Ombré nails

Recently there has been a lot of hype about painting nails in an ombré style, it looks really effective and I certainly wanted to give it a go.

So what exactly are ombré nails? The word ombré is French, meaning "shaded”, i.e. one colour which slowly morphs into another colour.

What you will need:

•           Two colour polishes (Can complement one another or clash. From experience both work well)
•           Topcoat polish
•          Nail polish remover
•           Sponge
•          Cocktail sticks/Tooth picks
•           Plastic sheet (ie poly wallet) 

StarGazer Nail Polish 

Step 1:

Paint your nails with the lightest of the two colours and wait for it to dry completely.

     

Step 2:

On the plastic sheet, paint a generous amount of the two colours right next to each other (with the edges of the two just touching)

Step 3:

Using a cocktail stick/tooth pick, mix the edges of the two colours together using a swirling action. The bigger the mixed area, the longer the graduation (fade) between the two colours and by experimenting you will work out what amount of mixing suits your nail shape.

      

Step 4:      

Dab your sponge directly down onto the polish. Make up sponges work well, but I have found that cutting small pieces off a large bathroom sponge works the best. But you must ensure that the pieces of sponge have a flat edge to be dabbed into the polish.

      

Step 5:

Dab the sponge directly onto your nail, and keep dabbing lightly. Occasionally I found that I needed to repeat step 4 and 5 on each nail until I was happy with the result (as the sponge absorbs some of the polish). However, make sure each layer is completely dry before sponging again otherwise you will smudge the bottom layers. 

Step 6:

Once you are happy with the way your nails look and they are completely dry, paint over with a topcoat and carefully clean the skin around your nails with nail polish remover.

The finished result:

As mentioned you can go for more bold colours if you are feeling adventurous:

This effective technique was a lot easier to do than I anticipated, however my first few attempts took me a very long time to complete, but I have got quicker up with practice.