Magpie Nail Glitter

I’ve seen and heard about Magpie glitter for nails and nail art many times, and finally had a chance to try some out!  Magpie Beauty is a UK-based company that sells nail glitter, dust, pigments, accessories and the like.  The good news is that they ship worldwide, so they are available for purchase everywhere!  I received a sample kit with several glitters and two brushes, and was eager to put them to use.

This is a simple nail art look that I created using gel polish and two ultrafine holographic glitters.  This was my mani for Easter this year… I figured pink was appropriate for the holiday and Spring season!

For this mani I started off with my gel base coat and two coats of color.  I applied Madam Glam Bubble Gum to three nails, and Dusty Blue to the ring finger and thumb.  I utilized the tacky layer of Dusty Blue to burnish in a champagne-colored holographic glitter called Amelia using the Magpie applicator brush.  I used the duster brush to clean off the excess glitter.

For the pink nails, I wiped off the tackiness of the gel polish and then used scotch tape to cover the areas of the nail that I wanted to keep as-is.  This left an exposed diagonal stripe down the center of each nail.  I applied a thin coat of my gel polish base coat to this area and cured it.  I then burnished a pink & purple holographic glitter called Livvi into the tackiness of the base gel.  After doing so, I carefully pulled the tape off of each nail.

A gel top coat was applied to all of the nails, and I cured them one last time.  Some loose pieces of glitter did get onto the plain pink sections of nail and I just used a small nail art brush to remove the glitter pieces and smooth out the top coat before curing.  Note that you may also need to wipe off the top coat brush with a lint-free wipe and alcohol so that you don’t get glitter in the bottle.

Using glitter with gel polish is a great way to add some sparkle, and it’s really easy to do!

Above is a photo of the glitter bottles and the two brushes.  Both brushes are perfect for their intended tasks.  I personally found the shape of the glitter bottles a little difficult to handle.  Tall, thin bottles are very easy to knock over and I had a little glitter spillage.  Oops!

The glitters were all ultrafine and burnished into gel polish really well.  They laid down nice and smooth and there weren’t any issues with bumps or jagged edges.  A jagged edge can easily just be buffed or filed off if it does occur (buff, cleanse, and apply another layer of top coat).

Here is a look at all of the beautiful colors – you can click on the image above to see more detail.  Each is applied over a black gel polish base.  Obviously changing the base color can affect the appearance of the glitter.  I love combining like colors for a vibrant pop – for example pink over pink, or blue over blue.  I’m also particularly fond of holographic glitters because of the linear shimmer effect.  Oooh!

If you want to see a quick VIDEO of my nails glistening in the sunlight, take a peek at my Instagram video post from a few days ago.

I look forward to creating more nail art looks in the future with these beauties.  Patsy and Amira are calling my name!

Check out the Magpie Beauty website and their Facebook and Instagram accounts for more examples of how to use glitter for nail art!