Unicorns are hardly a new thing, but recently they’ve exploded on to the scene with all their rainbow goodness. From unicorn frappucinos, to unicorn floats, to unicorn makeup sets, you thought you’ve seen it all.
Nope.
We’ve barely even scratched the surface of how far we can go to incorporate the power of the unicorns into our lives. Speaking of scratching, that brings us to the next big thing riding along the rainbow unicorn wave.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTU0PGjBT56/
3D unicorn horn nails
Yes, you’ve heard that right. Unicorn-obsessed fans can now identify each other in public when they wear this on their nails.
Wear it under duo-chrome nail polish to show that shapeshifting nature:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUHzXB-hZek/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUFrEcchqQZ/
Or, stay true to the unicorn nature by opting for some intense holographic nail polish that’s going to show off that unicorn horn design:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BT9RBmbAIYd/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTcF1wCAExO/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSjIcalhZqL/
If your workplace doesn’t approve of unicorns (we’re sorry for that), stay low by layering a solid crème colour over it:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BROS5eiDlIY/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRJoFRfA9z3/
How do I become a unicorn?
With acrylic paste
- Prep your nail with a gel base coat. You can leave it as it is, or paint and cure a layer of gel polish if your design requires it.
- Use a nail art brush to pick up beads of acrylic, and pat them into diagonal stripes along your nail, to create that bumpy spiral texture.
- You can now apply any colour you wish over it to make it your own!
- In the video tutorial below, Scottish nail technician and nail art YouTuber Ruth Munro applies a layer of gel top coat and while it is still tacky, she buffs in an iridescent chrome powder to give her unicorn horn an opal mermaid look.
- Apply a layer of gel top coat over your finished nail and cure it to make sure your unicorn horn will last.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D72qD7CupzI
With gel polish
- Prep your nail with a gel base coat.
- Paint and cure your base colour with a layer of gel polish.
- Use a very thin brush to paint diagonal stripes of more gel polish along the length of your nail. You can use any colour you’d like, or even create a gradient effect by using a dark to light shade of the same colour (see the below YouTube videos for a tutorial)
- When you’ve done a layer of stripes, cure them.
- Go over your stripes again with the same colour of gel polish to really make them pop out in true 3D fashion, then cure them.
- Apply a layer of gel top coat, cure, and you’re done!
With builder gel
- Prep your nail with a gel base coat.
- Paint and cure your base colour with a layer of gel polish.
- Use a metal nail art tool (with a small enough ball bearing tip) to pick up some nail builder gel from the container, then carefully draw diagonal stripes along your nail.
- Cure them for 1 minute in LED or 2 minutes in UV.
- You can choose to apply another layer of builder gel on your stripes to create a more protruding spiral effect, and cure it.
- Layer whatever gel polish you’d like over it!
- In the video tutorial below, nail art YouTuber Suzie creates a chrome effect by first curing a layer of top coat over her completed unicorn horn and then buffing chrome powder on to the nail.
DV recommends: Paint your top coats and gel polishes diagonally along your nail, following the stripes you have created, so that you can get an even coat along the ridges of the unicorn horn!
Feature image taken from here.
