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Jun 09, 2023

How to Do Ombre Nails at Home Like a Pro

The chic design is deceivingly easy to achieve. Dariia Chernenko/Getty Images When it comes to DIY manicures, our skills are sufficient at best. Sure, painting nails isn’t exactly rocket science, but

The chic design is deceivingly easy to achieve.

Dariia Chernenko/Getty Images

When it comes to DIY manicures, our skills are sufficient at best. Sure, painting nails isn’t exactly rocket science, but it requires an attention to detail and a steady set of hands we unfortunately lack. So when it comes to an at-home manicure, our ambitions usually start and end with a neat, single-color standard paint job. That is, until we learned how easy it is to DIY a chic ombre mani.

Ombre nails call for a color gradient on each and every nail, generally fading from light to dark/ While it’s traditionally done with shades within the same color family (think a blush pink to bubblegum to hot pink combo), the sky’s the limit—everything from green to yellow, white to blue, pink to orange, and everything in between. Best of all, the design, which is seriously impressive looking, is deceivingly easy to achieve.

Before we start, you’ll need a few tools: nail polish remover, a base coat, top coat, two to five shades of polish (preferably within the same color family), wedge makeup sponge, clean up brush, and scissors. We suggest laying down a couple of paper towels or rags to protect your workspace, and keeping all your tools within reach. Prep nails as needed before, including cuticle removal, trimming and shaping, buffing, removing old polish, and so on.