I love nail art that doesn’t require any special tools. No tape, no dotting tools, no stamps. This popular fishtail braid design is one of those manicures.
I took step by step pictures to illustrate the process for you. You’ll get a tiny bit messy and will have to do a little clean up, but nothing too bad. Choose three different colors for your braid, preferably nothing sheer. For mine, I chose Julep Selena as my base color, then added Alicia and Annie in to the braid.
- + Step 1: Apply your base coat and paint your nails as usual with your first color (mine being Selena), let dry fully before proceeding.
- + Step 2: The next step would be to simply paint a diagonal strip with your second color (I chose Alicia), and let dry.
- + Step 3: Paint a diagonal stripe with your second color (i.e. Annie) across your first stripe, creating an x shape. Let dry.
- + Step 4: As seen above, in this step you will want to use your first/base color again to repaint over the top left of your x. In my case I painted over the top half of my Annie stripe. Let dry.
- + Step 5: Repeat what you did in step 2, with your stripe going in the opposite direction. Let dry.
- + Step 6: Repeat what you did in step 3, again with your stripe going in the other direction. Let dry.
- + Step 7: Paint a stripe over the one you did in step 6 and let dry.
- + Step 8 & 9: Repeat steps 2 & 3 one more time, although it will be on a much smaller scale, and finish off with your top coat.
- It may seem a bit confusing, but once you get started it will all make sense. Trust me!
7 Responses to Fishtail Braid Nail Tutorial by Top Coat It
Lisa October 2nd, 2012
This is not only a very cool mani, with some super Julep colors…it’s a terrific tutorial.
Great work!
Lisa
Julie October 11th, 2012
I was wondering how it was done, thank you very much for the step by step. I will try it this weekend.
Julie October 12th, 2012
when you do the different styles, do you use the brush that comes wit the nail polish or do you use a small paint brush, i never get a niced line like above with the nail polish applicator.
Erica October 15th, 2012
We did it with the nail polish brush that comes with the polish, but you can use a small paint brush if that’s easier for you
Daphnee99 January 3rd, 2013
Wahouu realy nice im trying and its realy easy to do
Suchi Mehta January 20th, 2013
Just tried this with donna, ellen and stella.