For my graduation from Villanova University this May, my two sisters got me the best graduation present – personalized nail polish.  Thanks to Dollish Polish, a homemade nail polish vendor, they had two polishes made for me that no one else in the world has – “‘V’ for Villanova” and “Nova Nation,” two phrases that would mean a lot to any Villanova grad. I wanted to create a manicure as unique as the polishes, and I really think I achieved that.  I got so many compliments from this manicure, and I couldn’t have been happier with the way it turned out.  Let’s see how I did it!

I started, as usual with a base coat of Seche Natural.  I really wanted the glitter to be the star of the show here, so I kept my base color neutral with three coats of OPI‘s Swedish Nude, a barely off-white color.  I typically wouldn’t use three coats of a base color, but I’ve been doing that more often lately, and Swedish Nude isn’t very opaque.  As long as they’re three thin coats, I think it’s okay.

I used two different types of glitter polish to accomplish the almost-ombre look.  “Nova Nation” is a very sheer blue polish with blue and silver glitter in it, while “‘V’ for Villanova,” is a clear polish with a lot of blue, silver, and white glitter in it.  Since these colors were created personalized and are not technically for sale, you can recreate this look with any of your favorite glitter polishes – just make sure that one is a color-based glitter and one is a clear-based glitter.  Taking “Nova Nation,” I almost created a French manicure look.  Because the polish is a sheer blue base, it deposited color to create a darker background at the tip of my nail.  This is what helps to create the ombre look.

Taking the glitter polish with a clear base, “‘V’ for Villanova,” in this case, begin applying glitter from the tip of your nail upwards – in other words, in the opposite direction you’d normally apply nail polish.  This helps to deposit the majority of the glitter at the tip of your nail makes it look like it fades upwards.  The good thing about glitter polish is you can really work with it, unlike a solid polish.  When you get the desired ombre look, finish with a clear top coat! I always use Seche Vite.

What do you think of this week’s Graduation Glitter Manicure Monday?