Geode nails tutorial

In today's tutorial, we're going to paint our nails in a way that resembles a geode, inspired by the fakemon that you saw two days ago. This look is way simpler to achieve than you'd expect!

 

I decided to make mine green because... honestly, do you need an explanation at this point? But you can make yours purples, reds, blues, soft hues to make an opal, the world is your geode! Kinda. This tutorial features the biggest amount of nail polishes I've ever used on one nail, so bear with me:

 

I said I wanted to give you tutorials with varied brands so, here you have it, in order of appearance:

• Pierre Cardin Mon Joli Vernis' Code: 14437
• Essie's Seize The Crown
• PS... Precious Jewels' Emerald
• Pull & Bear's Galactic Green
• Wild & Young (previously known as Pinkduck) Metallic is the new Black's Nº496 
• Essence's Dazzling Shell
• Deliplus' Manicura Francesa Blanco (French Manicure White)
• Deliplus' Nº997
• Kiko's 321

To achieve the effect, we're going to apply polishes skipping the center a little bit more, creating the bands of the geode effect. I personally prefer to go from dark to light, though it's not a definite order and you can put darker bands in the outside and lighter in the middle. Experiment!

 

This is two coats of Code 14437. Now, we're going to take a nail art brush and pick up our next shade and we're going to paint two lines creating an irregular opening in the middle. I personally paint the rest of the nail too, for ease later, though you can skip that step:

I will admit, Seize the Crown doesn't photograph that different from the first crème in that light, but I did the exact same process with Emerald, just making sure both of the other polishes were visible. This is why I prefer to overpaint outwards, that way I ensure I won't have a bald spot of a shade showing the previous or first one!

 I repeated this process for a total of five colours, ending in Nº496. I'd recommend playing with different visual textures. Metallics, shimmers, multichromes, holographics, they can all play a part in setting apart all your bands to create a multidimensional look!

To give it a bit extra of interest, I decided to put a layer of dazzling shell before finishing. It's an iridescent flake topper and I think it shows beautifully enhancing the effect. It's optional, as every step, but I personally think applying it before the finishing touches in the geode will help the effect, so think before finishing up the last layers:

My last steps would be adding a white cast and then the brown (or grey, or the shade you want your stone to be) to make it look encapsulated. I applied a coat of the white crème and then the holographic semi-sheer polish to make my white:

 

This way, my flakes are below the layer of whites, helping with the dimension of the manicure. Our last layer before top coat would be the brown. I'd try to make the white stripe thinner than the rest, as the contrast is enough to make it pop and making it the same width could detract from the effect:

 And this would be the final result, before top coat. Let each layer rest, before applying the top coat to avoid smudging, very important specially in a design like this! A very last suggestion would be applying a matte, or textured top coat on the stone. You can also use some sort of visually (or actually!) textured brown to make it look more natural, too!

This is how I crafted my geode design, more in line with the shiny version of my fakemon than the original one, but you know me, I can't stop with the greens and I don't even own purple nail polishes! Please feel free to experiment with this technique and your favourite stones! Next week I think I'm going to cave in to a more summery design, as the heat in my area is starting to get too unbearable to resist! Thanks for reading!