Glam and Glits Pure Pigment Collection
My favorite way to use pigments is to blend them into the tacky layer of gel polish to create gradient effects. I created this fun dotted manicure using a few of the Glam and Glits pigments. To achieve this look I polished all of my nails with two coats of Ink Glacier (white) gel polish, and then took a dry brush and patted the pigment powder into the tacky layer and then blended the pigments with the brush. For the ring finger and thumb, I just applied a top coat over the gradient effect that this created. On the other fingers, I applied dots of top coat with a dotting tool. After curing the top coat in my LED light, I wiped the excess pigment powder off using a lint-free alcohol wipe, which exposed the white polish underneath. There is a video demonstration on how this was done at the bottom of this post.
Glam and Glits sent me six pigments to try out. I used swatch sticks to demonstrate how each looks as a gradient over white and black. You can see that the color and effects differ depending on the base color used. You can blend pigments together to create new, unique colors as well.
Masquerade is a gorgeous teal blue pigment, my favorite color! This color stays pretty similar when applied over the light and dark bases.
Timeline is a light green pigment. This shade looks a little more olive when applied over black.
Burnt Out is a reddish-orange, but actually looks more pink when applied over black.
Sparkling Gold is an amazing glittery gold that looks fabulous over any base color.
Golden Sparkle is a light colored pigment powder with a very subtle golden shimmer. I had a very hard time capturing the golden shimmer effect when it was applied over white, but it has a really stunning shimmer effect. The gold effect is much more evident when it’s applied over black.
Glimmer Glow is similar to Golden Sparkle, except the effect is a silver shimmer. Again, my photo doesn’t capture the silver shimmer well when it’s applied over white, but it’s also very pretty.
Head over to the Glam and Glits website to check out all 32 colors and effects! You can also check out my swatches of the Glam and Glits Ink gel polish here.
Update: I received a lot of questions about this technique, so I made a quick demo video.
Love it! Interesting to learn how you did it.
Beautiful work, I love how you created the dotted design. It was a lot simpler than I imagined it would be :)
Could you use the pigments with Gelish base,color and top coat?
Yes, you can use the pigments with other gel polish brands.
How do you like the Ink base and top coat compared to Gelish or OPI?
The top coat doesn’t seem quite as shiny, but it wears well. The base is nice because it soaks off a little better/faster.
As soon as I read this post I ordered two Glam and Glits pigments (sparkling gold and a pink). I love the gradient look on your swatches so I did two coats Gelish Arctic Freeze, gold gradient on all fingers but pink gradient on ring fingers. One coat of top it over over.
Loved the look, but several nails had the glitter chip off at the end within a couple hours (white base coat stayed in place). Do you have any idea what I did wrong?
Well that’s disappointing! Hmm… I might have to experiment to see what would give the pigments the most staying power. I wonder if applying a thin layer of top coat, then the pigment, then another thin layer of top coat would work better. Also, capping the tips with the top coat is important.
Thank you for the response! I touched up my nails doing it on the tacky layer of TIO, so we’ll see if this does the trick!
You blend the gradient way better than I do, so more practice here regardless :)
I love love love this!! Using this for inspiration for Christmas nails :) Love this color combo and can’t wait to try it out!
Yes they are similar. I have tried this with eye shadow pigments and other brands.
Yes, any kind of fine pigment powder should have the same effect.
Hey there! I just want to tell you how amaaaazing your site is! I came upon this post by chance and I was so intrigued that I went out to buy some soak off gel polish asap so I could try this manicure :D LOVED it!!! I only own a black and white soak off polish so far but I’ve got a lot of pigments and glitters in my stash from doing acrylics so WOW I feel like a WHOLE new world has opened up even with only owning two colors at the moment. So thank you so much for the inspiration – your nail art and swatches are top notch and I never would have considered buying soak off gel polish if not for this post :) If you had to pick 3 of the best gelish glitter top coats what would they be? I need to build up my collection little by little so any advice would be appreciated.
That’s great! Have fun playing with gel polishes! I’m not sure if I can pick just three favorite glitter toppers. You can view all of my Gelish swatches here: http://www.chickettes.com/gelish-swatches/ – Water Field and Sledding in Style are two of my favorites, but then there are the Trends too. I love Too Tough to Be Sweet, Party Girl Problems and Getting Gritty With It.
I thought this was genius and couldn’t wait to try it. Love it!! One question, though…when you top coat after the whole nail has been wiped, will the top coat eventually peel, since it’s not over a tacky layer? Thanks!!
No, the top coat shouldn’t peel. It doesn’t matter whether you apply the top coat over a tacky layer or not.
Hey Judi. Just thought I’d leave a comment about your question… When I tried this I had it on for two weeks and the top coat never peeled. I eventually removed it because I felt like something new and not because of any problems with the manicure :) As long as you cap the tips of your nails as well I can’t see that you’ll have any troubles.
Hi, I love the look of this, just gorgeous. I was just wondering if you could use holographic glitter in place of the pigments, or do you think the glitter would be too thick? Thanks
P.s. Love your blog Andrea, it’s awesome. Just wanted to thank you for all the effort you put in and inspiration it gives me to try new things.
Thanks, Zoe. I haven’t tried this technique with glitter, so I’m not sure if it would work the same. I might have to give that a try :)
Hi Andrea, I gave it a try, it didn’t work. :)
Well, it actually looked pretty cool, but nothing like I intended. Doing the zebra stripes put lines in the glitter, but the glitter didn’t come off after curing and (attempting to) remove with alcohol, so I ended up with textured, glittery nails. Not what I was trying to do, but I kept it because I still liked the failed attempt. :)
Will try with the pigments next time, I might have more luck.
Hi, I have been trying this,First the pigment won’t stick to the brush,then it won’t spread,After I cure it and wipe it off I end up with a big blob..I really love these and really wanted to try them for my vacation in 2 weeks. :( What am I doing wrong?
I hope you can help.
Thanks.
It’s hard to say without seeing it. What type of brush are you using?
Tried using a small flat brush (I have fairly small nails), and tried a med. sized flat brush.probably not the best quality brushes,they came in a set from Ebay. So did my pigment powder.
It might be the powder if it won’t even stick to your brush.
Ok, Thank you :)
Hi Andrea
Tried using eye shadow as pigment powder in the tacky layer of a white gel color. It worked great but when I applied gel top coat over top, the top coat peeled right off a couple hours later! Any suggestions or is it that some eye shadows work universally with nails and other brands do not. Should I try curing the powder onto the nail for 30 sec in the tacky, then apply the top gel coat?