I recently did an easy tutorial for glittery nails over on The Glitter Guide, but as it has been such a constant in my winter beauty regime thus fur, it makes sense that I share one on here too. On grey and wintery days or during the holidays when you want your fingers to look as pretty as the decorations on the tree and the fireworks in the sky, there is nothing quite like the glint of glittery nails peeking out from a coat.
Get experimenting with the adorable glitter polishes that much to our delight are everywhere at the moment (I love those by Essie, OPI and Deborah Lippmann), and just have fun – no one ever said glitter should be serious!
Here’s how to do it yourself:
1. Clean and file nails. This means shape, buff and push back cuticles. (When wearing glitter always keep nails short, neat and rounded so the look stays cute and classy and never verges into trashy territory.) Apply a clear base coat to protect your nails and give the polish a surface to adhere to.
2. Choose your colors. All you need is one of your favorite nail polish colors and a fun glittery polish to go on top. Color combinations that either match (such as pink glitter on baby pink, silver glitter on dove grey) or compliment (rainbow glitter on red or burgundy, or pastel glitter with different sorbet colors are happy combinations) look best.
3. Twinkle and shine. Apply two coats of the solid colour as a base coat (in this case I used the lovely lavender Nails Inc ‘Cambridge’ – named after the city I live/love – though any pastel will do). With your glitter polish you can either do a simple glittery topcoat (one or two coats depending on how dense you want the glitter), a dense glitter (three to four coats for a super razzle-dazzle effect – you can skip the base color if going for this look), dots, stripes, or a combination of anything that takes your fancy. To get the ombre effect I’ve done here (using Essie’s darling pink ‘A Cut Above’), remove the excess from the brush then just paint the glitter on the tips, bringing it down slightly towards the centre of the nail with whatever is left for a gradual fade effect (I did coats this way so the look was more obvious). Don’t worry about being too perfect – it will look like a lovely sprinkling of loose glitter however you paint it on.
4. Maintain. Seal with a top coat to make everything smooth (this will also make your polish last longer). If you get a few tiny chips after a day or two, the beauty of glitter polish is that you can easily patch up the area with a teeny bit of base colour and glitter topcoat without anyone noticing.
5. Remove: Several people have asked me how to remove glitter (it is notoriously stubborn, though as it does tend to last a few days more than regular polish alone, it all evens out in the end in terms of removal time), and I’ve found that filling the cap of your nailpolish remover (or a little glass dish) with remover solution and soaking each nail in there for about 30 seconds to a minute helps it just slide off.
What is your favourite quick beauty fix to help brighten grey days?
Love, Miss B xx
What a lovely idea. I’m going to have to try this even though I’m really not that good at painting my own nails. x
this is like the perfect post for the holidays! my best friend is a nail artist, so fortunately i don’t have to do my own nails! she loves glitter too, everybody should wear glitter on NYE!
Can’t wait to use your glitter-mani tips! In fact,I recently ditched my nail biting bad habit and can now have fun experimenting with glitter and colour. My nails are still far from being perfect, but fancy polishes to play with definitely help my not so strong will!
Another great way to make stubborn glitter polish come off is to wrap a cotton pad soaked in nail polish remover around each nail and then wrap each fingertip with tin foil. Keep it on for a few minutes and watch the polish slide off like magic 🙂
Oh-so-pretty! Amazing pictures too. Had the sparkly Essie nailvarnish on my Christmas wish list but clearly Santa was being tight as I didn’t get it in my stocking 🙁
Olivia xx
Love these tips! Think I’ve seen from twitter that you’re a fan of Taylor Sterling and her Glitter Guide — you should guest blog for her! xx
OH dear lord, I skipped the first paragraph and went straight for the numbered steps. You DID guest blog for her. Feeling silly, clearly the holiday partying has had its effect : ) xx
Oh I will try the glittery manicure!!!!! 🙂
I follow your blog maybe you want to follow my blog too!
xxx,
sabrina
Beautiful! Another good trick to remove glitter nail polish is to use felt instead of a cotton ball.
I have a hang up for burgundy now, and glitter is a very nice idea for NYE!
D.S.
That would be a light ‘home-exfoliation,’ with a cleansing scrub, or light abrasive pad… then sitting comfortablly with good music, doing a face massage with a lovely luxurious cream for 10-15 minutes… try it then have a look in the mirror… GLOWING! (it’s perfect to do this before a evening out!)
I think I will try this for my outfit on New Years Eve. Thanks a lot for the tutorial. Your nails look amazing 🙂
xx, B.
What fun! I love the idea of just trimming the tips of nails…much easier to remove, too! My 12 year old daughter and I love your blog. Her dream trip is to visit Paris one day, so she really gets a taste of what it is like when she reads your stories! Happy Holidays!
Bonnie & Cady
Right. I’m off to do my nails NOW! x
Gorgeous! I’m on a mission this January to avoid grey days by experimenting with colour and pattern and all things sparkly – your post had made me realise that I can extend that mantra to my nails too!
I just stumbled across your blog and I love it – you have a new follower 😀 And I hope you’ll like my blog too!
Cat xxx
http://www.takecourageblog.com/
So cute! I remember seeing your sparkly nails when we met and how great it looked. Glitter isn’t very “me” so to brighten my day I’d rather go for a red lip. It’s the perfect pick-me-up and I love seeing it on other women too.
Oh you do have a good point, glitter nails just won’t work on some girls (ie. those with more chic restraint than me, who accidentally looks like a Christmas tree at most times). LOVE a red lip as an alternative though (and it suits you so well)
B xx
Loving the nails and also your ring! – could you tell us where it’s from?
Reblogged this on MommaJam.