Ombre Tutorial

As most of you probably are, I'm addicted to Pinterest.  I love pinning different nail art to my board so that I can give them a try.  I've been seeing a ton of "Ombre" nails lately.  I had always known them as gradient but I think Ombre sounds more exotic!  I usually only do my tips but here lately have been doing a full nail.  It's something different!

So, this week, I decided to use my new NYC polishes that I got at CVS for $1.  I used three colors.  French White Tip, Preppy Pink, and Skyline Blue.

Preppy Pink and Skyline Blue are both very subtle colors.  That was what made me buy them.  I have tons of bright blues and pinks as well as dark so the contrast was perfect to go with my collection.

The first thing I did was clean up my nails.  I had glitter tips with two coats of Nail Aid's 3-Minute Miracle that I knew was going to be a pain in the nail to remove.  When I have glitter polish on, I typically use the aluminum foil trick.  I will be doing a blog on that in the near future with other ways to remove polish.

After I cleaned my nails up, I applied one coat of a clear top coat to prevent stains on my nails.  It's a must do especially when using blue, green, or red polishes.

While I let the polish dry, I cut a make-up sponge to remove the ridge from being attached to the other sponges.

After my nails were dry, I applied two coats of NYC French Tip White to each nail, allowing each coat to dry thoroughly.  I am not a fan of white polish.  I have never found a good bottle from any brand.  They are always either too thin and takes more than two coats or they are too thick and look horrible.  NYC French Tip White is not any better.  I didn't expect much out of it being that it was only $1.  It applied thick and goopy.  After the first coat was dry, I applied the second coat being more generous hoping that it would make it a little better.

After I allowed the white polish to dry, which was very quick, I began applying NYC Preppy Pink and Skyline Blue to the bigger backside of the make-up sponge.  I wasn't worried about how many tries it was going to take me to get it right because I bought a bag of 25 sponges for only $1.50 at Walmart.  Also, I don't remember mentioning this above but if I did I will just repeat myself.  This is the first time I have ever used sponges and attempted an Ombre type of nail art.

I applied both polishes generously and allowed them to touch and kind of mix with each other giving it a three color look.  Pink and blue make purple!  I recommend having your bottles open and ready to use as well as moving kind of quick.  I wasn't worried about making them perfect.  I'm not perfect.  I'm not a professional.  And I enjoy trying new things!

I sponged each nail to my liking, adding each color to the sponge for every nail.  I made a huge mess around my nails on my skin but again, nobody's perfect.  I only applied the sponged colors once.  After they were completely dried, I applied a top coat to give them a shine and to protect my manicure for a few days.

I really like how they turned out and I really can't wait to do more variations.  NYC Preppy Pink and Skyline Blue are AMAZING polishes!  They both are very pretty and seem to be a perfect formula.  Way to go NYC!!  I'm very impressed!

This Ombre was a quick, fun, and easy manicure to do!  From start to finish, it only took 45 minutes which is less than half the time I usually take to do just my tips.

Have fun with it!  You can always add some glitter to them or even do some animal print.  The possibilities are endless!!

For more pictures of my nail art, please follow me on InstaGram @Addicted_2_Polish.  I follow everyone who follows me!

Hope you enjoyed my Ombre tutorial!!

Best Top Coat!

This is Nail-Aid's 3 Minute Artificials!  It's an 11x Gel Power top coat.  I have been using this top coat for the last year and can't express how much I love it!

I applied this top coat before heading to the beach and didn't have one chip, break, or smudge!

Let me clear up one thing though.  This is not an actual artificial polish or overlay.  It's just a polish that hardens up just like you had artificials or an overlay.

Best part of all is the price!  It's under $5!!!

So, go get you a bottle now!!  Look in the nail polish isle!  it comes in a pink box!!

--B

Disclaimer:  this is a photo from a google search.  My bottle is almost empty and wanted to show the full bottle.

Wet 'N Wild Mega Rocks Review

I absolutely love glitter polish!  I like to wear them as an accent to my normal manis as well as wearing them as a mani by themselves.  You can never go wrong with glitter polishes!  This time, I chose to use Sally Hansen's Black out as a base color and Wet 'N Wild's Mega Rocks Gettin' Amped.

I applied Sally Hansen's Black out on all of my tips except for one.  My middle finger I painted completely to make it look more like a jelly rather than just a mani.

I was in a hurry so they were not as nice as they usually are.  This polish tends to be runny but after two coats it looked better than most black polishes.

After the black had dried, I began adding the Wet 'N Wild Gettin' Amped over the black polish.  It's a clear polish with silver and black glitter.  At first, the glitter wasn't applying the way I wanted it to.  It would clump up in one area where I first brushed.  I ended up using one of my nail art brushes to push some of the glitter around into different areas.

It's quick drying and looks amazing!  You have to manipulate the glitter quickly if you want to spread it out.  I did two coats on each nail and three on my middle.  I wanted to middle nail to stand out from the rest.

The glitter on top of the black polish just pops out and says "Look at me!"  I absolutely love this glitter and really recommend it!  I'm glad I didn't pass up the BOGO on this!

Sally Hansen's Black Out 3/5
Wet 'N Wild Gettin Amped 4/5

--B