All This Polish: Spring ASBMF Challenge #6: Ombre

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Spring ASBMF Challenge #6: Ombre

This past Sunday, I worked on my ombre for part 6 of the April Showers Brings May Flowers Challenge. This also happens to be my first ombre ever. I wasn't sure how I was going to approach this. I definitely have enough polishes to have been able to pick 5 different shades of a color to do it that way. But instead of fumbling through my stash, I opted to try the technique of taking one color and then adding white and black to that color to create different shades. I ended up picking a color that was rather dark to begin with, Orly Lucky Duck, so I decided to forget about the black polish and just used white to make lighter and lighter shades of green for all my nails.

On my pinkie, I used two coats of Lucky Duck by itself. To create the lighter shade on my ring finger, I put about 5 or 6 drops of Lucky Duck on a paper plate, then I added a drop or two of Wet n Wild White Creme and mixed it up with an orange stick. I then took a brush from an empty bottle of Seche Vite and applied the polish to my nail. For each nail after, I just put less and less Lucky Duck on the plate and more of the White Creme to get each nail lighter than the previous nail. I did one hand at a time but I actually ended up getting the nails on my right hand to match up almost perfectly to the nails on my left hand. My pinkies were the only nails that I applied more than one coat of polish, since I was using Lucky Duck straight up. But I used just one pretty thick coat of polish on the rest of my nails, so that I didn't have to keep mixing more polish for each one. I put it on so thick though that it actually bubbled quite a bit as it dried. But amen for Seche Vite, because once I applied a coat of that, all the bubbles completely vanished!

I have to say I'm pretty shocked how much I love this manicure! I remember when they first became popular, I would see People Magazine posting photos all the time of celebrities sporting ombre manicures. For some reason though, I just wasn't into it. If it wasn't for this challenge, I can't even imagine how long it might have been before I would have finally tried one myself. But having had this manicure on for about 3 days now, I'm kind of obsessed with it. I keep looking at my fingers and comparing the shades. It's like walking around with one of those Pantone paint swatch cards strapped to your hand. It's turned me into a bigger nerd than I already was. I didn't think that was possible, until I found myself standing at the bathroom counter getting ready for work and started noticing that my middle finger matched the color of the sink, my index finger matched the color my soap dish..."I wonder which nail matches the wall color?" Wow! Stop Sarah, just stop. Put your hands in your pockets and walk slowly out of the bathroom! The point is that even though an ombre manicure is a pretty basic concept, it's far from boring.