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

   

Fishtail Braid Nails

Today, as a part of Crumpet's 52 Week Pick and Mix Challenge, I attempted a new to me nail art technique: The Fishtail Braid nails.

I google'd a few tutorials and watched them first, just so I got the hang of it, but basically this is braiding strokes of three different colors.



To begin I used two thin coats of LynBDesigns Seize the Day, Boys, a lovely teal holo polish with gold flashes. The application on this was perfect, very impressed with the quality of this polish. It is a bit jelly like on the first coat, but evens out by the second coat.



After that I went to work on the Fishtail Braid technique. It was a little difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, it isn't so bad.



To complete the look I added a dotticure to tie in the three colors on the other nails. I was originally going to do a skittle look, but I accidentally went nuts with the dots so I didn't get there unfortunately.



The coral/red polish is Zoya Rocha and the silver is Essie No Place Like Chrome.



Overall I liked this look, and trying a new technique, but I found it a bit time consuming trying to make sure the layers were dry between strokes. I think this technique probably works best with one coaters, which Seize the Day, Boys was not. The polish does build up on the Fishtail Braid nail, so you have to be extra careful not to dent it.

What do you think? Have you tried this nail art technique before? Do you have tips to share?

And don't forget to check out the other ladies taking part in this challenge today!

    An InLinkz Link-up