FingerFood's Theme Weeks - Fishtail

This week's theme is a technique I had never tried before - a fishtail braid. This is why I love challenges - they make me attempt things I'd never dare without the prompt!

Polishes used: China Glaze Spontaneous, Jess Disco Diva, my own franken, Misa Sorry Just Can't Help It and Star Gazer 232

I started with the plainer nails, and did the actual fishtail a day later. The base colour is one of my own franken-polishes - I had a bottle of very runny silver microglitter polish (which came with a striping brush, completely unsuited to the polish), and I poured it into a larger bottle and added some purple and grey polish until I got the colour I wanted. I may still tweak it in the future, but right now it's a lovely dusty lavender with insane amounts of silver microglitter and two coat coverage. Once this was dry, I added a glitter gradient of Jess Disco Diva on the tips. The effect screamed Disney princess to me :D

Fishtail braid manicure with a franken-polish of my own

The next day I sat down with a podcast, and started the time consuming process of painting the braid. Seriously, I had to wait for each individual stripe to dry - it took me at least 30 minutes in total. I picked out three polishes that would compliment the base - two purples and a silver foil - and followed the tutorial by the amazing Lucy from Lucy's Stash. It took me a while to figure out the best brush to use for this - the bottle brushes were too big, the detail brush too small, and in the end I went with a striping brush. Once the whole thing was dry, I secured it with Color Club top coat.

Glitter and fishtail braid.

As you can see, the fishtail is not very neat, and leans off-centre. However, I am quite happy with it - it was my first go at this technique. The polishes I chose were perfect for the job, opaque and easily applied, and the striping brush worked well. I will probably use this technique again in the future, but only as an accent nail - I don't think I have the patience to do an entire hand!

Polishes I used:

• China Glaze Spontaneous - an almost pastel medium purple crème, nicely opaque (two coats alone) and very easy to apply.
• Jess Disco Diva - a mix of two sizes of purple and holographic glitter in a clear base. Swatched here.
• Misa Sorry Just Can't Help It - a darker saturated purple crème, excellent for nail art and nearly a one coater on its own. 
• Star Gazer 232 - incredibly opaque silver foil, perfect for all nail art purposes.
• My own franken - so far nameless, and obviously unique!

Thanks for looking, and check out other challenge manicures below!

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