Quilted Twin Nails with Traditional and Gel Polish

Hello Loves!  Today I have teamed up Jessica at Be Happy and Buy Polish for a quilted twin mani!  This was a super fun challenge for me since it's not a technique that is traditionally done in gel polish.

Jessica's quilted nails turned out fabulous, don't you think?  Be sure to check out her blog post to see more of her awesome mani!

Here's another pic of mine.  It was extremely difficult to capture the texture on the quilted nails.

To create this design, I started with a base of Couture Come On Barbie! (swatched previously here) and Couture Ooh La La French (swatched here).  I then created simple dot flowers on the white nails with Come On Barbie! and added leaves in Couture Spa Day (swatched here).  That was the easy part! 

The quilted nails were a challenge, and I'm not 100% happy with how they turned out.  The top coat flattened out the texture a bit more than I like.  I started with one coat of Couture Come On Barbie!  I then added a second coat and carved the lines for the quilt with a thin detailing brush.  Once the lines were finished, I cured the layer.  I then used the detail brush to add an additional layer of gel to the squares created by the lines, being careful not to allow to gel to spill into the carved lines.  I cured again and then added a very thin layer of top coat over the entire nail.

Carving is a fun technique for adding depth and texture to a design and is much easier for me than the dreaded striping tape! There are some great tutorials on youtube for this technique, but this tutorial by Johanna Agledal using Couture gel polish is my personal favorite.  Her instructions are extremely easy to follow.

Here's my standard closeup shot. You can see the texture of the quilted nail a little better on the thumb in this one.

Are you a fan of the quilted look?

~Michelle