Nail Thoughts x Kokoist - Tortoise Shell Design Kit

This colour kit comes with everything you need for a perfectly glassy tortoise nail art design. The colours included in this kit are NT-12 Tortoise Shell, E148 Blackest Black, E-240 Marrone Brown Glass, and E-223 Midnight Chocolate. But of course, you need the perfect tool to create the natural and loose tortoise shapes, so this kit also includes the Nail Thoughts Smoosh Brush.

These colours layered and smooshed together will create the perfect glassy and natural tortoiseshell nail art of your dreams and make your life so much easier!

NT-12 TORTOISE SHELL

The first step to creating a tortoiseshell pattern is applying a base coat colour that can range from various shades of caramel-y to a bright, burnt orange and using a clear polish in between the colour layers for that glassy blur. But with this sheer glassy orange, you’ll be able to hit two birds with one stone! You can buy this colour Tortoiseshell by itself as well, but I recommend getting the whole kit for maximum tortoise-ing.

E-240S MARRONE BROWN GLASS

The Marrone Brown Glass has a deep espresso or chocolate colour with hints of orange. You will want to artfully splotch it over the cured orange base. Again, there’s no specific technique or pattern to it — just go with your gut and let your artistic side take over!

No pressure on perfection, either. The thing about tortoiseshell is that it’s all about layering rather than precision, so you can’t really mess up. Just be careful not to cover up all of the base orange.  Once you’re happy with it, cure it!

E-223 MIDNIGHT CHOCOLATE

Compared to Marrone Brown Glass, Midnight Chocolate is a deeper, more opaque shade. It definitely adds a little more oomph to your layering.

Apply it in random blobs as well. Some would even call the blobs "haphazard", and there's really no need to be too careful with it. Don't overthink about where to position the blobs and their sizes. Once those blobs are placed, cure again!

Again, just remember to overlap the layers, not cover them. The main feature of tortoiseshell, after all, is that each colour should be peeking through so that they’re not overshadowed or hidden beneath the other layers

E-148 BLACKEST BLACK

For the final touch, use Blackest Black to amp things up. This pitch-black colour will give the brown hues more depth. Place the small black patches randomly over the entire pattern. Fill in any empty spaces with the black, too.

SMOOSH BRUSH

Treating those intricate blobs that define tortoiseshell wouldn’t be possible without the right brush.

Thankfully, the Tortoise Shell Gel Design Kit includes the Nail Thoughts Smoosh brush. This brush is really tiny and rounded out. Perfect for smooshing details into finer sections, lines, smears… whatever you need! In decorative painting, smoosh brushes are used for blending, smudging, and tinting. True to its name, this handcrafted brush from Japan is just perfect for smudging and softening lines. In this case, it’s perfect for smooshing down those abstract blobs that will help you nail (pun intended) that perfect tortoiseshell look!

NAIL THOUGHTS CASE

Want to know one of my favourite things about the Tortoise Shell Gel Design Kit?

It also comes with this totally cute holographic Nail Thoughts Case, too!