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Friday, March 2, 2012

Ombre nails

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, ombré means having colors or tones that shade into each other

Looking at the nails from fashion week it would appear that ombré is the new "in" term for gradient. The key being to have the transition to different shades of the same color happen seamlessly. Easier said than done for us mere mortals but I really like it, so thought I'd give it a go.
Products used:  China Glaze Sunshine Pop, OPI Did It On 'Em, China Glaze Gaga for Green, OPI Green-wich Village, Art Glitter & Gonfetti in lime green.  Not shown, OPI Fresh From of Bel-ar

While most of the ombré nails I saw were done with earth tones, I wanted something a bit brighter, more spring like, so I chose to fade from green to yellow.  I'd recently purchased China Glaze Sunshine Pop and thought thought it would be a perfect starting point. I covered all of my nails in it and let it dry almost completely.  As far as yellows go, it's fairly nice, the texture is quite creamy and fairly opaque for a yellow, it did have a tendency to drag though and took three coats to get an even coverage.  What I didn't like at all was the massive bubbling that took place.
Pretty, but I don't like the "shelf" that the glitter caused and it needs a bit more something.
I tried a couple of different sponging methods to achieve the ombré effect. The ring finger and thumb I used a piece of a natural bath sponge and worked from the yellow down to the green.  I also found that I could get a better blended look if I dipped the sponge in the tiniest amount of polish thinner
Now I'm happy
For the index finger I used a standard makeup sponge and worked from dark to light.  I think I like the way it turned out better but I did have to retouch the yellow because it was easy to extend the green too far up on the nail.  I then used a slower drying top coat to help blend everything together.  Once that was mostly dry I used some foil glue and applied it to the center of the nails and added glitter.  Because the surface of my index finger was a bit more tacky than I thought it ended up adhering to most of the nail rather than just the center section...I ended up liking it better that way but oh well.
I wanted just a bit more contrast towards the tips, so I grabbed my OPI Fresh Frog of Bel-air and being careful not to get too many of the silver hexes, I applied it to the tips and pulled it just slightly up onto the middle of the nail.
From there it was just a matter of a couple of coats of Sech Vite to even everything out and done, ombré nails fit for fashion week. 

So did you have any favorite looks from fashion week?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment, until next time, take care!

3 comments:

  1. Kick A** mani, girl!! I love yellows and greens and the combined effect made me say "WOW!" Really stunning effect :0)

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