Mani Monday: Faded Glitter Tips

This week's manicure is another fairly simple one with some major pay off. I call it the glitter fade or faded glitter tips, and it looks so fancy I'll be doing this for my work Christmas party this year. The only things you need are your base color, a glitter polish, and a top coat if you want it to last. For my nails I'm using Sinful Colors in Black on Black for my base color (two coats) and E.L.F. Cosmetics polish in Gold Star for the glitter portion.

My two colors, black and a gold glitter

First you want to paint the base coat, I did two coats to make sure it was nice and smooth. Take your time and let it fully dry before you move on to the next step, you don't want any smudges marring your salon worthy nails.

Wow, I got that all over my fingers

Next, do one coat of the glitter polish over the whole nail. Don't worry if there is a done of glitter on the first go around, we'll be doing several layers. Let it dry completely before you move onto the next step.

Labeled for your convenience (or mine while sorting photos)

Now you are going to do layer #2 of the glitter, but instead of the whole nail you'll be painting all but the top quarter of the nail. By only covering part of the nail on each subsequent layer this will create a faded look, with the tips being the most covered. You will get either a dramatic or a subtle fade, just depending on the level and type of glitter in the polish you chose. My gold polish has both large and small pieces of glitter so I will have a different fade than one with just small glitter (small pieces will give you the most even fade and can yield the most dramatic looks).

Starting to see the difference

Now for layer #3, which will be done from the middle of the nail down. You should start to see the difference between the tips of your nails and the base. Again, let each layer dry before you move onto the next layer.

Looking great!

Now its time for your fourth and final layer. Just paint the tips of your nails, or the bottom fourth. You should end up with glittery tips that slowly fade to just a touch of glitter.

And all done, minus cleaning up my messy edges

Now you can add another layer or two to the tips for an extra glittery tip, or if you have very long nails do sixths instead of fourths, the possibilities are endless really. Black base with a colored glitter give the best pop of color but you can do any combination you want. While this can be a time consuming manicure the results look fabulous and people will be asking you how much you paid for it.

All cleaned up and looking great!