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Feather Soft

Afternoon People :)

Today, I have a manicure inspired by bird's feathers to show you. It's more of an abstract take on the patterns found on feathers rather than a realistic representation. It was super fun to do and has distinctive tribal vibes to it which is perfect for festival season!


First, I painted most of my nails in Essie 'Pure Chiffon' which is a gorgeous shell pink nude with iridescent shimmer. It looks so elegant and beautiful on the nails but unfortunately takes quite a few layers to build up. The Essie brush does make it very easy to apply though so if you don't mind taking your time with application then the colour is totally worth it!

On my thumb and pinkie nails, I applied Barry M 'Coconut', an off-white creme which is a great base for nail art.


I then started to roughly block in the main areas of pattern & colour using Barry M 'Chai' (medium-light grey), Barry M 'Sunkissed' (warm nude) and China Glaze 'Dress Me Up' (muted pink toned nude).


Once that layer was completely dry, I added definition and contrast to the patterns using Barry M 'Cocoa' (chocolate brown), Champneys 'Chestnut' (bronze metallic) and Revlon 'Iconic' (charcoal grey).


At this point, I realised that it didn't really look like feathers at all and was missing the distinctive texture. So, to rectify this I used a striper brush to gently apply thin vertical strokes of colour (as above) all over each nail. I kept going back and forth with this until I was satisfied with the overall look. I finished with a layer of Essie 'Good To Go'.


I know that these aren't that obvious as feathers but I like the way they look anyway. They have a tribal/ikat feel to them which I've been meaning to do for a while so two birds with one stone!

Thanks for reading!

Kayleigh :)

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