Mani of the Week: Green Ombre Nails with Essie, American Apparel, OPI and Rescue Beauty Lounge

I don't get super braggy about my nails all that often -- but I am really excited about my manicure this week! I had been wanting to try ombre nails for awhile, but it just took putting together the right color combination. I mulled it over for awhile -- what color family should I choose? Red, pink, blue, purple? I finally settled on green, because I have so many amazing green nail polishes that just don't get enough play in my manicure rotation.

Lest you think this was not an arduous process or a true labor of love, this manicure was definitely not done in a second! I spent close to 30 minutes poring over each and every green nail polish in my collection -- both the colors that have made it into my permanent collection and the ones still waiting to be tested. I swatched every single one in multiple color combinations on various pieces of computer paper until I was completely satisfied with the five green hues.

I wanted the five colors to complement one another and to meld seamlessly from one to the next. It was quite difficult to pick out greens that worked together -- a lot of the ones in my collection are either too teal or too army. Finally, I settled on these five colors:

Thumbs: Essie Navigate Her
Index Fingers: Essie Greenport
Middle Fingers: American Apparel Malibu Green
Ring Fingers: OPI Jade is the New Black
Pinky Fingers: Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle

The OPI and RBL colors are two of my very favorites -- if I weren't obsessed with changing up my nails at least once a week, these bottles would be completely empty! As it is, I've worn them more than almost every other color in my collection, save for Chanel Gold Fiction and Deborah Lippmann Believe. I love the grassy hue of the OPI and the dark hunter green of the RBL. Navigate Her is a gorgeous celadon, which I think is a very underrated shade of green (least of all because the color name is just so cool). Greenport is usually a shade I save for summer pedicures, but I'm loving the turquoise-ish tint against the other greens here. Malibu Green is a new addition to my collection (I couldn't resist the 3 for $15 sale at American Apparel recently), and the teal brings all the other colors together so well -- I love it smack dab in the middle of the lighter and darker shades.

Something tells me I'll be doing this in every color under the sun now, so stay tuned for more ombre manicures from me!

What's on your nails this week? Let me know in the comments!