Nail Art How-to: Quilted Nails

Since my past few posts have been more on the decorative side, I thought I’d share a simpler design this week – quilted nail art. This technique can be applied to making stripes as well, if you don’t have any brushes or striping polish on hand. Read on to learn more:

What You’ll Need:

• A base coat
• A white polish – like NYC’s French White Tip
• A nail polish color of your choice – I chose Essie’s Cocktail Bling
• Scissors
• A roll of tape

Step 1:

Before we proceed to working on the actual nail, I suggest cutting out your strips of tape first. Take a piece of tape and place it on your palm to remove some of the stickiness before cutting it. After that, cut it into small strips – as small as you possibly can.
I recommend using cuticle scissors or any type of small scissor so you can have more control. I used about six pieces, but you can cut accordingly, depending on how you want your design to turn out.

Step 2:

Paint on your base color. For this particular look, I wanted to do varying shades of the same color, so I mixed one or two drops of white with a small amount of the polish I chose. Allow it to dry completely – I usually do this step a day before (or a few hours before) just to make sure it is completely dry.

Then, place your tape accordingly, doing one section of the diagonal before moving to the other. Make sure you remember which diagonal you did first to avoid any mishaps when you remove the tape.
Above, I used thicker strips of tape and below, thinner strips, so you can see the difference.

Step 3:

Once you ensure there aren’t any gaps in the tape, proceed to paint on two coats of your polish.

Step 4:

Remove the tape in the opposite order of how you put it on before the polish dries or gets tacky to avoid any uneven ridges. After that, let your polish dry and clean up the edges as needed.
Note: if you choose to put a top coat on, note that it will smooth out the whole design and won’t look as “quilted” without the texture. I suggest forgoing a topcoat for a 3-D look, as you can see in the examples above.

What did you think about this design?

Has anyone tried this particular look with striping tape? Any comments, questions or suggestions? Feel free to post them down below! I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial!