Paulina | HaulRepublik

I made a tutorial for all of you on how to do these gemstone/rupee nails! The concept was originally inspired by a wood block painting tutorial done by Fabric Paper Glue, but I just loved the illusion and look of it so much that I wanted to adapt it to nail art!

This tutorial requires only three colors: Your basic color, black, and white. You will be mixing these colors to create the 6 shades needed to complete the look. In the top right corner, you can see that I’ve illustrated a sort of “paint by number”. The number 3 shade is the color right out of the bottle. The number 1 shade has the most white mixed in (I used about 3 globs of white polish), and your number 6 shade has the most black (I used two small globs of black polish). Be careful when you first mix in your black polish - black can be very overpowering and will make the color very dark very fast! Remember: you can always add more as needed!

Step 1: paint your entire nail with your #3 shade. Allow polish to dry completely (that is super important! if you don’t allow it to be completely dried, you will get yucky marks from the tape later on) Step 2: take two pieces of striping tape and line two parallel areas running longways on either side of your nail. These two areas should be more narrow than the center area. Step 3: fill in the left area with your #1 shade (lightest), and the right area with your #6 shade (darkest). It’s okay if its a little messy - that’s why you have the tape! Allow polish to dry completely before pealing up the tape. Step 4: take two more pieces of striping tape and tape off two more parallel areas, this time running shortways. Step 5: fill in both areas with your #4 shade (just slightly darker than the base). Try not to paint over the areas you created in Step 3. If it’s a little messy, that’s okay, but I would recommend trying not to paint to the outside edges of the nail. This will help later when you are painting your corners. Again, wait for the polish to dry completely before removing the tape. Step 6: Taking your #2 shade (just slightly lighter than your base), create a trapezoid shape at the top and bottom corner on the left side. This part can get a little tricky to figure out the angle that your lines should go. It helps to remember that each shape you are creating on the nail will be a trapezoid (i.e. bigger on the outside edge and smaller on the inside edge). Step 7: repeat Step 6 using your #5 shade on the right side of the nail.  Finish off with topcoat and your gems are ready!