Gel II Reaction AFTER DARK – Color Changing Snakeskin Nail Art

During my visit to the Gel II booth at Cosmoprof, I learned more about the Gel II Reaction collection and we talked about nail art and some of the fun things that you can do with these color changing polishes. If you apply the Reaction gels over colorful nail art you can create some really amazing effects!

This design is based on an example that I was shown at the show. I applied two different color gel polishes to my nail and then took a fan brush to marble them a little before curing. I did this two times.  The two colors that I used are ibd Swag Bag (blue) and ibd Chic to Chic (pink). Then I applied one thin coat of Gel II Reaction “After Dark” which is a color changing gel polish that shifts from black when cold, to a light grey when warm. Before curing the layer of After Dark, I took my Gel II No-Cleanse Top Coat and added little dots of top coat with a dotting tool.  This created the snakeskin-like look. I cured after adding the dots, then applied one final layer of top coat over the whole nail and cured once more.

When my hands are cold, my nails look like the picture above.  But what do they look like when my nails are warm?  My photos didn’t turn out real great, BUT I have a video!  This is a very short time lapsed video that shows what happens when the temperature changes from cold to warm.  I apologize that it’s a little shaky.

 

Pretty cool, right?!  If you’re wondering what Gel II After Dark looks like on it’s own, I also have some swatches.  This is three coats of Gel II After Dark on its own.  You can see that it shifts from a sheer light grey, to opaque black.  In the nail art that I did above, I only used a very thin coat of the Reaction gel because the snakeskin effect wouldn’t show very well when I painted it thicker due to the opacity of the black.