Mermaid stencil nails

Recently I seem to have developed an uncontrollable love for all things mermaid!

Mermaid hair, mermaid nails ..literally everything!

I had seen some really pretty mermaid nails on Instagram and decided to have a go myself.

I chose to use stencils from a company called Nail Mail rather than try and paint on the scales myself with a metallic gold base coat and different shades of purples (including some glitter of course.

I painted my nails with one coat of the metallic gold (Barry M) the painted a clear coat over the top then left to dry for 15 minutes - this step is essential to stop the stencil pulling off the base coat later on.

I then applied the stencil to all nails on one hand (it helps if you have quite narrow nails to cute the stencil in half that way you have less waste meaning you have stencil left over for next time!) I decided to leave a feature nail plain gold.

I used 4 different purple shades over the stencils - Barry M purple glitter, China glaze in a dark pink shade and lilac shade and OPI in Significant Other Colour. I used a small sponge and tweezers to dab on each colour to give a slight mottled effect rather than just using on solid colour.

I found it is better to do one nail at a time then peel the stencil off straight away while the paint it is still wet to avoid the paint drying and the stencil pulling off some of the paint potentially ruining the effect.

Finish with a nice shiny clear top coat and voila ..perfect mermaid nails!

You can use literally any combination of colours to create this effect, the possibilities really are endless!

Stencils - £3.95 from Nail Mail
Midi rings - £3 for set of 3 Primark

How to: Easy Mermaid Ombré Nails

First I must apologise for neglecting my blog and breaking my new years resolution to post more often! I have been super busy with everything including celebrating my 22nd birthday ..old I know!

Anyway, as you may know having pretty nails is a must for me and I'm always looking for new things to try out - this time I've braved ombre nails!

Ombre nails are easier than you may think, all you really need is a flat, small sponge, 2-3 different colour nail varnishes, a clear top coat and nail varnish remover for if things get messy. I chose to use a triangle make up sponge (the cheap ones you can get from Superdrug). The pink shade is China Glaze Something Sweet, the lilac shade is China Glaze In A Lily Bit and the blue is from Primark's P.S beauty range. I also added OPI Significant Other Colour mixed with a little bit of clear topcoat to give the nails a mermaid-y shimmer as I love anything mermaid related!

So to create these ombre mermaid nails make sure your nails are free of any other nail varnish and are clean and dry. Apply a clear base coat followed by a coat of Something Sweet over the whole nail to brighten the other colours when applied as it is the lightest colour.
Brush a small amount of each colour onto the sponge (as shown in the picture) and quickly dab across each nail until the paint will no longer transfer as it is dry, wait for this layer to partially dry and repeat the process of painting a strip of each colour onto the sponge and dab onto each nail until the desired colour is reached. Once you are totally happy with the colour add a little topcoat to give your nails a bit of protection and some extra shine! Alternatively you can also use a matte topcoat for a bold,chalky effect.

When dabbing the colour onto each nail ensure you don't put to much pressure on to the sponge, as if the paint is still wet it may remove paint that is already on the nail. Also make sure your not dabbing the same part of the sponge on to the same part of the nail each time as the nail may look more stripy than gradient . Obviously the ombre technique takes a bit of perfecting with trial and error to perfect, but experimenting is part of the fun.

Creating ombre nails can be a little messy when using a sponge, to get to the very edge of each nail you are bound to get some paint on your fingers, this can easily be removed with a cotton bud and nail varnish remover for a flawless finish.

There are so many colour combinations that can be used for ombre designs, the possibilities really are endless.

I hope this has given you guys a little help with creating your own ombre styles!

China Glaze Something Sweet & In A Lily Bit: Both £5.75 from eBay
PS Blue Nail Paint: £1 from Primark
OPI Significant Other Colour: £6 from a wholesaler but can be found on eBay and Amazon