In the first episode of STF (start to finish) I am doing Mermaid Nails! I have drawn up how I plan to do them below, and then we will see how close I can get to my plans, and document how I got there as well as if I had any issues!
the plan
THUMB & LITTLE - A pink to purple ombre with a unicorn chrome effect. Glitter fading down from the cuticle finished off with a silver shell gem.
INDEX & RING - Same glitter used on the thumb and pinkie but all over the nail, finished with a white scale effect from a stamping plate.
MIDDLE - I am going to attempt a shell effect, this is the first time I have used a 3D effect using gel, so we will see how it goes! If it goes well I will have to try out the unicorn horn effect too!
the execution
I started off by mixing a white and dark purple gel (I didn't have a light purple) on the back of a metal stamping plate and then applied it to half of my thumb and pinkie finger. I cured this and then went in with pink on the other side, I then kept going until I had a nice fade in the center. I top coated and added a chameleon chrome to give it a sheen before I moved onto the glitter.
I used the HEHE005 stamping plate that I purchased on Aliexress and a MOYOU white stamping polish to create the scaled effect and I am so in love with it! It works so well with the glitter underneath.
For the shell nail I painted my nail with a white gel polish in two coats and then used a white builder gel that has a thicker consistency and drew 7 lined starting thicker towards the tip and dragging upwards and thinner, I've never done this before so I was a little shaky but it still worked out really well once the top coat had been added which smoothed it out, I also used a little chameleon chrome to add a sheen to it.
So there is the finished look! As a final last touch I added a silver shell gem to the shell nail, originally I planned to put one on the thumb as well but decided the glitter was enough. I think I managed to get it to look almost identical to my original plan and I am so pleased with the result, this is also the first time I've had almond nails as I usually have ballerina and I think I prefer these! Let me know what you think of the look!
