By Blooming Gel Is Fall 2021’s Biggest Nail Art Design | Expert Tips
For a snakeskin look, Imarni kicks things off with a vibrant green hue as the base color. Then, she applies a coat of blooming gel. From there, she drops black gel polish down the center of the nail and smaller dots along the sides. As the gel disperses, scale-like designs will develop.
Schüßleder likes to freestyle her blooming gel nail art, instead of planning out the exact effect she’s going to create. Sometimes, she even only adds blooming gel to the tips of her client’s nails for a groovy French manicure. Next, Schüßleder dabs on bright gel polish hues on top of the wet blooming gel with a nail dotting tool. To make the look more multidimensional, she adds another layer of colors after the first round is cured and occasionally some gems or pearls as well.
How to experiment with blooming gel nail art at home
If you have the right gel nail supplies at home, Schüßleder and Smith say you can master blooming gel nails yourself as it’s not that difficult of a technique to nail. The Gel Bottle Inc.’s formula is available online for $21 per bottle, but only certified professionals can add it to their carts. Fortunately, Luxapolish offers the next best thing with its $17 Bloom Art Gel.
And if you don’t have blooming gel on hand, you can easily mimic the nail-art technique in a way Smith has in the past. “If you leave a layer of gel topcoat uncured and add droplets of other colors on top, you can swirl it around into a nice design, giving it a similar blooming gel look,” she explains.
Although it doesn’t spread in the same way, this technique is a good substitute in a pinch. You can follow these same steps with a gel-effect topcoat, like the Best of Beauty-winning Essie Gel-Setter, and standard nail lacquers, too.
For those who would rather leave their blooming gel nails to the professionals, Smith suggests showing your nail artist any of the photos above as references. “The trend is so new, so not everyone has blooming gel,” she adds. “But it’s not impossible to achieve the look without that specific product.” Then, get ready for some visual ASMR while your one-of-a-kind nail art blooms before your very eyes.
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