Ikat Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  How's your weekend?  I'm having a decent one so far, despite the fact that I have to work every day.  One day I'll have a job that doesn't require weekends, and that will be a glorious day!  Ha!  I really can't complain too much though.  Even working two jobs, I have the time to do my nails...what more can a girl ask for?

Today's manicure is a technique I've been wanting to try for awhile now.  Ikat is a dyeing technique used in fabric weaving.  The threads are tied off and dyed in a specific pattern before being woven into a beautiful fabric.  I took a few weaving classes at SAIC and found that I really enjoyed the whole process.  I never got to try ikat and I'm kind of glad because I'm pretty sure I don't possess the patience required to create such a precise weave lol  However, ikat manicures are very easy!  Here's what mine looks like:

I started with a coat of Peachy Keen by China Glaze, a one-coat peach creme.  After that dried, I used a small paint brush and short strokes to create the diamond shaped pattern, making sure to leave the edges a little rough.  I used China Glaze in First Mate (a dark navy creme) and Nina Ultra Pro in Blue La La (a denim/turquoise/blue creme) for the darker parts and a white striping polish for the light bits.  I adore the way this turned out!  I can't wait to try the technique with some different colors.  You could use any contrasting colors with this technique, although it seems to work best if your background color stays fairly light colored.

A detail shot:

Such a great visual impact for such little effort...I love it when things work out like that!  What do you guys think?  Have you tried an ikat mani in the past?  Any color combo suggestions?

In other news, my very first giveaway is still open for entries and will be until the 22nd.  So hop on over the giveaway post and enter if you haven't already!  It's super easy to enter and you could win 3 full-sized Julep nail polishes!

Thanks so much for reading!