Slightly Nautical Manicure

In my recent exploration of nail polishes I bought that I hadn’t yet used, I wanted to kill two birds with one stone on some Julep polishes I had hanging around.  I held some swatches up beside each other and decided that I really liked Julep Margot, a metallic gold, and Julep Monaco, a cobalt blue labeled the Color of Spring 2014, together.  I find that, of all the colors I wear, I don’t really wear bold blues that much, so I liked the idea of not going nuts with it and tempering the look with the soft gold.

Now… what to do?

I poked around my drawer looking for inspiration.  Do I use the dotting tool?  Do I finally bust out my Julep Plié Wand?  I’ve been lazy about using it since it involves cleaning off the brushes initially after shipping and then, of course, cleaning the brushes after each use.  I wanted something faster than that.

Striping Tape

Sure, I could have free handed this, but I’m a fan of crisp lines.  Ideally I’d love to have the kind of nails that are all shaped exactly the same and I could make the exact angle line on each one identical.  But try as I might, my nails never end up the same shape exactly.  So I liked the juxtaposition of the clean lines at somewhat random, alternating angles.

Yes, that was totally done on purpose!

A Nautical Manicure… Slightly

I got quite the nautical vibe, mostly from the cobalt blue Julep Monaco.  Most nautical manicures I’ve seen have a more navy blue and white, but maybe it was the lines that just reminded me of signaling flags for some reason.  I tried to get a closer shot, but the lighting in here sucks sometimes.  So this was the best I could do.  I’m happy to report, though, that I bit the bullet and bought a Foldio, so in approximately 15 days my photos should improve immensely!

I’ll also be taking new shots of all my wine charms for sale on Etsy (you knew, right?).  I can’t wait.

Have you ever done a nautical manicure?  How did it turn out?