Dreaming Nails

Plum Wine Mirror Chrome nails

Coffin · Mirror Chrome

Salon or steady hand

Full mirror chrome over Plum Wine: a genuine reflective surface, so it shows whatever is in front of it.

3 bottles: Plum Wine, Milk Glass and Black Plum. Plum Wine against Milk Glass is a hard contrast, so the motif reads from across a room, and any wobble in the line reads with it. 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.

Make it yours

Pick a part of the nail, then a shade
Base: Plum Wine · Crème Open the bottle

Bottles for this nail

Tap a bottle to open it on the shelf
Plum Wine Base · Crème
Milk Glass Motif · Sheer
Black Plum Accent · Crème

What you need

Base colour cured
Effect powder chrome, flake or magnet
No-wipe top keep the shine

How to paint Plum Wine Mirror Chrome nails

  1. 1 Buff, dehydrate and base coat, then cure. Two coats of Plum Wine. A dark base shows every ridge, so the ridge-filling base coat matters more than usual here.
  2. 2 Rub chrome powder hard into the no-wipe tacky layer over Plum Wine until it stops going brighter.
  3. 3 Seal with a no-wipe top coat; wiping the tacky layer kills the effect.

Questions about Plum Wine Mirror Chrome

  • Is Plum Wine Mirror Chrome 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 Plum Wine Mirror Chrome?

    3 bottles: Plum Wine (crème), Milk Glass (sheer) and Black Plum (crème). Plus a base coat and a gloss top coat, which every design here assumes you already have.

  • Does Plum Wine Mirror Chrome 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 Plum Wine Mirror Chrome need?

    More than you would expect. Milk Glass 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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