DIY Ombre Nails

I've seen a lot of amazing ombre nail designs online as well as a good number of tutorials. I tried a few of them and found which worked best for me. Thought I would share it with you. This is currently my favorite go to nail design. Easy to do, with a lot of impact.

Scroll down for photos and detailed tutorial.

DIY Ombre Nails

1. Paint all your nails the lighter color polish. This will be the color at the base of your nail in when finished.
2. On wax paper, place a short line of each polish next to each other. Using an extended paperclip, mix them together, just where the touch. Note: you will want a decent amount of polish on the wax paper, but not a runny pond. This will last 2-3 nails.
3. Like a stamp, press the sponge into the polish. I found it easiest to align the top of the sponge with the top of the lighter color (see photo).
4. Press sponge onto nail multiple times, sponging as you roll the nail from side to side to cover the whole nail. (I align the top of the sponge with my nail bed.)
5. Clean up the fingers using nail polish remover or acetone, with a q-tip or small paint brush.
6. After drying apply 1-2 layers of top coat.

Tips for choosing colors for your ombre design:
I found that if the colors were too close to each other there wasn't much impact, so look for two with some contrast. Also, I had bad results with nail polish that wasn't very opaque, so if you aren't sure do a test on one nail first.

Tips for using the right sponge:
Look for a sponge that is fairly porous (ie: the sponge holes aren't too small). One site online suggested using a makeup sponge. I found it too too dense though, and was disappointed in the results. I also used some older sponges that started falling apart on me, woops, so don't do that.

Colors used
Yellow: SinFulColors, Pull Over
Orangy Red: SinFulColors, Big Daddy

Any questions? Just post them in the comment section.

Tried this? Take a photo and share in the comments.

Nail Whitening Tutorial

As most of you probably know, nails tend to turn yellow when you've worn nail polish for too long. Boo:( So what is a girl to do? Whiten your nails. Super simple, takes ingredients you probably have laying around the house, and takes less than 10 minutes.

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Mix together:

1 Tbsp hydrogen peroxide

2 1/4 Tbsp baking soda

Let the paste sit on your nails for 5 minutes. Rinse and you're done!

How to patch a broken nail

The other day I broke a nail, ouch, and remembered a Pinterest post about using a tea bag to patch the tear. So I tried it out, and it worked pretty well, so I thought I'd put together a short tutorial for you.

How to patch a broken nail using a tea bag:
1: Cut open the tea bag, empty out the tea.
2: Cut a small square or rectangle out of the bag material, large enough to fit over the broken area.
3: Cover the entire nail with a layer of clear polish.
4: While still wet, place tea bag onto nail, covering broken area.
5: Cover with a layer of clear polish.
6: Add one or two additional layers if necessary.

Ta-da!