Hi everyone! This is Jenny from Lavish Layerings and I’m honored to be guest posting for KBShimmer today! I’ve long been a huge fan of their glitter polishes and I have recently been doing a number of nail art looks utilizing their new creme line, which is equally fantastic!How many of you would like to give nail art a try but just don’t have the time? I really enjoy nail art and I often do full blown nail art manis when time permits, but sometimes I cheat a bit. If you only do the nail art on a few nails instead of ALL of your nails, the task doesn’t seem quite as daunting. I have seen more and more ladies on my favorite blogs and on Instagram doing looks like these, and I like to call them Mix and Match Manis or accent nails. There are so many nail art techniques that are very simple, but when incorporated in the right way can add a lot of pizzazz to your manis without a lot of fuss.

First up, I thought we would start with a simple glitter gradient. I started off with a base of Sky Jinks on all of my nails. I then used 1 coat of Squared Away on all of my nails except the middle two. On the middle and ring finger only, I did a glitter gradient. No special tools needed; just use the brush parallel to the nail to dab on glitter to about halfway down the nail.

The trick to a glitter gradient is to wipe off most of the excess polish before you begin dabbing so that you don’t get big clumps of glitter in one spot. If you want, you can even place glitter pieces exactly where you want them using the tip of your brush. Once you get your gradient how you like it, just topcoat and you are done! Now you have a little more interest in what would have been just a normal glitter mani with very little extra effort! Squared Away is discontinued from KBShimmer’s line (I’m sure you can find it on blog sales still), but you can use this technique with any glitter topper. It would look very cool with one of their newer glitter toppers, Rush Flower Traffic.

Next I have a mani that I doesn’t really incorporate nail art so much, but it still has some added visual interest. For this mani, I chose two polishes that I thought complimented each other well: A Touch of Glass and Laugh Myself Lily. I used Laugh Myself Lily on the middle two nails and A Touch of Glass on all of  my other nails. After A Touch of Glass had dried completely, I added a single pink stud at the base of each of those nails. Be sure to seal in the studs with topcoat after you apply them (I used 2 coats of topcoat).

The contrast of the glitter and creme polishes is really nice and the studs compliment the pink glitters in Laugh Myself Lily to make a really cohesive look. If you don’t have any nail art studs (or don’t like something sticking up off of your nail), you can use pieces of glitter in the place of them or even use a dot of a contrasting polish made with dotting tool/bobby pin to acheive a similar look.

This next look incorporates a nail art technique from The Nailasaurus, a blogger who (to me) is one of the pioneers of the idea of these Mix and Match Manis.  This mani was inspired by Watercolor, which I used on my pointer and pinky nail here. The name and beautiful colors of this polish made me want to incorporate a nail art look that looked like a watercolor painting. I had recently seen The Nailasaurus’s tutorial for Nimbus Nail Art, and thought this technique would be perfect to acheive that effect.

For this technique, you only need a few creme polishes, acetone, and cotton swabs (Q-Tips). I started off with a white base and then used Life Rose On and Sky Jinks to do the Nimbus effect. Basically, you dab some of your creme polish on a disposable surface (I used a paper plate) and then thin it out with acetone until it is very runny. Then you use a cotton swab to dab random dots all over your nails and then repeat with your other color(s). The Nailasaurus’s tutorial is very thorough, so I will let you refer to that for a full rundown of the technique. I will say that I believe that I thinned my polishes even more than hers and made sure that my cotton swab was completely soaked in acetone so that the effect was very light and ethereal, like a watercolor painting.

Finally, I have a little more of an advanced technique for you. I know so many people want to give water marbling a try but are hesistant to do it because it is SO time consuming. I good way to get your feet wet is to start out with only doing a few marbled accent nails. For this mani, I used Honeydew List and Life Rose On. I used Honeydew List as my base and then added the marbled accents on my middle nails. After I got done with the marble, I went back in and added a few random dots of Life Rose On with my dotting tool to add a bit more interest.

There are a million tutorials for water marbling out there that you can find via Google search, so I will not bore you with yet another one. I will however give you a few tips and tricks that I have learned along the way to help you have a successful water marbling experience.

1) Be sure you are using filtered water (I used bottled water) and not tap water for your marble. If you don’t do this your polish won’t spread properly.

2) Be sure your water is room temperature or even lukewarm to help the polish spread well across the water’s surface.

3) Do not set up your marbling station in front of a fan or vent. The blowing air will cause the polish on the surface of the water to dry too quickly and you won’t be able to create your designs.

4) After you tape off the skin around your nails, brushing a little nail oil on the small bit of skin/cuticle that is between your nail and the tape will really aid in clean-up.

5) After you dip your nail in the water, be sure to completely remove the excess polish off of the surface of the water before bringing your nail back out of the water or it will get on your nail and mess up your design. Just blow on the surface of the water to dry the excess polish (if it is not already dry) and drag an orangewood stick across the surface of the water to collect the dried polish.

I really hope that you all have enjoyed my post! Although it may be a bit basic for you nail art experts out there, I hope it will inspire some of you nail art newbies and those of you who are pressed for time to explore these techniques a bit! Another cool thing about Mix and Match designs is, you don’t have to stop at two different nail designs if you don’t want to! You can take a peek at ChitChatNails to see the history of the Skittlette Mani where you have 3 or more different complementary nails. Basically, the possibilities are endless with this sort of Mix and Match mani.