1 Color – 3 Ways
How to style 1 nail polish color in 3 different ways
Continuing on from my last post, I’m going to show you how to style 1 nail polish color in 3 different ways. Read to the end for a bonus way!
As I said in that last post, I genuinely don’t believe that you need a big nail polish collection to create amazing nail art. In fact, I think it’s super impressive when people are able to make a number of different designs only using a couple of different shades. And, not to sound hypocritical or up myself, but having a large collection can sometimes be too overwhelming.
Watch It
Watch the video below:
Pick A Shade
To start off with, choose your shade. I went with this pink shade because it’s a pretty versatile shade, and I knew it would look good with each of the ideas I had. Also, I bought a heap of cheap nail polish second-hand when I first started getting into nail polish, and a lot of them weren’t cruelty free – so I’m trying to use up those instead of throwing them out.
1st Way – Negative Space
My first way to style this 1 color 3 ways is a simple negative space design. I personally don’t think you need to use a separate brush – that can be too time consuming and it can come out lumpy. But you do whatever you need to do. The easiest way to do this is start at the top on one side and go straight down the nail. Then, from the bottom of your nail on the other side, drag the brush up diagonally to meet the top. This way you cover all of the white of your nail (assuming the length is short). You can do this in all different ways, but I think this looks the best and is the easiest.
2nd Way – Glitter Top Coat
My second way is a glitter top coat. You can get an almost infinite amount of glitter top coats that will change the way a creme polish looks, and I love it so much. I’m thinking of creating a post dedicated to different types of glitter top coats – let me know if you would like to see this.
I’ve gone with a simple silver glitter top coat as I think it’s the most versatile. Again, this is from my 2nd hand not-cruelty-free stash that I would like to use up.
You can also mix it up by doing just one accent nail with glitter (usually the ring finger), or by doing the whole manicure with a glitter top coat.
Please note that you’ll need to put a normal top coat over this. The glitter can be pretty lumpy, so it may need 2 coats of top coat.
3rd Way – Dry Brushing
The 3rd way to style 1 color 3 ways wasn’t actually what I intended, but I thought it looked cool when I was filming so I kept it. Assuming you have a white polish per my last post, paint the nail white. Then, dry-brush over the top of the white with your color. Dry brushing means taking most of the polish off the brush and then applying, so it comes out streaky. It’s a really cool effect.
You could do this over the top of any lighter shade that matches, or even just straight onto the nail (base coat please!) for a negative space look.
Bonus Way
My bonus way is… add a matte top coat. Plain nail polish, glitter nail polish, nail art, it doesn’t matter – a matte top coat will change up the look of your polish and add something extra to it!
A huge shoutout & thank you to Feedspot for featuring my blog in the Top 60 Nail Art Blogs, I really appreciate it! You can check out the other nail art blog on their post here.
Want to learn more about nail art? Try our Nail Art For N00bs series here, what is reflective glitter? Or click here to download the nail art essentials shopping list!
