new nail technique, gradient fading colors!

Well I have seen a ton of nail designs with the gradient look. I've looked up on how to accomplish this look, and found two ways. First way was to use acrylic paint, sweep it on the nails, and hit it with a dry coat. Well we all know how my paint as nail polish test went...so I went for the other way. Using a simple makeup sponge and time!

for this technique I used the following:

Sally Hansen continuous vitamin release treatment

sally Hansen hard as nails (my nails have been brittle as of recently)

Wet N Wild Break The Ice

Sally Hansen Xtreme wear Ivy League and Marine Scene

medical tape

double ended Q-Tip

nail polish remover

Sally Hansen Quick Dry Top Coat

I applied the base coat to my nails after shaping and cleaning them. When that dried I put medical tape around the sides of my nails and cuticle. I only did this on two fingers, I had to get this done within an hour and this was a bit time consuming.

Next I cut a makeup sponge into a thin piece that could coat my nail and not be too long, I made it as little longer than my longest nail.My first application I applied the polish on my thumb and noticed it was very light, so I did one coat of Break The Ice to help it stand out a bit better. I brushed the polish onto the sponge so they met in the middle, and just dabbed the sponge across my fingernails.

I had to repeat this about 5-6 times per nail, so I would do one and then move onto the next. This would give the polish time to settle and dry a bit. It was fun watching the colors slowing fade into each other with each coat I put on.

This is the final color results that I was happy with. They blended really well together and I'm glad I chose such bright and metallic colors. I was almost tempted to add a coat of sparkles, but held off to see how well they stood on their own.

Here are my nails after I stopped taping them and just dabbed them without the tape. It wasn't as messy as I thought, but it did take more time to clean up the edges with my pointed Q-Tips. I hit my nails with a quick drying top coat and cleaned them up.

and here is the final result. My suggestions with this technique is to have fun, pick bold and complimentary colors. You could also do more than two colors, three or even four! I would also suggest taping the finger around the nails, or at least the sides to save clean up time. I have heard great feedback from people on facebook and some customers at work today, everyone said they look awesome. So if you want to try a simple technique, different from just one colored polish, here it is! So Eye catching, looks air brushed!

Thanks for reading