Crazy customisation is the order of the weekend. Try out these tricky-but-pretty blue marbled marvels, or colour up with Ciaté’s hot new foils kit.
Jen’s nails are bang on trend – there are loads of baby blue patterns on the high street at the moment. Here, Jen explains how to copy her talons. Be warned, it’s not easy!
“There are lots of online tutorials on how to create a marbled effect on your nails using water. They all make it look a lot easier than it actually is! First, I painted my nails with one coat of Dolce & Gabbana Nail Lacquer in True White. Then, using warm water in a shallow dish, I dropped alternate drops of my chosen nail colours – the D&G white and Barry M Nail Paint in Navy. You need to drop the polish quite close the surface of the water, otherwise it will sink to the bottom. When you have enough polish in the water, you can swirl it using a toothpick to create a pattern. When you are happy with the pattern you’ve made, press your nail against the polish and submerge it in the water. Leave it a few seconds, and then take your finger out. Continue with each nail – I made sure each of my patterns were different – and then clean up the polish all over your fingers using nail polish remover on a cotton bud. Be warned, you’ll need a lot of cotton buds – it gets very messy! This was only my first attempt, so I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, but I definitely want to experiment with different colours and to try and improve my marbling technique. Practice definitely makes perfect with this nail art trend.”
The Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure kit, on the other hand, was a doddle to use and looked really cool. The kit will hit the high street soon, and includes a nail polish (mine came with a pink varnish), special glue, and a set of differently coloured foil squares. The first stage is your usual prep: cuticle/buff/base coat (and a big “TSK!” to you if you don’t do any of these), then two coats of the Ciaté polish. Wait for the paint to dry properly – the foils can’t be done on a tacky surface – and paint on a thin layer of glue wherever you want to see the foil colours. Let it dry for a few seconds, then stick the foil paper on top, matte side down, then pull off to reveal a patch of shimmering colour. Do this as many times on each nail as you like to layer up the shades, then secure with top coat – I’m loving Seche Vite as it dries super-fast and sets the polish hard. And the best bit about this look is that you can touch it up for a night out if any should scratch off, as it’s supposed to look pretty messy anyway. Perfect – we love low-maintenance nails!
Think you can do better? Email your designs to helen.nianias@fabulousmag.co.uk
