I typically base my beauty look on what I’m wearing that day or where I’m planning on going.  Obviously a more natural look is appropriate for work, or I can spice it up if I’m going out.  This week, I was so inspired by what I was wearing that I created my manicure from it!  I recently bought a skirt from G by Giuliana Rancic that I’ve absolutely fallen in love with. It’s a cobalt blue ikat print chiffon maxi skirt – and I’d wear it every day if I could.  That skirt is the sole inspiration behind this week’s Manicure Monday: Bold Ikat.

This look is much easier to achieve than you’d think.  Ikat is a very forgiving print – it’s messy by nature, so no one will know if it didn’t come out exactly the way you wanted.  To be honest, I wish I made the actual designs a little bigger.  Did that stop anyone from complimenting my nails? No! Because no one knew that I didn’t think it was perfect.

Begin your manicure with clean nails and your favorite base coat, as usual.  I started with Nail Tek II.

I reversed the base color and the accent color from my skirt when I created this manicure, so I actually used a bright orangey-red for the base and a blue in my Ikat print.  My base color was actually from Francesca’s, a cute chain boutique store.  Francesca’s is a fairly new find for me, but I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the store.  They have cute clothing, jewelry, and other accessories that are totally on trend, but different from what you’d find in any other store.  Anyway, I used Francesca’s Collections Nail Lacquer in Falling for You, a bright orange red shade, for my base color.

Begin your design by creating rough diamond shapes on your nails in black, as shown to the right.  I used Kiss Nail Art Paint to create this, but any smaller brush with black polish will work.  I created the shapes by drawing about five lines very close to each other, with the center line being the longest and the two outside lines being the shortest.

Continue the design by repeating the same process using white polish.  For the white, I used Sally Hansen’s Nail Art Pen in White.  The pen, as opposed to the Kiss Nail Art Paint, gives you more control, however, since you’re pressing down with a pen harder than you would with a brush, you want to make sure everything you’ve done so far is dry.

Bring some more color into your manicure by placing a dot of your accent color in the middle of each design.  I used China Glaze’s Frostbite, a bright cobalt blue, for my accent – the perfect match to my skirt, and the perfect complement to Francesca’s Collections Nail Lacquer in Falling for You.

Tie the look together with a bit of black right in the center of each design.  I again used Kiss Nail Art Paint – the skinny brush makes it easy to create the smallest dot.

Finish the manicure with your favorite top coat.  The best part? Don’t worry if it smudges – it even adds to the the Ikat design.

Would you try this Bold Ikat look yourself? Let us know in the comments!

Check out more great manicure tutorials:

• Manicure Monday: Alumni Pride
• Manicure Monday: Matte Tribal
• Manicure Monday: Spring Designs