Nails of the Week

This ombre French manicure ended up being more challenging and infuriating then I thought it would be. Normally ombre nails are pretty straight forward and easy to do, so lets start out with why this one in particular was so frustrating before I get into the step-by-step instructions.

My number one problem was that my white polish was getting old and I didn’t realize just how bad it was until I already had my base of white on. (Which seemed totally fine at that point!) It only started to get super gummy and tacky when I worked on the actual ombre part. I had to completely redo about half of my nails and go back over a few for a more subtle ombre because the polish got so bad. My other problem was that I didn’t use tape on the skin around the nails. I sometimes skip this step, but because of the extra challenge of using an old polish, I had extra mess to clean up. (I always use q-tips to clean up excess polish.) Long story short, always make sure your polishes are in good shape.

For an ombre French manicure you’ll need white and a nude polish that fits your taste/skin tone as well as disposable makeup sponges and basic scotch tape. I went with this pinky nude that my sister let me borrow (she says these Miracle Gel ones work just like a regular polish with and without the top coat and I think she’s right).
Paint your base using the lightest/sheerest color you have. For me it was the white.
Put tape all around the skin next to your nails. I’ve found one hand at a time has been best.
Using a disposable makeup sponge paint your two colors on with one stacked above the other. Sponge the colors up and down your nail and repeat about two more times for better opacity and a subtle gradient.
To smooth out the texture use a top coat to get rid of the sponge texture.
Repeat the sponging process on every nail and always do one at a time to be able to smooth out the texture before the nail dries.
Lastly, if clean up is needed us a q-tip dipped in nail polish remover to carefully clean around the nails.