Goodbye Summer Gradient

With back-to-school where I live starting on September 5th, this will undoubtedly be our last day at the beach this summer *tear*. So in celebration of such an event, I did a simple and easy sponged gradient with a twist using all Essie polishes.

I first started off this manicure with a coat of Blanc to act as a clean base for the colours I use on top to be better shown off. If you want a light, bright, or neon polish to be even more vibrant, just put a base of white "underwear" on beneath the coloured polish!

After the underwear has fully dried, I put a generous swipe of both Navigate Her (pastel pistachio green creme) and To Buy Or Not To Buy (light white-base pastel lilac creme, with purple shimmer in the bottle but those mostly disappear once on the nail) on a makeup sponge directly beside each other.
I slowly apply the sponge to the nail bed, with the center of where the two polishes meet with the center of my nail. Then I move the sponge in the slightest up and down motion on my nail to gently blend the two colours seamlessly. This should give you a perfectly blended gradient effect, and you can stop there with a coat of fast drying top coat.

To add an extra bit of oomph, I topped my gradient of with a coat of Pure Pearlfection top coat from the Luxe Effects Collection. It's gives just the right amount of subtle silver sparkle without being over the top.

I hope everyone had an amazing summer... I know I sure did! So who else is really looking forward to wearing dark, vampy, and rich colours for fall/winter?

Girly & Edgy: Ballet Meets Black Magic

This manicure is prima ballerina mixed with punk rocker. Pretty and feminine, but with enough edge to make it interesting.

A base of OPI - Care To Danse? from the NYC Ballet Soft Shades Spring 2012 Collection. It's a sheer but buildable, very pale lilac with a white base; it seems more pink-toned on the hand as apposed to the more purple hue in the bottle, but very pretty none-the-less. It took 3 coats to build the color up to this opacity - still not fully opaque, with visible nail line showing in direct sunlight. It dried quickly and leveled-off very nicely on its own.

On top of that, we have an indie polish, XOXO Nails - Black Magic. 1 coat displays the small square, and medium and large hexagonal glossy black glitters perfectly. The glitters are suspended in a clear base, and spread out evenly with minimal pushing and placing of the glitter particles. When dried, the glitters are slightly raised from the surface of the nail. However, with a coat of Seche Vite, it smoothed that out to a shiny, glossy finish.

And with that, is the conclusion of my first blog post *phew*! I'd love any and all feedback with regards to the "voice" I've taken with this blog, what you would like to see in future posts, etc.

I hope this was a happy ending to your Monday blues!