Nail Art Technique You Love: Gradient and Nail Vinyls

Hey everyone, today is the beginning of a five day challenge from the ladies at Challenge Your Nail Art and the theme is Love is in the Air!

But hold up, that means this thankfully isn't five full days of Valentine's nails, a lot of it is just things we love. And today, we start with a Nail Art Technique You Love. This was an awfully tough one. I love stamping, I love nail vinyls, I love a lot of things. But I decided to combine two things I love for today's challenge.



For this challenge I combined nail vinyls with gradients. I just absolutely go ga-ga for gradients. I'm not super great at them but I just love how they look every time.



Now I had to throw a heart in there because it is Valentine's week, but truly this does represent two nail art techniques I love! For the gradient I used KBShimmer Shore Thing and Zoya Edie and then topped it with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, because I can't do a mani without some sort of rainbow reflection!

I used chevron nail vinyls in a pattern I hadn't tried before, angled, and I really like how it turned out. Different from your typical chevron look!



I created the heart using my freehand (definitely not a skill I've mastered or favor on my nails at least!) and added dots of Zoya Rocha, because I liked how the coral contrasted against the bright blue/green chevron!

I hope you like this look! What is a nail art technique you love?! Don't forget to check out the other fabulous ladies of this challenge, listed in the inlinkz below!
   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Christmas Tree Nail Art

Now we are on to the second nail art prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge. Today's prompt is Christmas trees.

I decided to take a little less traditional route. Typically when I think about Christmas trees I think about green and red with twinkling lights and all that jazz. For this manicure, I decided to go the route of Christmas trees in their natural habitat before they end up on the tree lot (which incidentally I will be working at all month as a volunteer raising money for scholarships and grants).

 

To start this manicure, I began with two thin coats of OPI Thanks a Windmillion, which is the green color here. Then I sponged on a gradient of OPI Eurso Euro to create a Nordic twilight atmosphere. Then to totally complete it, I added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust to represent the stars.



After the gradient, I found the perfect stamp to complete the look. I broke out the Bundle Monster BM-H02 plate again and stamped the trees. I used Sally Hansen OMGhost to stamp with, which I find is a great white to stamp with. Perfect for a drugstore brand!



Now I feel like the trees get a little lost in the green, but I sort of like it. It is a really delicate and a not so typical take on the whole Christmas tree nail art.

 

And I had these nails on when I got my Christmas tree, so I just had to take a photo with it. I just love it! Looks great! What do you think about this look? Like it? Or do you prefer the more green and red look?

Don't forget to visit all the other ladies taking part in this challenge below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Practicing my gradients

I have been trying to perfect the gradient method for awhile. I have attempted it a few times, each time I walk away amazed with how beautiful it looks, but so disappointed with all my errors in application.

If I could just do a smooth perfect gradient I would be happy.



I love love love this color combination. For this gradient I used Essie Go Overboard, Zoya Alexa and Essie The More the Merrier to create a teal to lime green gradient. And just because I was not happy with the final result, I put some China Glaze Fairy Dust to cover up the imperfections.



I'll tell you my number one complaint about gradients, the white undercoat. White pigmented polish is from the devil. I have yet to find a white polish I am pleased with. Some gradients don't require a white undercoat, but I find in order for the colors to be bright and appear as they are in the bottle, the white undercoat is a must.

Unfortunately, white polish is never good in one coat. Usually takes at least two and then maybe a third depending on how chalky and streaky the formula is. And then when clean up is involved, you end up cleaning the edges and showing the white undercoat by accident.



As you can tell I tried to cover that up with a smaller brush, note the darker teal edges, trying to cover up the accidental white undercoat. In an attempt to make the gradient look a little better, I added a stamp to it.



I used my Lily Anna Plate 10 to stamp a coral looking design. It looked ok, but I think I prefer the gradient on its own. I just wish I could apply the gradient perfectly.



So now I plead with you dear readers, what tutorials help you with the perfect gradient? I've watched a million online tutorials and they all show the same thing, and it is never helpful. So do you have tricks for the perfect gradient? Please share them with me!!!

Wave nails inspired by The Mercurial Magpie

The nails I am featuring today were inspired by a post The Mercurial Magpie did a few weeks back. She featured the most adorable octopus nail stamp. I truly loved her color combination, and while I didn't have the polishes she used in her post – I did my best to imitate using polishes I have!



I used OPI Gargantuan Grape as the base for the manicure, and then, because you Fairy Dust All the Things!, I added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. Using my favorite stamping plate MoYou Sailor 04, I stamped waves with Essie's Go Overboard. 







I really liked this simple nail art, but next time I think I'll layer something over it, like a whale stamp or something! Maybe a piece of dolphin glitter too!

And just to keep it real, I took a photo of my right hand (the one I'm never as good at) so you can see I'm no pro at stamping. It's tough stuff!



Are you talented with stamping on both hands? I'm learning, but definitely not as good as I could be!

Sunset gradient nails

Let me start this post off by saying, I really really loved this manicure. These are the type of nails I dream about. Unfortunately, these nails lasted about as long as a sunset. :(



Now, I'm not the best at gradients, this is really my second successful go at it. But man is it beautiful!







Application: I began this manicure with three thin coats of China Glaze Son of a Peach. For the gradient I used Son of a Peach, Zoya Heidi and OPI Eurso Euro sponged up and down (with a makeup sponge) to create the sunset effect. To top it all off I did a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust to create the twilight stars are coming out of the backdrop.

So I determined after this manicure, that my body chemistry does not agree with China Glaze polishes. They just do not want to last on me. The majority of China Glaze polishes I own are neons, so I guess this is a fact I remember every summer. I'll keep the ones I have around, they are pretty good for stamping, but I'm so sad that this manicure chipped in less than 24 hours of application. I'm sure it's the Son of a Peach base because I switched up nothing else in my application process.

I'm still a newbie at gradients, do you have any tips for making the application go smoothly? I still haven't tried the whole get your sponge wet first thing, I wonder if that would help? Using a non Zoya polish as the base definitely helped this time (because Zoya polishes take longer to dry on me), but I can't use China Glaze again. Anyway share your tips in the comments if you have any! Thanks and have a great weekend!!!

My first gradient nail art

One nail art technique I have never tried but always wanted to was the gradient. Today I have to share with you my first attempt, a teal gradient using a slew of Zoya polishes.

To begin I started with a coat of Zoya Neely, a beautiful mint green which is perfect for the spring. The other two shades I used was Zoya Wednesday and Zoya Alexa.



To complete the gradient, I used a makeup sponge and painted stripes of the colors, from lightest to darkest. I waited until Neely was dry and then sponged on the makeup sponge, moving vertically from the top of the nail to the bottom.

To be honest it was an absolute sticky mess! Part of me thinks it is maybe because I didn't let the basecoat of Neely dry long enough (Zoya's can take a bit longer than most polishes to dry) and the final result was a little more subtle than I had hoped. I guess that's because I used all the same shade of color.



To bring out the gradient, and make it more obvious, I used a Konad M60 – the dot gradients, with a darker teal polish (Essie Go Overboard) to make it more obvious. Before stamping though, I added a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dusts, so that the dots would float on the top of the manicure.



I really liked the final results of this manicure, though it was extremely involved and took a lot of time. Next time I think I'll try and make a more obvious gradient (not use different shades of the same color).

What do you all think? I was pretty proud of the final result, it was my biggest nail art achievement to date!