Dark Shimmer Nails with Candy Charms

Last week I decided to try dark shimmer nails with candy charms, using a dark blue nail varnish base with a blue shimmer on top and adding a candy charm on each hand. Here’s how it turned out – keep reading for a how-to and product suggestions.

First I applied two coats of Dior Vernis #996 Desert Nights. Once those were completely dry, I attached the candy charm to each nail and waited about 20 minutes for the glue to dry completely – the glue is pretty much dry after a couple of minutes so you can continue with your day, but I wanted to wait 20 minutes to be absolutely certain, as my next step was going to be painting the charms.

Since the charms were in pastel colours and I wanted them to match my nails exactly, I then painted them with two coats of Desert Nights, so that they’d be the same colour as my nails.

Next I applied a coat of ILNP’s Deep End, which is shimmery blue nail varnish with low coverage, making it best used as a top coat over other blues or purples. It did make the blue underneath look darker though.

Once that was dry, I finished off with a clear top coat.

Unfortunately Dior’s Desert Nights has been discontinued, but they do have a similar dark blue at the moment called Denim. I also found a really nice dark blue by OPI in a nail-strengthening formula.

ILNP’s Deep End is still available on their website, but if you’d like to try something else, Dior have a limited edition glitter top coat at the moment.

I found the charms on AliExpress, and I bought the glue from there too – these are the ones that I used:

The image used in the featured image is from Beauty Lifestyle Wiki