I’m definitely getting a reputation…. Last time I went to my work’s head office I was greeted with demands to see my nails! I like it!

Anyhow, while I was there, my lovely friend Caroline forwarded an email which said a nude nail with an ombre neon tip was the next big trend.  Nothing like a challenge, so I said I’d make it my next design!

For this one I used an Orly polish (I think it was called Sheer Nude, but there’s no name on the bottle) and two Nails Inc polishes in Portobello and Notting Hill Gate.  It doesn’t come out the best in this photo, but my ring finger is an orange neon tip and the rest are pink.  I’m a sucker for a feature nail or four…

To make the neon really pop (and to help the nude look even and hide that pesky visible nail line) I used a white undercoat – Illamasqua in Scorch. It took a couple of coats for a solid base, but one would have been enough. I followed that with a couple of coats of the nude colour.

Now, normal people would make their ombre using a sponge, dipping a make-up sponge into polish and dabbing it gradually to build up layers of colour.  But I’m quite impatient and never really got on well with that technique!  I painted the tip and let it just barely dry, then used a small paintbrush dipped in nail varnish remover to drag some of the colour down my nail.  It needed just two coats with this technique to build up a good colour wash.

I finished off with a coat of Seche Vite (best top coat ever) to smooth the colour blend and finish. By the way, I also use OPI Nail Envy as a base coat – 1 or 2 coats.  I have very bendy and flaky nails and this is the best base coat I’ve used – it’s not cheap but it’s really stopped them from breaking so quickly.