicos sandwiching a coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps for a tough final finish. I have very bendy nails which cause my varnish to flake off badly.
Next up a few blobs of white polish – fairly randomly shaped and spaced – this is not a design that needs much accuracy so great if you have shaky hands or don’t feel you’re ambidextrous enough to get both hands done! I used Barry M Matte White but any white polish that’s fairly opaque will do.
On top of the white I added a pale pink, roughly crescent-shaped over the white blobs. Again, neatness and accuracy aren’t that important. I used Chanel Frisson which has a nice shimmer.
Next up, armed with a striping brush and black polish I added small linear stokes all running in one direction from tip to bed of the nail. All the black strokes outline the white and pink blobs, occasionally with an off-centre blob and/or joining the two blobs across the base colour. I used Rimmel Black Out and a striping brush from Born Pretty Store.
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