Wednesday 25 March 2015

Loose Glitter Gradient - What I Did Wednesday

Hey y'all!

I had a really hard time deciding what kind of nail art I should do with my swatch of Nail Pattern Boldness Allons-Y because it is just so beautiful, I didn't want to cover it up or take away from that sparkly goodness!  Ultimately while looking through my supplies I decided the only thing to do over glitter was add MOAR GLITTAH!

Loose glitter gradient nail art outlined with rhinestones and polish.

I wanted to play off the colors already in Allons-Y, as well as play with a bit of texture, so I selected a tiny black holo glitter mix for the ends, and a loose pigment powder (ELF Mineral Eyeshadow in Dreamy) to create a subtle tone transition with a dramatic finish.  Also I should note that this particular eyeshadow is expired and designated only for nail art purposes - it's definitely not safe to use a product on your eyes once it's been applied with a nail art brush (which gets lots of use with other chemicals and products).

Loose glitter gradient nail art outlined with rhinestones and polish.

To create the look, I applied a thin layer of topcoat lightly from about halfway down the nail.  Before it set, I used a fluffy brush to dust over it with the loose pigment.  Because the pigment is so finely milled, it almost melts into Allons-Y, but you can see the tone changing more towards blue at that point in the nail.  To ensure the pigment stuck, I pressed it down into the topcoat with my finger before proceeding.

Loose glitter gradient nail art outlined with rhinestones and polish.

I repeated that process to apply the larger black glitter, only applying on the bottom third of the nail.  To finish, I added an outline of clear rhinestones on the ring finger, and then for SNGs, outlined the index nail with a white striper.  Everything is sealed under a good coat of SV.

In retrospect I probably could have done without the white outline, or maybe used black rhinestones and striping instead, but hindsight, especially in nail art, is better than 20/20 sometimes.  Either way I enjoyed creating the gradient and that's still my favorite part of this look.

Hope you're all having a great week, and I will see you Friday with this month's final NCC Fashion look!