STYLE

Ombré

Thought ombré was just for your hair? Guess again. To give your nails a shade upgrade, all you need are a few different polish colors and a small makeup sponge. Simply paint your nails a solid base color (white or nude work best), and then paint a thin line of each color next to each other onto your sponge. Dab your nails with the sponge, and the colors will transfer over your nails perfectly.

Pinned by Ellie Maine

Pretty polka dots

For these peppy polka dots, you just need two different polishes and a bobby pin. Paint your nails the base color of your choice and wait patiently until they are completely dry. Take the bobby pin and open it up. Dip one end into the color you’d like your polka dots to be, and dot away!

Pinned by Gabriela

Getting trendy with scotch tape

This may sound wacky, but get that roll of tape out of your desk drawer. If you want striped nails, tape is the way to do it. For a straight line, just place a piece of tape over your base color and swipe a new coat on top, then peel away the tape. Add more tape for more stripes, but always way until your polish is totally dry before covering it in tape.

Pinned by Liesha Skyers

Reinforce your French

For a picture perfect French mani, break out those reinforcement stickers you use to fix tears in your loose leaf. Paint your nails in a light pink color, and once they dry, put a reinforcement sticker on them, leaving a little bit of room at the top of your nail for the French tips. Take the white polish and paint it over the top of your nail above the sticker, and peel the sticker off. Voila! You have yourself a fine looking French mani.

Pinned by Mareshah Legaspi

Perfect patterns

While you’ve got out that tape, feel free to experiment with different shapes and patterns. Use as many colors as you want and stripe the tape across in whatever random and different ways you like. Just be sure to wait until the paint has dried before using the tape—and don’t press the tape down too hard, you don’t want to rip off the paint of your fresh mani before you get to show off your talents!

Pinned by Brooke Lopez