Elmer's Glue "Cuticle Shield": Summer Textured Ombre Nails Tutorial

A while ago I saw an ombre manicure using textured polish, I thought it was a great idea but dreaded the clean-up. Then I read that you can paint a layer of school glue around your cuticles before you do your manicure, so whatever gets on the cuticles can be easily peeled off along with the glue after you have finished with your manicure. So I decided to give it a try. How did it work? Click "read more" to find out!

The trick worked out great and so I decided to do a quick tutorial on this manicure to show you guys how well it worked. For this look, I used:
1. Elmer's school glue
2. Wedge makeup sponge
3. Small paint brush
4. Base color: "Parker" from Julep
5. Textured Polish: "Solange" from Zoya (reviewed here)
6. Textured Polish: "Destiny" from Zoya (reviewed here)
7. Topcoat: Orly Glosser Super High-Shine Topcoat

So here is what I did to achieve this look:

1. I painted my nails with "Parker" from Julep and waited until it is dry to the touch. The base color helps the sponged-on polish look more opaque and vibrant.

2. Using a small paint brush, I painted a thick layer of Elmer's glue around my cuticle, getting as close to the nail color as possible. The thicker the coat, the easier it is to peel it off after it is dry.

3. Wait for the glue to dry completely.

4. On a slightly damp wedge sponge, paint on your ombre design.

5. Dab the polish from sponge onto your base color.

6. Repeat until you are satisfied with the ombre effect. Proceed to step 7 as soon as possible before the polish dries. 

7. Here comes the fun part! Carefully peel off your Elmer's glue "cuticle shield" with your fingers or tweezers to reveal your totally mess-free cuticles!

8. Optional: Apply a layer or top coat to seal in the design and prevent chipping and you are done!

Ombre nails can be such a pain in the butt because of all the clean up and sometimes your cuticles will end up stained no matter how hard you rub it with polish remover! But with this little technique, there is virtually no clean-up! I hope you guys found this tutorial helpful, for me personally, I will be doing a lot more ombre designs now that I don't have to go through all the mess!

Have a good day guys, cheers!