Tuesday 6 March 2012

Gradient nails!

Hi guys!!

The previous design that I posted used sponging and so I wanted to take this fairly simple technique and try my hand at gradient nails. I've seen these nails everywhere and I've never tried it before so with the confidence gained from the nebula design I decided to give it a try!



I know that it isn't exactly awe inspiring but it is my first attempt so please bear with me until I can get the blending of the two colours just right! I am thinking of experimenting with three shades instead of the two for making a better, more successful transition between the darkest and lightest shades. In this photo I only used two shades of green and it worked to a certain extent however I think adding a third shade will make them blend so much better and so I shall post my experimental nails as soon as I do them!


I hope you all like! 

Galaxy/Nebula Nails!!!

Hi Guys!

I am so, so excited to share these with you! I absolutely love these and I think that they look so nice and pretty! Although the camera I used is showing the orange/yellow as brown so I might have to get a better camera for this design but I couldn't wait till then!

They were so much more simple than I anticipated when using a sponge. I know that there's a huge number of tutorials and guides on how to get these nails but I thought that I'd just tell you what I did.

  1. I painted a base of either black, dark purple or dark blue depending on how I wanted the nail to look. However what I found when I was sponging was that I covered the majority of the base colour so as long as the base is a dark colour then it didn't  really matter.
  2. I then took a selection of some colours of nail polish (I took a lot just to experiment with and I really loved how it turned out with many colours!) I had a look on Tumblr of Nebulas and took my colour selections from there!
  3. I then took an ordinary kitchen sponge and cut it up to make small pieces. (I think most people use a make up sponge but considering that I don't use them or own any then I used what came to hand and that was a kitchen sponge cut up.)
  4. I sponged on white first to get the shape and direction that I wanted the Nebula to go in and then added the colours on top of that. This also helped the colours to stand out better against the dark base.
  5. I then sponged the appropriate colours on to make it blend and I then added other colours to add more dimention to the design.
  6. I then took a cocktail stick or tooth pick and added small dots and few larger ones to represent stars.
  7. I then added a top coat and what I found was that it was better to add a thicker layer of top coat when the design was a little bit wet just because it made the colours blend nicely. But just remember to use a very light touch when you're applying the top coat to wet polish just becasue its then that it's possible to drag the design and also to use a thick layer of top coat too!
  8. Then wait for it to dry and go and show everyone what you have done! That's exactly what I did!
  9.  

    These are the base colours that I used and the top coat that I am using just now!


    These are the cool toned colours that I used to sponge on the nebulas (apart from the yellow but that's ok! Ha!)

 These are the warm toned colours that I used to create the Nebulas and the white polish that I used first.






I Hope you all love these as much as I do!!