Ombre Loose Glitter Nails (+ Tutorial)

Hey everyone! I finally am updating my Loose Glitter Nails Tutorial that I originally posted 2 years ago! Wow, has it really been that long?! This is a lengthy post but it's filled with lots of helpful pictures. :) If you're interested in learning how to use the loose glitter just laying around your home to make really pretty nails, then keep reading! 

So, one of the most important parts of doing loose glitter nails is making sure that your glitter doesn't bleed. You don't want to have some gorgeous red or purple glitter that just stains your nails and gets ruined as soon as your add a clear topcoat. You may want to check out my glitter check post to figure out how to know if your glitter is "good enough" to do loose glitter nails with. :)

The glitter that I am using is Recollections Extra Fine Glitter which I bought at Michaels. :) I have already checked all the glitters that I am using and none of them bleed luckily! Some other colors in the Recollections set do bleed when clear topcoat is added on top so do a glitter check before to avoid extra messes. I can't lie and say these loose glitter nails won't be messy enough. xD 

Okay, so the first step of doing loose glitter nails is to apply a peel off base coat. In my original loose glitter tutorial, I used Elmer's glue. This time, I am using Yellow Stopper Base Coat -- this base coat is intended to prevent yellowing of nails but heck, I use this as a base coat for glitter polishes or loose glitter nails because it peels unintentionally. Yes! Read some reviews online for Yellow Stopper Base Coat from Sally's Beauty and you'll notice that most people dislike this base coat because the nail polish just pops off after a couple days or peels off in the shower/while doing dishes. It's such a hassle to remove any type of glitter nails so that's why I use Yellow Stopper! You can definitely use Elmer's glue though. :)

I use 2-3 coats of Yellow Stopper and make sure that my nails are still wet while I apply this loose glitter. (Obviously you want the glitter to stay on your nails haha!) 

The easiest way to apply this loose glitter is just to dunk your entire wet nail into the container of glitter! :D You're going to want to make sure that you have some newspaper or scrap paper underneath for sure to catch the extra glitter. (This is a terribly messy process but worth it for special occasions. :))

Go ahead and take our your nail after dunking...

And look how pretty your nail is! <3 Okay, you can remove this loose glitter with a q-tip, clean-up brush, or with your other hand even. 

Dunking your nail straight into the glitter is easiest but if you can't open the lid of your glitter container, you can always do the straight up pour onto nail method. :) Do whatever way works for you!

After removing all the extra glitter around your cuticles, your gorgeous loose glitter nails should look something like this! :D

I really like the colors that I used! I know they aren't exact ombre themed but I did try to use a lighter and dark blue/green shades. xD

 For these loose glitter nails, I actually didn't add a clear topcoat like I did in my first tutorial -- I simply liked the loose glitter look. :) If you do add clear nail polish, be sure to read about the technique that I used to apply my topcoat! (You really don't want silly loose glitters floating around in your favorite topcoat. >.<)

 Whoo! Thanks you all for checking out my loose glitter nail art tutorial. :) I hope you enjoyed it -- if you checked out any of my old posts that I linked in here, you can definitely see that I have improved in every area of nail art blogging. ;) Just throwing that out there, hehe!

Your Polish Pal,

Jenna