'Pink Ribbon' Pink Ombre Manicure Tutorial

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely mother's out there! Each year, my mother and I have a tradition of participating in the Mother's Day Classic charity walk/run to raise money for breast cancer. We participated this morning in fact, and Melbourne put one of it's finest weather shows, complete with persistent rain and freezing temperatures, but it was fun none the less, at there's always a great atmosphere at the Mother's Day Classic.

 Pink being the colour of breast cancer awareness and the pink ribbon being the symbol, I thought I'd do a themed manicure for the classic this year, but it's also just a pretty basic pink ombre for any occasion. This is a pretty straight forward tutorial as I'm certainly no expert nail artist myself, but hopefully it might give someone some nail inspiration, if nothing else. I must also apologise for the bad lighting and quality of some of the photos as I had very limited time to put this together...I should also apologise for the horrible, tatty state of my fingers and nails... But on with the show!

You will need: 

A range of pink nail polish colours, from a pale pink to dark/hot pink, with probably 1-2 shades in between. 

A make-up sponge

A nail-art pen (although you could just as easily use a toothpick or small paintbrush).

I don't have the biggest range of nail polishes to work with, and I'm not a huge pink person (these are some I was given years ago), so my pink shades ended up being pale pink, a more pale plum sort of colour, coral and hot pink, which probably wasn't the best combination for creating a really gradual, nuanced ombre, but you have to work with what you've got! 

Step 1: Prep with a base coat and paint all your nails in your lightest shade of pink. As I was working with the pink ribbon theme, I chose one nail to be my 'accent' nail, so I didn't paint that one in the light pink, but more on that later...

Step 2: Sponge some of your second shade about a quarter of the way up your nail. I find it works best to sponge back and forth between the two colours you're blending a few times, so you don't end up with a really obvious line between the colours. Then, sponge on your third shade about halfway up the nail, followed by the forth shade, on the tip, making sure the blend in between.

Step 3: (for those going with the 'Pink Ribbon' mother's day theme) Paint your 'accent' nail in your darkest shade of pink. Allow to dry and draw on a pink ribbon design using a nail-art pen, or a toothpick and your lightest pink polish shade.
(Unfortunately, I hadn't allowed the nail-art pen to dry quite enough before I put the topcoat on, which explains the little crack in the design).

Step 4: Finish with a quick drying topcoat and you're done!

As I said, you could definitely get a much nicer ombre effect with a better range of pink than the ones I had to work with, although I think the coral added a great, intense brightness amongst the pinks. Let me know if you try this, or have any other, similar designs to share, I'm becoming a bit obsessed with nail-art and love finding new ideas!
Hope all the mothers out there are having a swell day!

Hunger Games 'Girl on Fire' Nail Tutorial

As I've said before, I'm a bit of a massive nerd. So, I thought I'd combine two of my loves, being a nerd and painting my nails, in honour of the release of the Hunger Games movie (going to a midnight screening tonight. Excited!) Here is my tutorial for Katniss Everdeen inspired 'Girl on Fire' ombre nails!

 Step 1: Gather your nail polish. You will need a black (to represent the black coal of District 12) and a few reds/oranges to create the gradient (I also have a yellow here, which I will explain as we go), and if you like, a glitter to finish and tie it all together.

You will also need a make up sponge, cute into small pieces, and a pair of tweezers. This is used to gently daub the colour onto yours nails, and blend the colours to create the ombre effect.

 Step 2: Paint all your nails black, using your favourite black nail polish. Allow to dry.

 Step 3: Using the tweezers and small piece of sponge, gently sponge on some red polish, about 1/3 of the way up your nail. I would then recommend sponging a little more black at the base of the red, then perhaps layering this with a little more red, as this helps to create a real blended look. For a great example of what I mean (it's difficult to explain without demonstrating!) check out this excellent video from Pixie Polish that demonstrates fantastic blending.

Step 4: Blend in your next colour. I originally planned to just blend straight from red to orange, but I found that the orange wasn't quite strong enough to show up on the black. This is where the yellow came in handy. I added a little yellow along the top of my nail, then layered the orange over this and it brought out the orange colour a lot more, and also created more of a gradient. Then blend the orange and red together, about halfway up your nail, like you did the red and black. 

Some examples of my blending process.

 Step 5: Coat with glitter, and finish with a top coat and you're done! I decided to use a large, gold glitter here, to represent Katiniss' gold mockingjay pin. However I wasn't 100% sold on the look of the glitter, so did the other hand without it to compare. What do you think? Glitter or no? I'd love to know if anyone else out there is a Hunger Games fan, and if you try this, or some variation of this :) Once again, sorry if my instructions are unclear, I'm a bit of a newbie at writing tutorials!

 Now, go out there and show the Capitol what you're made of!