Very first thing’s first: Choose your serpent-inspired shade palette. “The commonest colours used to realize a serpent, reptilian nail look embody deep metallic inexperienced, black, and brown,” says Jin Quickly Choi, editorial manicurist and founding father of JINSoon. “Different colours resembling holographic blue, purple, and teal are additionally fashionable.” Be happy to decide on your individual reptilian journey right here—however metallic or chrome hues will actually allow you to nail that scaly impact. 

OK, right here comes the difficult half. “There are few methods to create serpent nails with common nail polish,” says Choi. You may go for the netting methodology—after making use of your polish of selection, apply netting on high whereas the polish remains to be moist (right here’s an ideal choice from Amazon), then end with a high coat. 

You may additionally use a nail artwork stamper or sponge to create a uniform scale sample. Merely apply a base coat of polish, anticipate it to dry utterly, then dip your stamper right into a metallic hue earlier than flippantly urgent it onto your nails. After making an attempt each netting and stamping, I discovered the latter methodology best—I didn’t have a correct stamper, however a common kitchen sponge works simply positive if you happen to use the sting.

The pores of the sponge create a scaly, nearly cloud-like impact (if you happen to select dreamier pastel hues, you would simply create “cloud nails.” However that’s a tutorial for an additional day). Simply be certain to faucet the sponge tremendous flippantly; if you happen to press too firmly, the polish will bleed and create one large blob.