Fish Tail Braid Manicure Tutorial Results

Nail Polishes used:

 Manicure Keeper by Orly (rubberized basecoat), Social Climber by OPI, It's Totally Karma by OPI, Yellow My Name is Betsey by OPI, Seche Vite (top coat)

Results from Fish Tail Braid Manicure:

(click on photos to enlarge)

Yesterday, I tried out a tutorial called Fish Tail Braid Manicure at Polish & Pearls. Above you will see the polishes I chose for this tutorial and my results.  It was difficult to find colors that would stand out and show those braid lines and not just blend together.  I really wanted a peach manicure this time around, but the peach and coral polishes were just not standing out. So I decided on these colors which look like they are from the 70's and very retro looking to me.  What do you think, does it look retro to you?  I also practiced for over an hour, since straight lines without using tape isn't easy for me. You can see my last creation, 4th of July nails, which used tape to make straight lines to compare, here.  This tutorial was very intimidating and I really wasn't sure it would come out ok.  I'm happy with the results though.  It took seventy minutes to paint the eight braids, so it was a long wait to see if I had done it correctly and if it looked ok.  That was a long seventy minutes!  If you try out this tutorial, I highly recommend using a metallic polish as your background color, the color you start with and paint on your entire nail first. Then use two non-metallic polishes that are very different than each other.  I also recommend using polishes that only need one coat for good coverage.

For the above nails, I started with clean, freshly filed nails and used a cotton ball to apply nail polish remover to remove any oils.  I let that dry, then used Orly's  rubberized base coat twice.  Then, I used the silver metallic polish named Social Climber on the entire nail, one coat was enough.  Next, I applied a braid of color with the green color named It's Totally Karma by OPI.  Then I used a yellow color named Yellow My Name is Betsey by OPI.  I repeated those three colors until there were four lines of of color on each side making a braid of eight lines.  Then I let it dry for about ten minutes and added Seche Vite as a top coat.  All of my color polishes can be purchased at Sephora.  The yellow color by Betsey Johnson can be purchased in a set, here.  The green color is in a collection called Bohemian Brights and can be purchased, here.  The top coat can be purchased  at Amazon here, and I've seen it at Target.  The base coat can be purchased at QVC, here.

If you want your manicure to last at least two weeks, you must apply nail polish remover on your nails right before your manicure to remove any oils.  Secondly, you must apply a rubberized base coat twice.  I recommend the Orly brand.  Thirdly, you must use a high quality fast drying top coat and apply it again 1-3 times a week depending on how active you are that week. For example, if I'm going to wash my four dogs, I apply another top coat the night before. I highly recommend Seche Vite as your top coat, there is no other top coat that dries immediately and also helps dry the coats of polish below it.  It also evens out any of your stroke lines and flattens the 3D effect of doing lines over lines such as the braid tutorial.  My lines looked rough and bumpy until I put my top coat on, what a difference!  Using the advice above, my last manicure lasted twenty days!  I guess I should have removed it after fourteen, because of the distance between the polish and the cuticle, but I just loved my last manicure, which was a 4th of July design.

Thanks for reading, as a reward you may enter my raffle for ten cosmetics, a $127 value, enter here.  If you have any questions, comments, etc, please leave me a comment below.  Have a PEACEful Day!