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Friday 1 June 2012

First Attempt at Kinda Gradient Nails...

So I've been off sick from work the last couple days - managed to get myself a kidney/water infection. Yum.
Anyway, while I've been off I've been bored and watching lots of nail tutorials (uh-oh..) but they were a bit advanced for me, being that although I have a fairly extensive polish collection, I have no nail art pens, brushes etc so I thought this almost Ombre/Gradient nails thing would be a good place to start..


To to begin with these are the colours I used... From L to R L&B (not a brand I know) Silver Sparkle, Avon nailwear pro in Vintage Blue and Nails Inc ltd ed for In Style no:072.



The Vintage Blue is one of my all time favourite polishes, I ALWAYS get asked by shop assistants where I got it and they are ALWAYS suprised when I say Avon! It was about £5 and the formula is great, it dries quickly and even one coat on a clear basecoat looks opaque and bold.

Nails Inc are probably my favourite polishes, and I LOVE getting them free with In Style magazine! Seriously, SO happy! So I picked this one up on Tuesday (there are a range of 3 colours a peachy creamy off white, this pink and a lilac) and I think I might have to get the other 2! The formula is perfect, they're hardwearing and leave a fabulous glossy finish.

The Silver glitter is a bit of a random one, it was part of a set I got at Christmas a while back and though L&B isn't a brand I've heard of they were gorgoeus winter colours, rich metallic blues and reds which will be great in the autumn/winter! Unfortunately the formula on this one is a bit annoying - it's very thick and therefore took yonks to dry! :\

But yeah anyway this was a VERY easy manicure to do, I applied two coats of Sally Hansen double duty clear top/base coat then one coat of Vintage Blue and let dry. Once dry I painted some of the In Style polish onto a make up sponge, wiped the excess on some tin foil and then stippled the sponge over my nails starting at the tip of the nail and working down to about 3/4 of the way down my nail. I did about 4 layers of this to build up the colour I wanted. Then I added some silver glitter to the very tips of my nails and sealed with clear topcoat.

Voila!




BUT! About 3 hours later I went to have a dressage lesson with Bally <3 but even though I was super careful and put my gloves on as soon as I got to the yard, I smudged two nails! BOO! This manicure should last a week anyway but mine only lasted a couple hours. :( The damage isn't much but it's still really bugged me and made me wonder whether if I'd left the glitter off maybe it would have been okay?
 Bad middle finger and thumb!

Any tips on how to avoid this?



PS. Check out some of my previous attempts at nail art .. eek embarrassing..

Lace effect water decals on Barry M polish

Pikachu! H&M polish with acrylic paint. This was done with a HUGE thick brush so is V messy!


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