My inspiration for this month’s Nail Challenge Collaborative theme of stripes is sorely lacking. I really wanted to get creative, but I’m finding it difficult! For my second look, I decided to venture into a design I haven’t done before – a waterfall manicure.

I saw the waterfall mani way back when on The Nailasaurus’ site, and I’ve always liked it but never tried. I gotta say – it’s a lot harder than it looks! Picking all the colors that are different enough yet still complementary, then making those perfect stripes that taper at the end… it’s definitely a challenge!

I’m not 100% thrilled with how it turned out. I trimmed my striping brush, but I think the stripes are still a bit wider than I’d like. But I personally like the colors I chose. I love a good peach-purple combo.

I think that if I were to redo this, I’d probably do another shade of purple instead of the red-orange color. Of course that’s in addition to drawing the stripes thinner and neater! But this is a first attempt, so I’m not going to beat myself up too much!

Colors used:

Base color: Barry M Papaya… this totally freaked my camera out! It’s a really pretty bright peach and is very similar to Essie’s Tart Deco

Stripes: OPI Black Cherry Chutney… a goooorgeous deep eggplant purple/ almost black shimmer Orly Cotton Candy… a beautiful light pink-purple OPI Cajun Shrimp… a bright vivid red-orange creme Colors by Llarowe Nice Melons… a coral peach holo



Have you done a waterfall manicure before? Any tips for this newbie?

Check out the other striped manicures from my NCC ladies: