Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Purple Ombre Nails (Tutorial)

Ombre is one of the biggest trends this year. Whether it's ombre hair, ombre clothing, ombre eyes/lips. It's everywhere, so of course it needs to be incorporated on the nails as well :)



Here are my purple ombre nails. The key to a nice ombre is to use colors that are a few shades darker/lighter from each other. You can also create ombre nails from a blue to an orange for example, but the blending process will be a little harder since the colors aren't similar.
If you'd like to see how I did this, keep reading!



What you'll need :


Here I have a matte top coat (optional), 4 different shades of purple and a makeup sponge. From left to right : NYC- Matte Me Crazy, Essie- Nice is Nice, China Glaze- Spontaneous, China Glaze- Coconut Kiss and OPI- Siberian Nights.




Step 1: You'll need to apply a white or nude color on every nail as your base, this will help the next set of colors pop. Wait for this to dry completely. This is OPI- Sweet Heart (it was not shown in the picture above.)




Step 2: Dampen your makeup sponge and wring out any excess water. This will help your polish stay on the surface and not soak so far into the sponge. Take your polishes, and apply a line for each color, going from light to dark.




Step 3: Line your sponge up on your nail and press down. If you like where all of your colors are placed, you can then blend the colors by bouncing the sponge on top of the nail. Be careful. You don't want to over-do it or the sponge will start to pull your color up instead of laying it down.




Step 4: Apply the first coat with your sponge on every nail. By the time you're finished with your last nail, your first one should be dry enough for the second coat. Apply as many coats as you see fit. Here I've applied 3 coats. You'll notice that your sponge will leave a little bit of a bumpy finish (you can see in the picture) But don't worry. Once you add your top coat, it'll even everything out.



Step 5: Clean up time! I like to pour a bit of acetone in the bottle cap and dip my cotton swab into that. It's much more convenient.




Step 6: Once your nails are all clean, you can then add a top coat. As you can see, the nail texture has evened itself out.




Step 7: You can stop there or choose to add a matte top coat like I did. It was hard for me to decide what finish I liked better, so I just ended up sticking with this one!


Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial. It's simple and the results are pretty! What's better than that?! As always, feel free to leave any comments/questions below.


Happy sponging! ;)
Aubrey

26 comments:

  1. I follow you on Instagram and your nails are always amaze! But I have a question, is there a trick to getting the sides of the nail done better? Your nail shape is a lot nicer than mine and I seem to always have gaps of color on the top and the sides. The more color I put on the makeup sponge the more the color starts to lift my base color when I apply.

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    Replies
    1. Mine will gap on the sides as well. You have to hold the skin taut and really get it in there haha

      When you're applying your first coat, only dab the sponge 1 to 3 times. The point of the 1st coat is just to get the colors on. After the first coat dries, then go in and start bouncing a few times more. If it still needs to be blended more, wait for your second coat to dry and then apply a 3rd coat. If your sponge is picking up color, you'll know that you dabbed too many times for that coat.

      I've never gotten an ombre to look good with the first coat. It'll look wonky at first but each coat will look better and better.

      Hope that helps!

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    2. I am going to give it another go this weekend. I will hold the skin taut and get in there LOL I hope it works! FYI if anyone reads these comments we really are discussing nail technique I swear ;)

      Delete
  2. Awesome! Amazing! Perfect!
    Myriam Cedro
    www.coisasdemenininha.com.br

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  3. Muy bueno el tutorial me encanta...Gracias por compartir.

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  4. You say hold the skin taut tight what does that mean I'm a mom and me and my baby are obsessed with nail polish and i want to do this I'm in love I'm gonna do bright colors

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  5. I'm obsessedddd...Can I pay you to do this for me??? No joke!!

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  6. Que bonito te quedó. Felicitaciones, besos

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  7. this is so beautiful, will give it a try def

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  8. I love this! Definitely going to give it a go ;)
    x
    www.belletre.com

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  9. is there a certain kind of makeup sponge that you use because i for the life of me can not get it to work =/

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    Replies
    1. sorry for replying so late! all of the makeup sponges that I've used are just the cheapy ones. Make sure you dampen your sponge before you add your polish, it'll help!

      Delete
  10. This is STUNNING, and the tip of dampening the sponge is the best advice ever!!! Thank you!!

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  11. Beautiful! I've found some regular old tape around the sides and bottom of your nail make clean up SO much easier ;)

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  12. Thank you so much for this great tutorial. My DD and I are going to give this a try :-)

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  13. I love matte nails too. Illamasqua have some with this kind of finish. As others have mentioned though the best product for this is a matte top coat so you can make any shade have this finish, I must invest!
    Matte nail polish

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  14. A couple more hints for people having problems....
    You can dab a bit of vaseline on the skin around your nails - this makes clean up much easier.
    Pure acetone removes polish much better than the usual nail polish remover. Look for 100% acetone on the label - it's available with the rest of the nail polish removers at places like Wal-Mart.
    I've never done it with a damp sponge, but it makes sense that it would stop so much polish from being absorbed into the sponge. Great tip!
    The usual wedge-shaped make-up sponges are what you use for this. Don't use bath sponges, or natural sponges, as they have holes that are too large. Just boring old foam make-up sponges work best.
    Don't be discouraged until you see it with a top coat on! Before that, it looks pretty scary. I find top coats even everything out and make the nails look great. I've had some pretty terrible looking polish-jobs that look much better after the top coat is put on. I just discovered matte top coat this week. LOVE IT! The matte top coat really changes the look of the polish - so for the cost of the bottle of matte top-coat, you double your nail polish collection.

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  15. Finally! A good tutorial how to make ombre nails! I'v been watching videos on youtube and read dozens of those but it always looked a little bit weird ad unprofessional. Thanks a lot!

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  16. Thanks for this tutorial, Aubrey.It's okay to use either top coat, matte or regular? Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. yes! it's perfectly okay to use whatever kind of top coat you prefer. I usually have a hard time deciding which one I like more!

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  17. Ombre!!! Thanks for sharing. I love all the color combinations.

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  18. step 2 was very, very useful in helping me ensure i didn't get the sponge onto my nails. really noticed the difference when i was too lazy to dip it in water :P thanks for this tutorials!

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  19. Thanks for the information. To have best Acrylic nails in melbourne CBD visit Qand H Nails Salon and get best services according to you nails.
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