This was my first attempt at using gel pens in a mani, and I’m not too happy with the results. But the picture I posted of this mani on instagram was surprisingly popular, so I decided to upload some pics of it here anyway.
The colours used in this mani are actually bright green (not yellow – I know it looks yellow) and purple, which pop nicely because they’re complimentary. I’m trying to get more adventurous with my colour selection and combinations, so this was actually the result of me closing my eyes and randomly choosing colours out of my OPI box. 🙂
To get this look I started with two base coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and then sponged on a gradient of OPI Did It On ‘Em (the bright green that looks yellow) and OPI Planks a Lot (the light purple) and sealed it with a topcoat. When that was FULLY dry (very important) I doodled some vine-like pictures and dots with a black gel pen. You need to wait for the gel pen to dry 100% (it will look dull rather than shiny – took about half an hour) before sealing the whole thing with a final layer of topcoat or you risk it streaking.
None of these pictures are cropped as close as I usually do them, because the gel pen is very splotchy in certain places and I hate when my lines don’t look crisp for nail art! lol. So I got around that by cropping things more generously and taking pictures from a greater distance.
This is a technique I’ve been wanting to try for a while, and I guess it’s not so bad for a first try. I did my thumb first, and I think it looks the best. I think next time I will go even slower and make sure my lines are all going on thick and crisp.
And that’s it! Have you ever tried using a gel pen for nail art before?
Thanks for visiting!! xx
