Uhm, soft, subtly iridescent, opal-like nails with dainty rings… sign me up! Speaking of ‘sign me up’, if I may, I would love to extend a very warm invite to you to my newly released ring nail art course, Ring Bling 💎 enrollment is now open!
Alright! About today!
Easy nail art using Japanese Gel, and I was thinking opal-ly nails, but I often do. I’ll be using a combination of iridescent products, but frankly, the Kokoist Gem Gel will take the gel. I’ll be layering products thinly on top of my structured overlay.
And if you see anything I use in this design, you most probably can save 10% on each brand’s site with my affiliate code PPN10. (Brands include Kokoist, Vetro, Leafgel, and Nashlynails).
Let’s start with the recipe for this look…
Here are the products you will need:
- Acetone
- Vetro color #494. A translucent sheer milky white with a blue tint
- Kokoist #270S Warmish Sheer Ivory or #199S Lychee Nude
- Ageha Candy Powder (CA01)-Colored glass powder
- Leafgel Mermaid Glitter Flake 03 Yellow
- Kokoist Boba Gel High
- Kokoist Gem Gel G-1 White Opal
- Vetro Enne Non-wipe top gel
- Chrome pigment
- Color application brush
- Lint-free wipes
- 90% alcohol
- Nail Art Palette
- Flash curing lamp
Here is the step-by-step:
1.Start with a clean gel set. Here I already applied my foundation, and my nails are structured, now I want to remove the shine, and because I want to skip all the buffing and prepping, I am going melt the top layer (don’t worry, not like melt off completely) but use the acetone instead of alcohol to remove the shine from my gels so they can adhere. It it’s not going to turn completely matte but it’s just enough for the next layer to adhere.
Because if you don’t know, gels don’t stick to shiny surfaces.
2.I will use this sheer white with a touch of blue. This color inspires this nail look because if you look at the pot, it looks opal-y blue, right? So opal nails. So, apply one coat an all 10 nails and cure. I did one coat because this is a layerling look and when you are layering you want to start thin.
3.After curing, I’m using a loose glitter brush to add sporadic touches of this orange glass powder to the nails and add the file underneath the opal. Next, grab some iridescent flakes and place them sporadically like the powder. I am using Leafgel’s flakes. They have a set of different tones but use whatever you have or brand you like.
The goal here is to catch a bit of that iridescence and the fire in the opal with some type of orange glitter or powder like the Ageha powder I used here. Don’t add any extra gels; use the tacky layer from the previous color gel layer we cured to stick the powder and the flakes on the nail.
4. Grab tiny amounts of the sheer white color (Kokoist 270S) and start adding small spots of this white color on the nail by the flakes you just added. Then apply a super thin layer on the entire nail and cure. Repeat in all ten nails.
This is where we are going to start overlaying. This Japanese technique, called Nuance, creates sporadic marbling to create a design by combining elements. The real technique here is to be soft, taking your time to add little by little, blending, marbling, layering, all of that is Nuance art.
5. Repeat step #3 and add more touches of the orange powder and the flakes to the nail’s sticky layer. Make sure you don’t overdo it. It’s so easy to overdo it specifically with the flakes, so take your time.
6. To tone down the metallic look of the flakes, add the sheer white spots on top of them. I am not fully covering each nail; instead, I am sporadically adding it to different areas in different nails to add dimension and depth.
7.3D Nail Rings. I will add these to the nails I didn’t decorate with flakes. As I said, this is my favorite type of nail art lately, so much so that I created that course. Again you can enroll now HERE. To attach the nail rings, I am using Kokoist Accessory Bond; this gel is non-wipe and will securely hold charms, crystals, rings, you name it. I use it with a liner brush to go around the rings.
8. For extra opal-ence, I am adding Kokoist Gem gel to one of the nail rings. This gel has real shell flakes, where you can see all the opal colors reflected; it is so beautiful. You can add this extra touch, and you will be staring at your nails all day long.
9. seal everything with a non-wipe top gel to finish your design. I usually do a thin coat of base gel followed by a non-wipe top coat so everything is perfectly sealed. Once you have fully cured and wiped everything clean with alcohol, rehydrate your nails with cuticle oil, and done!
I hope you enjoyed today’s nail art, and I hope to catch you on the next one! Bye-Bye!
Content written by Paola Ponce
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