Thursday 4 April 2013

Green Ombre (gradient) Monarch Butterfly Mani

It is known (as the Dothraki would say) that Butterfly manicures are one of my favorites.  I'm also a really big fan of ombre or gradient nails, I have been seeing a lot of these two elements mixed together so I thought I would try my hand at it. So here are the results, and of course as always, a walk through tutorial so you can recreate it yourself with Whatever colors you wish!





Here are the polishes I am going to be using for this one. From left to right they are Revlon Posh, China Glaze Def Defying, and Revlon Zealous. This will be more of a two tone ombre however because the last two colors are very similar, Zealous is quite a thin polish it will really just add a bit of metallic sparkle on top of the China Glaze color.  You could use an actual third polish I just wanted these ones.


My first step was to paint Revlon Posh onto the entire nail beds of all of my nails. This is a relatively high pigment polish so I only Needed one coat regular coat, and one thin coat.  As you can see it's also very shiny :P It is one of my favorite greens btw. I allowed this to dry most of the way.



Next I used a regular triangular make up sponge as pictured above and painted a layer of China Glaze Def Defying onto a corner of the sponge. I then dabbed the sponge onto my nail bed covering the bottom 2/3 of the nails. You will have to apply more polish to the sponge as necessary, it will depend on the size of the nails and how much polish you initially put on the sponge. Less is better than more because you can build it up if you don't have enough on the sponge, if you have too much it's going to be a glooby mess just f.y.i.  Allow to dry.




I then did the same process for Revlon Zealous. I sponged over the whole area where I had sponged Def Defying. As I mentioned previously this color only adds a metallic sheen to the previously applied color. If you wanted to add an actual third color you would apply that color to the bottom 1/3 portion of the nail leaving some of the second color exposed. Allow to dry.



Next we are going to be using Wet n' Wilds glitter coat Kaleidoscope. You don't have to add glitter to it, I just like glitter so if you want you can skip this step completely. You just want to paint one layer over the entire nail bed of each nail. Allow to FULLY dry, serious business I mean FULLY, the next step is using a nail art pen so you don't want to gloob it up and cause drag marks from a half dry mani because you couldn't wait for it to dry :P Trust me :)





Next we are using a M.A.S.H Nail Design Pen in black to create the shape of the wings. My lines are admittedly a bit shaky here as it was my first time doing these nails with this particular pen so I wasn't used to how slowly or quickly the polish comes out. You can also do this with black polish and a nail art brush such as those from the Bundle Monster 20 piece kit I reviewed a few days ago, I just wanted to try out this nail art pen. For the design all you do is drawn a black outline around your nail. Next you draw a scalloped edge beginning at the bottom of one side of your nail and swooping upwards in three or four C shaped sections. It doesn't matter which direction you go in as long as one side is lower than the other. I chose to have the rise go towards my pinky finger direction, this is just how it happened this time, but it looks equally as awesome either way. Then all you have to do is connect the points of the swooped c shapes to the black outline at the top end of your nail on an angle. Easy Peasy. Allow to dry.





Next we are going to be using my new favorite white polish Revlon Spirit and a small sized dotting tool to finish off the detail of these nails. What you want to do is dot evenly and carefully around the black on the bottom to create an effect similar to Monarchs wings. The amount of dots you need will of course vary depending on the size of your nails and the shape of your design, but make sure there is still a fair amount of black still showing, always under do it then add more if necessary. Allow to dry.



Then all we have to do is use a manicure clean up brush, or q-tips or whatever you've got to clean up the mani and make it look neat, and then use your favorite top coat to smooth it all out and add some lovely shine and protection. As you probably know by now, I along with a great population of others favor Seche Vite Dry fast topcoat, so that is what I used. I also really like Nutra Nail fast dry top coat which you can buy at most stores. It is inexpensive and dries very quickly with high shine.  Well there you go,  you're done! Pretty aren't they? I love them, give it a try with whatever colors you want! I know I will be doing them again. I will post pics when I do but obviously not a tutorial as it is the same premise as this one! Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for stopping by! :)

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