nailed it: ombre manicure

I enjoy trying new nail styles, so my friend, Colleen, pointed me to a fun look from The Nailasaurus. I did my best to replicate this ombre look using two wintry shades of polish.

I first painted my nails with two coats of the lighter color, Chanel's Paradoxal.

I then put two similar shades alongside each other on a random plastic plate I had around the house. You could even do this step on the back of a magazine. The darker shade is Essie's Stylenomics.

I took a makeup sponge and used it to overlap the two colors a bit. I then put both colors, about the same amount of each, on the edge of the sponge.

I used the sponge to apply the colors, with the darker color on the top of the nail. Don't be afraid to color outside of the lines and get the polish on your fingers. It's nearly impossible to do this look without getting the color everywhere.

 

I liked this look a lot, but I think I applied too much of the darker color. After a few days the nail polish and ombre still looked pretty nice but the part where the two colors overlapped became a little bit worn (shown below), so next time I'd apply a top coat to protect it.

This look is subtle enough for me to wear to work, as long as I use similar shades of nail polish. I think contrasting colors would also be great to wear on the weekend.

 

Thank you for reading!