CherryMani: Pink sparkles mani (text tutorial)

Hello again!

I haven't been doing my nails recently and just a few days ago I finally bought a mini set from Nails Inc (at Sephora) to try out.  But no, I'm not actually reviewing it here...I have to figure out how to take better pictures of the colour, and I haven't tried the other two colours yet to give a proper review.  So I will be showing you my manicure I sported before I did my recent nails.

And the sad thing?  These nails were done on Chinese New Year.  And my friends, that was in...beginning of February!  Holy moly...but I'll be honest, these nails lasted me quite a while before I finally took them off and gave my nails a breather.

Voila!  I present you with my pink sparkly nails :)

I was late for Valentine's Day to have these nails, but hey, I got bored one day and I had just bought Essie's "A Cut Above" (which is the chunky pink glitter you see).

I can't exactly do a video tutorial, so I will just walk you through how to do this - it's dead easy and goes with the new trend of "ombre"...just in the form of glitter!  And yes, I wore this to the office and no one said anything about it being less than professional.  I'll admit I may be a bit apprehensive to go see the partner with these, but heck, everyone is chill where I work.

Here are a few more pictures before I launch into the step-by-step:

(With flash)

So without further ado...here is how you get these cute girly pink sparkly nails!  If you want to know the exact polishes I used, here's the list:

-Essie base coat (any of the ones that I have - I have Feed Me, Grow Stronger and another one I forgot)

-Rimmel 60 Seconds in #200 Princess Pink (I don't think they have this colour any more - any light pastel pink will do)

- Essie Pure Pearlfection (Irridescent glitter)

- OPI Pirouette My Whistle (A mix of chunky and fine silver glitter)

- Essie A Cut Above (Chunky pink glitter)

- OPI Top Coat (any will do honestly)

1) Prep your nails and apply your base coat.  Allow to dry then put on the light pink.  I did one coat because I liked it semi-opaque.

2) Put Pure Pearlfection (or any fine glitter polish) halfway down the nail - to make it a bit more gradient-esque, I would recommend instead painting from a third of the nail up, and then dragging down from bottom (if you get what I mean...you want to try and feather the line a bit to make it more seamless).  Allow to dry.

3) Apply OPI Pirouette My Whistle over the Pure Pearlfection, but not covering it all.  Remember you want to make a slight gradient effect.  Make sure you get some of the chunky glitter too.  I don't think there is a good substitute for this one...maybe there is that I just don't know of!  Make sure the glitter is a really light silver.

4) Once the polishes have dried, apply Essie's A Cut Above.  Concentrate the glitter at the tip of the nail and then make it gradate down towards your nail bed.

5) Once all the polish is dry, add a top coat and make sure to seal the nail edge to preserve the mani.  Word of warning - keep your layers relatively thin (glitter polish tends to get goopy) because otherwise your mani will be prone to chipping off (yes it happened to me).  It's easy to retouch because it's just glitter (so you don't have to go back and do everything...if you want just shove two glitters on to mask the "hole") but yeah...thinner layers will also help to a) make it faster to dry and b) make your nails not so...thick?

Hope you girls like the mani! :)  I did something similar for new year's eve as well - the colours I used were:
- Essie's Imported Bubbly (base colour)
- Essie's Pure Pearlfection
- Silver polish from Kiss nail art set (I drew streaks instead)
- OPI Pirouette My Whistle (A mix of chunky and fine silver glitter)

Readers: Do you like to wear glitter nail polish?