Make Ombre Nail Art

Ombre Fashion

Ombre according to Merriam-Webster is having colors or tones which shade into each other, mostly used in fabrics to create a gradient effect from light to dark. The word itself was believed to be used at around 1893 as a French past participle of ombrer to shade or in Italian ombrare meaning from ombra shade.

Ombre in fashion means a graduation of colors in a fabric or garment. It is used to either showcase subtle hues or as a bold colored statement piece in clothing. Though it is popular in all aspects of fashion like accessories, bags, and shoes it is widely used in clothing.

Ombre has evolved from dresses to hair color and made its way to manicures and pedicures. The proper "Ombre" manicure or design as I have seen on the internet and salons is the graduation of colors or solid colors on each finger for example you take 5 shades of one color that is very near the hue of each other and apply it on each finger. You can choose whether to put the lightest color on your pinky finger and the darkest color shade on your thumb or vice versa. Another one I have seen so far is popularly called ombre nail art however, according to some websites and tutorials its more proper to classify it as gradient nail art because of the effect of the color fading from light to dark from the tip of the nail to the bottom of the nail on each finger, it's usually applied using a sponge to achieve the design. Both techniques are easy to do and I'll show you a cost efficient way to do it.

• Nail Polish Remover
  
• Base Coat
  
• Clear Sheet of Plastic (you can also use a tin foil or news paper, or anything where you can mix your nail polish)
  
• Toothpick
  
• Paint Brushes or Old Nail Polish Brush that has been cleaned
  
• Nail Polish (one color that you prefer to be your base color and a white or black polish to mix with it)
  

• Top Coat or Clear Nail Polish
  

1. 1
   First you need to clean your nails, push your cutticles and trim off any excess, you can cut them if you want to sport short nails or you can maintain your long ones.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
2. 2
   Apply your base coat

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
3. 3
   On the clear sheet of plastic put 4 drops of your preferred nail polish color or base polish, in my case I used blue (Royal Blue by Revlon).Then you can either mix a little bit of black nail polish to one of the drops of color to darken it more (hint:use the toothpick to add just a tiny bit of black color to your base polish.Note:A tiny amount of nail polish can change the shade completely).If the original color of your polish is dark enough for you, just use the white nail polish to lighten the four drops of you base polish increasing it, until you have four different shades.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
4. 4
   When you're satisfied with the shades of your polish you can now apply it on your fingers beginning with the darkest color to the lightest or vice versa.You can use either an old nail polish brush that's been cleaned or you can use different paint brushes to apply it.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
5. 5
   Add your top coat to finish the look and to make it last longer.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help

• Nail Polish Remover
  
• Base Coat
  
• Clear Sheet of Plastic (you can also use a tin foil or news paper, or anything where you can mix your nail polish)
  
• Toothpick
  
• Sponge (you can either use a make up sponge or any clean sponges that you can get you hand on)
  
• Bowl or Plastic Cup filled with water
• Scissors
  
• 2 Colors of Nail Polish (colors that compliment each other or colors of different hues)
  
• Top Coat or Clear Nail Polish
  
• Petroleum Jelly or Glue
  

1. 1
   First you need to clean your nails, push your cutticles and trim off any excess, you can cut them if you want to sport short nails or you can maintain your long ones.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
2. 2
   Apply your base coat

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
3. 3
   Apply the base color which is usually the lightest one of the two and let it dry completely

   .

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
4. 4
   Cut out your sponge into squares or small sections and soak it in bowl with water.The pieces of sponge doesn't necessarily have to be perfect.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
5. 5
   On the clear sheet of plastic put a generous amount of the colors of polish right next to each other.Use the toothpick to mix the two colors, just swirl it around where the polishes meet.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
6. 6
   Coat each finger with glue or petroleum jelly making sure that you don't some on your nails because the polish won't stick.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
7. 7
   Remove the excess water from the sponge and dab on to the polishes a few times.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
8. 8
   Now dab your sponge on your nails and move it up and down to create the effect, if your not satisfied with the first coating, just let it dry and repeat the sponging process.When I created this look the polish dried on the sponge and made it hard to manipulate so I cut out several pieces already and soaked them in the water before hand.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
9. 9
   Once you are satisfied with the graduation of colors on your nails apply your top coat.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
10. 10
    Clean off excess polish on the sides of your finger with nail polish remover or just peel off the glue or wipe out the petroleum jelly and your all set.

    Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

Comments