A quilted diamond grid in Milk Bath over Butter Yellow, raised so it reads like padded leather.
3 bottles: Butter Yellow, Milk Bath and Old Gold. Butter Yellow and Milk Bath are close in tone, so the design is tonal rather than graphic. It shows up in daylight and softens indoors. The bottles are not all the same finish (crème and sheer), so the pattern picks up light differently from the ground.
It sits on a coffin, sometimes called ballerina, tapered at the sides and cut off square at the tip. It needs real length and repays it with the largest flat area of any shape.
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Bottles for this nail
Tap a bottle to open it on the shelfWhat you need
How to paint Butter Quilted nails
- 1 Buff, dehydrate and base coat, then cure. Two thin coats of Butter Yellow, curing each one.
- 2 Pipe crossing Milk Bath diagonals over cured Butter Yellow, letting each line dome before it goes in the lamp.
- 3 Two thick top coats to bury the texture, so nothing has an edge to catch on.
Questions about Butter Quilted
Is Butter Quilted hard to do at home?
Yes, with a steady hand. The motif is freehand, so the first nail is usually the worst one. Budget around 45 minutes for a full set, and three colours means three chances for something to bleed, so cure between each one rather than working wet on wet.
What polish do I need for Butter Quilted?
3 bottles: Butter Yellow (crème), Milk Bath (sheer) and Old Gold (crème). Plus a base coat and a gloss top coat, which every design here assumes you already have.
Does Butter Quilted work on short nails?
Coffin is the one shape here that genuinely needs length. On a short nail there is not enough free edge to cut square, and it will read as a squoval instead.
How many coats does Butter Quilted need?
More than you would expect. Milk Bath is translucent, so the colour builds over three thin coats rather than covering in two. Stop wherever you like the depth — that is the point of a sheer.