Yay! I have just finished the first third of the designs. Gradient nails was the last of the Color designs to complete.
One of my favorite things to do is to smoosh colors together. And that is fortunate, because I need a lot more practice with gradient nails.
Granted, I took on a more complex gradient design, trying to match up two sets of 3-color gradients. The color scheme I chose was right off of the design seeds template shown at the end of this post - an autumn palette of colors. I liked the addition of gray colors as my favorite autumn days include some clouds or sprinkles - I think it makes the leaf colors pop more.
In the background of the photo above is one of the berry trees on our property that the birds find appealing (see my previous post if you missed it).
For these nails, I followed the advice from a gradient queen, Claire, from nuthin' but a nail thing.
She suggests using a white base under the sponged-on layers of color used for the gradient (tutorial here). So, for these I used two coats of a white cream and a quick-dry top-coat before sponging on the colors. While I can definitely see the benefits of using the white base, especially with neon and less-pigmented colors, I think I would have preferred to have used the lightest shade of the gradient as the base with this one. The white made the colors too bright for the look I was after here. (And my polish application and clean-up skills don't yet match hers.)
Using make-up wedge sponges creates a big mess. And, although I didn't mind doing the clean-up, it was time-consuming and my fingers didn't like all of that acetone that was needed. Mr. Kimett also reminds me every so often about its dangers. Next time, I should try out the Liquid Palisade or some method of protecting the area around the nails so that I don't need to do as much cleaning.
Materials Used:
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| (L to R) OPI: Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window, Barielle: U-Concrete Me, CND Colour: Miss Wu, Finger Paints: Model Colour, Zoya: Jancyn, Wet 'n Wild: Ferga-Colada |
Inspiration Sources:
Design Seeds: Autumn Palette
"31 Design Challenge" (see my intro post here)
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| courtesy of Chalkboard Nails |
I am looking forward to improving my gradients and doing more of them, trying out different methods to see which I like the best. It will be fun to look back on this one and see where I started. If you have any tips or ideas for me, I'm open to them!
Till next time,
Kimett
P.S. Yes, it is official: KimettKolor.com is live and the new home for this blog. Go ahead, bookmark it now, I'll wait. Excellent. THANK YOU!!!!