Master Mani: A Summery Fresh Floral Lace Motif! 

Bored by the same-old, same-old pale pink or cherry red summer mani? We called in the big guns to bring you a truly inspired and original nail tutorial—Chelsea King, aka Chelsea Queen. She recently created this right on trend floral-lace look in our studio, and broke it down steps even the most novice nail artist can follow.

Floral Lace Motif Mani with Chelsea King

The inspiration: Chelsea picked three polishes that felt fresh (teal, lime-green, and white) to lay down the ultimate summery mani inspired by two of the season’s biggest trends—floral and lace.

The polishes

1: Inglot Cosmetics Nail Enamel in #987 | shop it
2: Inglot Cosmetics Nail Enamel in #954 | shop it
3: RGB Nail Polish in White | shop it

Other supplies

• base coat: RGB Base Coat | shop it
• top coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat | shop it
• fine nail art brush
• aluminum foil

1: Start with clean nails and a base coat.

2: Then, paint your base layer: the nail on your index finger in lime green, and all other nails in teal. Do two coats, then let your nails dry for at least 5 minutes.

3: Brush some white polish onto a piece of foil. “It’s helpful to have a small palette that you can work on and foil is more durable than paper, which absorbs polish quickly,” says Chelsea. Dip your fine brush into the white and paint 2 to 3 small circles randomly on each nail. (These will form the center of the flowers.) Here, we did 3 circles on the index finger and thumb, and 2 circles on the remaining nails.

4: Next, using your fine brush, paint 4 to 5 “petals” per circle to create flowers, as pictured. Chelsea recommends first painting a fine “V,” and then rounding the tops to create each petal.

5: Outline each flower in white, as pictured.  

6: Paint diagonal stripes along each nail, making sure not to strike through any of the flowers. Go back and add another layer of diagonal stripes, in the opposite direction, to create a weblike pattern that resembles lace, as pictured.

7: Finish with top coat, and you’re done!

Check out another master mani by Chelsea here.

Chelsea King (aka Chelsea Queen) is a nail artist based in Southern California. She fell in love with painting and fashion early on, and started painting her nails as a hobby. After sharing her work on her blog and Instagram, her following took off and she was tapped to create tutorials and designs for Huffington Post, MTV.com, and other sites. Chelsea was featured in the 2012 documentary NAILgasm, about the rising popularity of nail art all over the world, and her work has appeared in Nail It! magazine and People StyleWatch among others. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @chelseaqueen.