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Do you ever mix nail polishes?


Do you ever mix nail polishes? If so, what’s your favorite combination?

I’ve only layered polishes over each other, but I’ve never actually mixed two shades together!

Thanks to Jillian for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.

24 Comments

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Rachel Avatar

Nope — I haven’t got enough patience! That would mean washing the brush, mixing… somewhere… then washing the brush again! Plus, acetone irritates my hands at the best of times, so I’m not going to prolong the ordeal.

Sanya Avatar

I do this pretty often actually, but since mixing shades I think usually “destabilizes” the formula, I wear it for looks and don’t expect much longevity out of it.

Vick Avatar

Yes! I have frankened a few polishes, even frankened one for my sister for Christmas which was a deep oxblood with holo glitter and called it Santa’s Blood, lol.

Geneva Dell Avatar

I don’t add two colors together, but I will add a glittery polish over an accent nail. Lately, I have really been into stamping my nails with the Konad and Bundle Monster stampers. The polish I stamp with is always a different color.

xamyx Avatar

I did once, when I was 11 or 12, and the result was disastrous. I had 2 bottles that were over halfway down, making both difficult to use, so I decided to try mixing them. One was a pearly white, the other a coral cream, and 2 different brands. At first, the color was really pretty, and as both were still good in terms of texture, they blended beautifully. However, a few days later, they had completely separated. I don’t know if it was because they were different brands or finishes, but I decided at that point it wasn’t a good idea, so now I just layer.

Mir C Avatar

like franken? i have and made a purple matte finish flakie which i love but, not always that lucky to mix something i like… once i blended two topcoats together lol bad mistake

Kathleen Avatar

I do it all the time. I don’t usually mix bottles together but rather will find a small container (I have a small plastic cap that was for mousse or something that works great) or a paper plate to mix colors and then paint the newly created color on my nails. Any polish can be a pastel if you add white and anything can be darker if you add a little black or grey.

I bought a China Glaze brown, I believe Mahogany Magic, that was too greyish/olive-y and a little, um, shall I say dirty diaper-y, so I added quite a bit red to get it to get a color that I really like now.

I love mixing colors. I have about 130 polishes, but with mixing the possibilities are endless.

Sara Avatar

I did when I was, like, 12 because I read about it in a teen magazine. It was a beautiful metallic dark teal. Pretty enough that I remember it 15 years later, but I’ve never done it again.

anna_a Avatar

A few days ago I mixed my half-empty Seche Vite with Korres top coat (Korres does nail polish,too, I’m not sure they’re available worldwide but here in Greece we have the whole range). I was pleasantly surprised to see that the new mix dries as fast as the original Seche.

Rebecca Avatar

I have only ever done this a few times. Once I mixed a few drops of a medium blue cream color i own into a white i bought to make the perfect pale blue since it was difficult to find a shade that i found just right for sale. And I have also mixed in some grey and black into an old cheapy polish to darken it and make it into a more wearable color so i could at least get a bit of use out of it. This isnt something id think to do often or at all with polishes that are pricey.

MizLottie Avatar

All the time — usually add some sparkly MAC Pigment or Glitter to polish to perk them up. And I’ve mixed polishes to get that “perfect” shade dozens of times.

Andrea Avatar

I layer NYC Broadway Burgundy and China Glaze Luxe and Lush (from the HUnger Games collection) for the most beautiful red ever. It looks like it’s glowing!

Sally Avatar

I got into the habit of mixing two nail colors together years ago and it was working great (created a beautiful hot pink shade), but be super careful to roll the bottle and not vigorously shake, since suddenly the bottle burst and hot pink nail polish was all over my off white carpet!! never again! BTW back in the 80s when that happened we had far fewer nail colors to choose from so I would think today with the color selection you would not need to mix. Also I think that the bottle had gotten warm and perhaps that makes it more likely to burst? Not sure…

Jade Avatar

No but reading the comments it sounds like a GREAT idea!! I have a few colours in my collection which I don’t really like, could be a good way to get some wear out of them. From the sounds of it mixing in the bottle is a bad idea, I’ll try mixing small amounts out of the bottles.

Caroline Avatar

Once I decided to do ombré polka dots on my nails, so I had to mix the two colors in varying proportions to get the middle colors. I was using lavender and peach, so a combination of those two colors wouldn’t be a normal nail polish color, unlike the middle colors of green and blue.

Marissa B Avatar

Yes, but not in ages. I usually just our some of each color onto a box lid or something and mix until I see something I like and then start painting my nails. It’s fun, but I have two little girls that would want to help too much nowadays 🙂

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