Summer Ombre Nails: How To

"Hold up," I told my friend as I stopped in my tracks and got out my phone. I was standing in front of an outdoor equipment store and saw this gorgeous ombre surfboard displayed out front. It had purple, blue, and mint.

I took a pic of it. "Let me guess--for the blog?" my friend asked. "For my nails," I replied. But yeah, I decided to share it here on the blog. She was right. Anyway, I love a pretty pastel ombre and this one makes me think of the beginning of summer, and not sunset, like summer ombre nail designs usually are.

Here's how to recreate it at home:

Apply a white base coat and allow to dry. It's ok if it's streaky, since we are using this as a primer. Sometimes I'll use whatever the lightest color in my ombre is as my base coat.

Completely optional, but I used a liquid latex around my fingers to help with the clean up later. I got this one from BornPrettyStore, but eyelash glue or a glue base coat (NYC beauty has a cheap one) will work as well. I usually have reactions to latex, but it's never bothered my fingers.

Now, choose your polishes. I wanted to mimic the colors of the surfboard I saw, so I chose a lilac, a baby blue, and a soft mint. Leave the caps unscrewed as you do the next step.

Grab a clean makeup sponge. I like to dampen mine to prevent the polish from absorbing so quickly into the sponge, but that's up to you. Paint stripes of each color, as pictured above. Make sure the stripes aren't too big or it won't work on your nail. Then press and dab onto your nail. You might need to add more polish to your sponge after each nail; it depends on the brand of polish. Wait about a minute after your whole hand is done and then repeat with the sponge. You can repeat that step again if needed, to build up the intensity of the ombre.

If you used the liquid latex, be sure to peel that off and use polish remover to clean up around the edges as needed.

Once you're satisfied with your design, allow to dry and then use a top coat. I'm obsessed with this new one from Essie. The top coat kind of blurs the colors. And that's it!

Have you tried ombre nails before?

Extra Elle:

• Saw the movie Love and Mercy, about Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson. A must if you're a BB fan.
• I did a guest post for Coach Daddy on beauty, if you'd like to see.
• Want more nail tutorials? Here are 10 nail tutorials to check out.