Jun 2, 2012

Glitter me awake!

Happy Glitter Me Up Friday again!  OK so it's Saturday night here already but surely it must still be Friday somewhere.  I did this yesterday but then it got dark before I could take photos.  So I took these photos this morning but I've been running around all day (with a new engine going in my car) and this the the first chance I've had to sit down and blog. 

After the dreary weather we've had and the start of winter I wanted to do some bright, wake me up, glitter nails.  It seems that gradient nails are the latest fashion doing the blog rounds and I've never tried them before so I decided to do neon gradients topped with black and white glitter.

To get really eye popping neon I should have started with a white base but I haven't mastered the art of painting over white without the white showing around the edges and giving a 'stuck on' look.  So I started with 4 coats of neon yellow.  It was a lot more translucent than I expected.
Then I used a makeup sponge to apply neon orange at the base and neon green at the tips.  I think it would have looked better the other way around so the orange was further from my skin.  It makes my skin look burnt or stained.  The sponging helped to hide the visible nail line under the yellow and my natural moons which are large and white.
This was quite a challenge for me because I don't do 'clean up'.   I know it's weird.  I'm quite OK with wrapping my nails in foil and soaking in acetone to remove polish but I can't bring myself to paint my cuticles with acetone to remove messy polish application (almost as bad as my hangup about dust in the kitchen).  So I always paint my nails very carefully to avoid having to clean up.  With sponging it's bound to get messy.  I cut my sponge into thin strips with a pointy end, kind of like using a sponge brush I guess, so I could control the polish as much as possible.

Finally the glitter layer is Lynnderella Connect the Dots.  I tested a few different black and white glitters on a nail wheel and decided on the original for this look.  It's those really tiny black and white specs that make the difference.  Other 'dupes' I tried have a cleaner look without the smallest particles, which I love over single colour bases, but for this mani I wanted the 'mess' of those little bits to help visually blend the gradient colours.  I'm really pleased with the mix of glitters that came out without any fishing around for larger pieces.  This is just one coat.

The neons are the new Picture Polish Lime Lite and two unnamed or numbered LD Love 2000 polishes.  Actually they could have a name but I can't translate the text on the front.
This combination survived a hair washing session this morning and a lot of washing and washing up between outings today.  Particularly impressive considering I forgot to top coat my right hand! The left has a coat of Seche Vite.  I think I'll keep this on as long as I can.  I have some new polishes I can't wait to try but I love the way this looks :)
Now if you'd like to see the rest of the Glitter Me Up Friday players check them out here...

Kelly from Kelly's Kolors
Mam Glam from GlamOnTheCheap
Shaina from SG Nails

7 comments:

  1. Looks lovely :) I like the lighter to darker gradient and the neons are so cheery!

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  2. Fantastic gradient, and CtD on the top is just perfect!

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  3. Ahh I forgot this week! I didn't know you don't do clean up, you have such neat edges! :)

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  4. Beautiful neon gradient! I love the way it looks

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