Gradient mani tutorial

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On to the nail stuff!


I've been asked a few times to show how I arrived at this mani below. It's pretty simple, it's a sponge gradient, but I will deconstruct it in this post for you all in this tutorial. For other tutorials I've posted so far, go to the TIPS & TRICKS section on the top.

First off, I've seen special sponges being sold for the purpose of sponging manis and think it's unnecessary to spend money on them. I tried a regular dish washing sponge like this one and found that it works well.

First I cut the sponge's soft edge in a long strip.

Next I cut the long strip into little manageable pieces...

... and ended up with a bunch of little sponges, about the same size as the ones being sold.

With the sponges ready, I picked colours to use for this mani that I thought would work well together. 

L-R-> Essence Replay, Essence Fall For Me, Catrice Lucky In Lilac

I painted my nails with Essence Replay, but obviously you can use your own colours for a mani like this.

Next I sponged from the bottom up with Essence Fall For Me, leaving some of the green showing on half the nail.

You could use any surface to put your lacquer on for the sponging, but I use a stamping plate, just because it's easy to clean up later.

I picked up one of the sponge pieces with a set of tweezers, mainly to make sure to not muck up my other nails while sponging, but I suppose you could just use your hands. And as you see, I use both sides of the sponge.

With the colour on the plate, I dabbed the sponge into it and dabbed more on the plate so that it would be less wet. If you just use it all wet, the sponging effect looks more globby (yes, I'm making up new words).

Then simply sponge the nail in a pattern you like. I sponged from the bottom up on about a third of the nail, leaving some of the blue showing.

If you find that you sponged too much of one colour, just go over it with the other colour to balance each nail until you reach a desired effect. Once I was happy with the look, I was left with this three colour gradient.

I know that in the photos, the gradient looks a little rough, but I promise it looks a little smoother and nicer in real life, probably because you don't look as close at your nails as you do in macro photography.

Of course, when I did this mani, I immediately thought that it would make a good base for a fauxnad, so I used this Bundle Monster plate BM-210 and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and stamped it.

And of course this is the final result. I hope you all try a gradient mani at least once. It's easy to do and looks pretty neat. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate and ask.

Till next time!