With fall in full swing – when the weather is cooperating – it’s time to transition to autumn-inspired beauty looks.  Darker hues and deep metallics are big trends for this season, but it can be hard to leave the bright, fun manicures of last season behind. I created this week’s Manicure Monday to combine summer’s bright colors with autumn’s bolder hues.  It’s a simple manicure – much easier than it looks.  Don’t I tell you that all the time? Read on to find out how you can get your own Art Deco manicure.

Choose your colors.  Begin with clean nails and your favorite base coat.  I’m still sticking by my tried-and-true Seche Natural.  To be honest, my nails are longer and stronger than they’ve ever been, so I’m not switching any time soon.

For my base color, I chose Nicole by OPI’s Berry Sweet, which is a strawberry-red shade.  It’s the perfect balance of bright, summer colors and deeper fall hues.  It may technically be fall, but it’s still 70 degrees outside, so I’m still transitioning! If you can, I’d suggest only doing one coat of your base color.  You’ll be layering two more polishes on top, so you don’t want to put on too much.  If you have to, two thin coats are okay.

Begin the Art Deco detail by taking your favorite metallic shade – I used Color Club’s Put a Pin in It (inspired by Pinterest!), which is a Birchbox exclusive.  Create three stripes down on each nail, with each stripe slightly lower than the one before it. My pinky nail was smaller, so I did two stripes there.  Using your brush, try to create a rounded top to the stripe.  You can see in the picture that the stripes will combine together to create one cloud-shaped figure on your nails.

Repeat the same process using your final color.  I used Butter London’s Teddy Girl, a soft bubblegum pink.  The color coordinates with the two above colors, but doesn’t match exactly.  The difference in the colors creates a contrast and is what makes this manicure pop.  Take this color and repeat the stripes you made with your metallic color, slightly below where you began your metallic stripes.  This will create the metallic line between your base color and your final color.

Finish with your favorite top coat! I ran out of Seche Vite, so I tried another top coat but it wasn’t very good, so I’ll be going back to Seche Vite indefinitely.  If anyone knows of a better base or top coat, let me know.  But it’ll be hard to convince me because I’m pretty much in love with Seche products.

If repeating this on every single finger is too time consuming, you can always keep the design to an accent nail!  Feel free to switch up the colors or lengths of your stripes.  Make the design your own! How will you recreate this Art Deco-inspired manicure?