Ombré nails tutorial by make-up artist Sarah Semrau

It's not just clothes and hair that are effectively coloured with soft gradients, it also looks great on fingernails! In anticipation of summer, I gave Anna's nails an ombré look in pink and apricot.

How you can do it yourself with simple means and a little patience:

To prepare, cut a triangular latex make-up sponge in half lengthways with scissors so that it is roughly the width of a fingernail. I used the colours Coral Reef and Sunkissed from Mineral Fusion, but this also works with other nail polishes or colours.

Prime the nails with a base coat. Then paint all nails with the apricot colour. If the varnish does not cover completely, apply a second coat. Leave everything to dry.

Now paint a horizontal stripe of the pink paint and one of the apricot-coloured paint onto the sponge and smudge the transition from one colour to the other with the brush:

Then immediately dab the sponge onto the nail so that the slightly darker colour reaches the tip of the nail. When dabbing, make a slight back and forth movement to achieve an even colour. Don't worry, if anything goes wrong you can simply clean it up again with a cotton bud dipped in remover.

Re-colour the sponge for each nail.

After approx. 15 minutes drying time, seal the artwork with a top coat. And your nails will shine in the colours of the sunset! Summer can come.... or at least spring!

Sarah Semrau is a trained make-up artist and works as such in Zurich. She recently opened the make-up boutique Pretty & Pure for organic and vegan cosmetics and skincare products in Zurich. Sarah is a guest author and make-up expert for Biomazing.