Plum Wine Stars nails

Stiletto · Stars

Easy at home

Plum Wine with Milk Glass five-point stars at different scales, a few of them cropped by the sidewall.

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 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: Plum Wine · Crème Open the bottle

Bottles for this nail

Tap a bottle to open it on the shelf

What you need

Base colour cured
Striper brush clean lines
Gloss top level the paint

How to paint Plum Wine Stars 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 Draw each Milk Glass star as five short strokes meeting at the centre, varying the sizes.
  3. 3 Gloss top coat, cure, then cuticle oil once it is out of the lamp.

Questions about Plum Wine Stars

  • Is Plum Wine Stars hard to do at home?

    Yes. There is no freehand work that has to be accurate. Budget about 30 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 Plum Wine Stars?

    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 Stars 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 Plum Wine Stars 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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