The other night, while hopelessly inspecting my boring all-one-color-plain-red-creme nails, I found an ounce of motivation. My goal? Get to the store, buy makeup sponges, and give myself an ombre manicure- the easiest kind of "nail art" that I can sit through. The last time I did this was back in the summer when I used brighter, warm-weather appropriate colors. Seeing as it has been hovering around 0 degrees here in the Windy City, I thought I would try something a little darker and... edgier.
As I was looking through my nail polish stash last night for colors, I was actually a little surprised at how tricky it is to find shades that complement each other for "ombre" nails. You don't exactly want to use shades you'd pair together for the "accent" nail (usually contrasting), yet I think it's kind of boring to just use a darker and lighter shade of the same color.
So, in an attempt to experiment, I tried the following two shades (pictured below): Sally Hansen Shoot Me The Moon and Maybelline Color Show in Twilight Rays. You'll remember this Sally Hansen polish from my half-moon manicure post; it's quite versatile!
Sally Hansen Shoot Me The Moon, a graphite shimmer, is the polish I used to get the "ombre" effect. Maybelline Twilight Rays is a black with yellow, green, and other warm shades of shimmer, and I used this as my base color.
I'm sure most of you know by now how to do ombre nails, but here's a quick run-down of how I get the look: Paint your nails your chosen base shade (Twilight Rays); I used two coats for safe measure. Let this dry completely, otherwise when you go to sponge on the other polish, the base color will come off. Next, take your second color (Shoot Me The Moon) and dab a blob onto your makeup sponge (technical terms here). Use the makeup sponge to blot this section onto the top half of your nails, making sure you concentrate on the tips.
- Tip: I like to apply the base coat shade to the bottom half of my nails, right after dabbing on the second color- this sort of evens out the gradient effect so it looks like the two colors are more blended.
And finished!
(Apologies for the blurriness- I had trouble with these pictures.)
I think it helps a lot that these are both shimmer finishes- it's much harder to mess it up. That's also the great part about ombre manicures! It's supposed to look a little messy, so no need to try and achieve perfection.
Have you tried the ombre look? Like it, dislike it? Thanks so much for reading!
xox
