Fish tail braid

Hey there!

This week's mani looks really intricate but is actually quite simple once you get the rhythm of the pattern down. You don't even need any fancy tools for this one, just nail polish. I will admit, it was time consuming doing this pattern on every nail. For a quicker version, you could do just your thumbs and ring fingers and keep the rest a solid color. Well, get's into it!

I began as always with a base coat of OPI Start to Finish Formaldehyde Free formula. I then followed with a coat of ORLY Buried Treasure. Once dry, I drew a diagonal line, starting at the right corner base of the nail and going left towards the other side of the nail, with ORLY Liquid Vinyl. Then once that black line was partly dry, I made another diagonal line starting at the opposite corner at the base of the nail and going right, making an x as I overlapped the black line I had previously done, in Sei Bella Violet Storm. I continued this pattern of overlapping in diagonal lines and alternating the three colors of polish until I reached the desired amount of lines and achieved the "braided" look. Once completely dry, I topped it with a fast drying top coat of INM Out the Door.

ORLY Buried Treasure

Diagonal line of ORLY Liquid Vinyl

Diagonal line of Sei Bella Violet Storm

Diagonal line of ORLY Buried Treasure

Diagonal line of ORLY Liquid Vinyl

Finished product

This was such a fun mani!! I loved the finished look. It looks so hard, but really it's not too bad. I think the hardest part is starting the first two diagonal lines. Once you do the first two, then you can decide how thick or thin the lines will be depending at what point you decide to do the next overlapping diagonal lines. I hope it makes sense with the pictures! It is somewhat forgiving too, because you will always be painting over at least part of what you already painted when you go in with the next color. So I guess just be careful to not put really thick layers of polish, since you have to use quite a bit before you get to the bottom of your nail. Please feel free to ask questions if you have any! Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!