Today’s nails: inspired by classic sneakers

I couldn’t bear the thought of having to leave the house showing my nail fail of last night, so I decided to change them just now. I’ve a party to attend tonight, so anything looking less than good is a complete no-no!

Luckily inspiration was found quickly. I finally bought a pair of Onitsuka Tiger sneakers in their classic yellow and black colours – this combination of theirs was initially made famous in the 1970’s by Bruce Lee, and made a major comeback in the 2000’s when Quentin Tarantino dressed Uma Thurman up as Bruce Lee for the Kill Bill series.

I’d wanted them for years, but even during the 3 years I worked for the company I always literally forgot to get them when they were part of a collection. Until yesterday. Glad I finally did it.

Anyways, I always found this colour combo really cool and edgy, and because I had pretty much the right tools and paints lying around, I went straight to work.

First, 2 or 3 coats of Catrice ‘Ernie and Birdy’. This polish does not go on pretty for the 1st and sometimes 2nd coat, but patience my dears, the end result is pretty good. And I love the name they gave to the polish 😉

Then, for 3 fingers I took 3 square black studs (I got mine from Claire’s but any online nail store should have something similar), and placed them on 3 nails per hand while the yellow polish was just slightly wet. I prefer this to all 5 as it could become a little over the top. And to stay true to the sneaker inspiration, the yellow must really stand out as the main colour.

Should placing the studs take so long that the polish on your other nails become too dry? No worries, just paint a light stripe of top coat on the nail and you can continue!

Once done, you can choose to add another layer of top coat to seal it all in, or let it be more rugged without. These studs are a little more prone to falling off without sealing, but if you’re only planning to wear it for a day you’ll be fine.

Overall, this is a very simple and nail dummy proof design! Off to town now in my new kicks 🙂