Rainbow Ombre Tutorial

This is one of the most popular designs I have put on Instragram so far (follow me if you have Instragram @vixen_nails), so I decided to recreate it for my blog.

I am definitely a huuuuge fan of neon nail polish so this is what I used for this design but it can be done with any colours you want and any number of colours too. I love rainbows so I decided to do a true rainbow using my neons.

What you will need:

• a base coat and a top coat
• a white nail polish (O.P.I. Alpine Snow)
• the colours for your ombre (I used, in order of pictured, Quo by Orly Femme Fatale, QbO Drama Queen, QbO Center of Attention, China Glaze In The Lime Light, QbO Social Butterfly, and CG Purple Panic)
• a few clean make up sponges (I use wedge shaped but you can use other shapes too)
• some q-tips and polish remover for clean up (you could also tape off around your nails before starting to help with the clean-up)

Step 1:

Start with your base coat and then paint all your nails white. When I use neon colours I always start with a white polish underneath because this will help the neons really pop and make it look more opaque. You will notice a difference for sure in how bright the neon polish is. (If you are taping to help with clean up do it now,  putting tape around each nail so the polish does not transfer on to the skin around your nails)

Step 2:

Let the white polish dry completely because if it is even a tiny bit tacky still the sponge will pick up colour instead of depositing it. When you are sure the white is dry paint lines of nail polish directly on to the sponge. Make sure you know the area the size of your nail on the sponge and only paint that, making the lines as thin as possible to fit all the colours. Because I am using so many colours my lines of polish are quite thin but if you are using less colours you can paint on thicker lines.

Step 3:

Carefully sponge the colours on to your nails by pushing the sponge on to them. You will have to re-paint the polish on to the sponge after every few nails. You will be able to tell the sponge needs morepolish when it starts to stick slightly when sponging on the colours. Don't worry if it looks very sheer at first, you will have to sponge the colours over and over on to your nails until it reaches an opacity you like. For this manicure I sponged about 5 layers of colours on to my nails. The picture is after the first sponge and then after the fifth sponge. 

Step 4:

Using q-tips dipped in polish remover clean up all the polish on your skin around the nails, if you are like me there will be quite a bit lol (or if you used tape just simply remove the tape). After you have cleaned up put on two coats of your top coat. I like to do two coats because the sponging can leave your nails a little bumpy and two coats really smooths them out. 

And you're done! I can't get over how absolutely bright and vibrant this manicure looks in real life. I tried taking pictures in the sun to capture the craziness but it was a rainy day here so it didn't work out that well. I think the next few pictures do a fair job of capturing neons as best you can with a camera though.

 

Let me know what you think and have fun trying this design out! :)