Gradient Fall Nails

Another fall nail and another gradient.  Last one was done "free hand" sponging.  This one was more "structured" sponging.  This was inspired by More Nail Polish here.  Read on for details.

I started with a base coat and two coats of Loreal Because You're Worth It.  I love this color of Gold.  It has a bronzish cast to it rather than yellow.  It is definitely a two or three coater, however, and you have to watch the brush strokes.  Sponging over it completely covers the brush strokes.  Yeah, I know, these tips look awful.  I had the brilliant idea to wrap the tips with the darkest color before I started sponging.    Bad idea.  It just made a big sloppy ridge that would show, even under the gradient, so I filed it down.  This is what it looked like when I was done.  Didn't care....knew I was going to be covering it all over anyways.  Another lesson learned!

Next I striped a makeup sponge with (from left to right) Orly Buried Alive, Milani Buou Bronze and Loreal Because You're Worth It.  I then sponged it on my nails.  There are a lot of different ways to achieve gradient nails.  Just google "gradient nails tutorial" to find out all the different ways.  I am in the process of trying different ones to find which one works best for me.  I like the results of this better than free hand sponging.  Gives a more blended gradient.  Learned a lot of lessons during the process that I will pass on.

 This is what it looked like after the first sponged layer.  Very light coloring.  Notice that I was smart enough to tape around my nails for easier clean up.  You can see that there are some gaps.  This was my first time doing this and I expect to get better with practice.  Through trial and error I found that it was best to do several light sponging layers with light coats on the sponge.  Too much polish on the sponge and it just made a big mess.  I also found that I had to let each layer completely dry between coats or the new coat would just pull the first off and not build up.  Didn't take long to dry because the layers were so light.  Here's what it looked like after three layers.

 I sponged along the nail tip to get the wrap on the nails that I was trying to achieve at first.  Next I layered on a top coat to get a smooth surface to stamp on.  Finally I stamped with China Glaze Agro (my favorite green for stamping right now) with Mash stamping plate 18, the fern pattern.  Here is a photo without flash so you can see the stamping a little clearer.

 
Another lesson I learned....don't do a manicure with a scarf on:)  The darker line on the thumb is a scarf fuzzy that liked to collect the Orly polish.  

Hope you like it!