Cocoa Cream Snakeskin nails

Stiletto · Snakeskin

Salon or steady hand

Cocoa Cream scaled in Vanilla Cream with Chestnut shading, tighter at the sidewalls than the centre.

3 bottles: Cocoa Cream, Vanilla Cream and Chestnut. Cocoa Cream and Vanilla Cream sit a comfortable distance apart: the motif is clearly legible without shouting, which is the easiest range to freehand in. 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 stiletto, filed to a point from a wide base, which is the most dramatic shape here and the one that compresses a motif hardest toward the tip.

Make it yours

Pick a part of the nail, then a shade
Base: Cocoa Cream · Crème Open the bottle

Bottles for this nail

Tap a bottle to open it on the shelf

What you need

Base colour two coats
Print paint fine liner
Accent liner broken outlines

How to paint Cocoa Cream Snakeskin nails

  1. 1 Buff, dehydrate and base coat, then cure. Two thin coats of Cocoa Cream, curing each one.
  2. 2 Dot rows of Vanilla Cream scales, offsetting each row, then shade one edge of each with Chestnut.
  3. 3 Gloss top coat, cure, then cuticle oil once it is out of the lamp.

Questions about Cocoa Cream Snakeskin

  • Is Cocoa Cream Snakeskin hard to do at home?

    It is the hardest tier on the site. It is doable at home, but the technique is the point rather than the colour. Budget an hour or more 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 Cocoa Cream Snakeskin?

    3 bottles: Cocoa Cream (crème), Vanilla Cream (sheer) and Chestnut (crème). Plus a base coat and a gloss top coat, which every design here assumes you already have.

  • Does Cocoa Cream Snakeskin work on short nails?

    Stiletto needs length, because the point is most of the shape. On a short nail it files down to something closer to almond, and the design still reads, just less sharply.

  • How many coats does Cocoa Cream Snakeskin need?

    More than you would expect. Vanilla Cream 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.

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