Imagination In Colour UK Nail Polish Blog
Today I have a beautiful easy nail art look to show you, inspired by the pink-red themes of Valentine’s Day, ready for Friday 🙂 Andy and I aren’t hugely into celebrating it, it’s nice to make a little gesture like a card or a nice dinner together but I think we’re both advocates of showing love for each other every day. So I don’t have strong feelings on it either way, but I know some love it, and some hate it! 🙂
…I do love any excuse for a seasonal manicure though! 😉 this time last year I did Heart French Tips, and this year I’ve done a cute pink gradient! I actually used a (clean!) washing up sponge for this look, because I didn’t have any makeup sponges, which was HARD! I would definitely NOT recommend using that, it has so many holes that the polish just sinks right in, and barely sponges!
For this look I used:
– OPI Senorita Rose-alita (base)
– China Glaze Don’t Be A Square (tips)
– Ciaté Love Letter (middle)
– Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat and Quick Dry Basecoat
– Makeup (well really washing up) Sponge
You can use any polishes you like, I particularly like to use polishes with different finishes (for example I have used a shimmer, a holographic and a glitter) as they ‘pop’ more against each other, but it’s totally up to you.
How to do it:
1. Prep your nails with basecoat, and apply 2 coats of your base colour (or however many you need to give a nice even finish for the lower half of the nail).
2. Apply a few strokes of your tip colour to the corner of a makeup sponge. Dab it onto the top half of the nail; you want a semi-opaque finish that is slightly grainy. If it’s still quite sheer after the first coat, add extra to the sponge the second time round, to give a more opaque finish. Remember this can be fairly messy, it looks much better than if you dab it in a straight line across.
3. Ensuring the first couple of coats are dry, repeat the process in step 2 with your middle colour, on a new section of sponge. This time dab it into the middle, across the dividing line between your base colour and your tip colour. This doesn’t have to be neat, especially if it’s a glitter as the glitter gives the best effect when it’s messy!
4. Finish with a coat or two of topcoat, to smooth it all out. Finally, clean up in whichever method you prefer! The most popular seems to be by dipping a stiff angled brush into acetone and brushing away all the excess nail varnish from your cuticles and skin.
Hope you enjoyed this easy nail art idea, let me know what you choose to wear for V-Day! (Even if it’s Anti-Valentines!) Have you got anything planned?
x
