Tutorial on how I make shiny quilted nails and crosshatched magnetic patterns!

This is super disorganized because I don’t know how to talk on camera, but last week someone asked me to make a video on this so here it is! Just in case my rambling explanation doesn’t make sense, here are the steps for making both a shiny quilted manicure and a sparkly crosshatched pattern using magnetics:

• paint your nails normally. Base coat, 1-2 layers of color, top coat.
• wait a few hours at the shortest, or wait until the next day. The base manicure needs to be set and not at all squishy, or the quilting lines fill back in on later steps.
• grab a normal top coat and a qdtc. This does work with two layers of qdtc instead if it’s all you have, but I’ve found it turns out better with a thicker/slower drying top coat as the first layer. If you are doing the magnetic version, replace the slow dry top coat with the magnetic polish.
• pull out a good sized string of floss. If it’s the kind that’s flat, twist it a bunch with your fingers to make it thinner and rounder.
• over the fully dry manicure, lay down a moderately thick coat of non-qdtc or magnetic polish, as evenly as possible. If you are using magnetic, magnetize it so that all of the magnetic pigment disappears. I have a fridge magnet that does this really well, you may have to experiment with what you have.
• wait for it to dry down a bit, but don’t wait too long. The base manicure will suck some of the solvent up, and you still need it to be pliable later.
• put on a layer of qdtc. Again make sure it’s as even as possible. If you’re using magnetic, make sure to magnetize it again so all the pigment stays hidden.
• wait for the qdtc to become solid on the surface. I’d say ballpark about 3-4 minutes. If you go too early, you break through and gouge lines in the polish instead of just denting it.
• take your string of floss and wind it around your finger below the nail. This just gives you a better hold on the string. Then press the floss into your nail at a diagonal angle. Don’t use hulk strength, but don’t be scared to press to hard either. Just watch closely and you should be able to see the floss push into the top layer. Refer to my video to see this part.
• make a few lines in one direction, then wrap the floss around your finger in the other direction to complete the pattern.
• the base manicure absorbing solvent from the new layers causes this new manicure to set pretty quickly. The magnetic polish shouldn’t disperse much, if at all.

Please let me know if any of this is confusing! I don’t know how to make tutorials. If anyone seeing this has a glitter grabber top coat they could use for this as a test, I’d be really curious to hear how it goes. I’ve thought for a while that using a thick glitter covering top coat as the first top coat layer would work really well, but I don’t have any to try it out myself.

If I can find one, I’ll put a clearer picture of how the quilted pattern looks close up in the comments