Smooth Pastel Gradient

Hello! 

These are my back-to-work-again nails. I've had lots of indies, glitter and gems on my nails over Christmas, so it's nice and cleansing to have pretty pastels back on my nails in a simple manicure. 

These nails are a win and a fail at the same time. My aim was to create a smooth pastel gradient (win) but I wanted to do it a bit differently to usual, so in my mind I wanted the gradient right at the tip of my nail - so they were mostly pink then just fading to purple/blue at the tip (fail). There is a bit more pink on these than purple and blue, but not majorly! I needed thinner strips of purple and blue on my sponge I think. Anyway, they still look reasonably pretty...

For these nails, I used these polishes:

Pink Color Club, and blue and purple Ciate minis. I started with two coats of pink on all of my nails. Once dry, I used a make-up sponge to create the gradient, painting on strips of each colour and dabbing them onto my nails. I had to 'dab' each nail about three times to build up the layers to create the gradient.

To smooth it out and blend it all in, I finished with two coats of Ciate Speed Coat. I got this in the advent calendar and was originally a bit annoyed it was just a topcoat and not another pretty colour. I thought I wouldn't use it because I already have a great topcoat. But I gave this a go and I'm actually REALLY impressed with it. It dries just as quick as my usual Insta-Dri (Sally Hansen) and gives a lovely, shiny finish. I'm really happy with it!

I then cleaned up with a small brush dipped in acetone. Gradient nails are messy, but at least pale colours are easier to clean off your skin and cuticles than dark colours! 

This mani was soooo hard to photograph. My camera decided my nails were basically white and kept washing them out, losing the colours and the gradient! I promise these look much better IRL, and I'll attempt to get a better photo tomorrow in daylight. The photo I've used at the top is probably the best and that was taken on my phone! Here's a few more...

I was thinking I've done a similar mani before, so had a browse through my blog and found these nails from June '13. Same colour-scheme, but opposite order! I think the ones I've done today are definitely blended better and cleaned up more nicely - I think it's helped that the three polish colours are more alike. I remember thinking these were fab when I did them in June but they look really blotchy compared to my today ones - oh dear! I'm happier with my nail-length now too :-)

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