Gradient Glimmers - Blues and Reds with Revlon, Zoya, LA Splash, China Glaze

Gradient manis are one of my favourites. I think it's cause they're fun and rather easy to do.

There are two ways to do it, but I'm using the way originally described on All Lacquered Up. However, I use three different nail polishes instead of two. If you have longer nails, I think three different shades of the same colour creates a nicer gradual change.

I have had a few people ask me how I do these, so here goes my dodgy tutorial for gradient polishes! In these two cases, I'm going for same colour gradients (light blue to dark blue, pink to red). I wish I had better photos, but these are all indoor night photos, taken with my iPhone.

First, you need to pick three colours to work with. The base can be any lighter shade you like. The other two polishes should be jelly polishes. Here are what I chose for my blue gradient polish:


[Left to right: LA Splash Ocean Sprinkles, Revlon Blueberry Burst, China Glaze Dorothy Who?]

LA Splash Ocean Sprinkles, which is a light blue polish with gold glitter in it, is my base polish here. It's a jelly polish as well, and I only used one coat because there were going to be several more layers of polish over that! Revlon Blueberry Burst is my medium shade, and it's a blue-teal jelly with blue microglitter. It's rather seethrough, which means you require several coats, but it does make for a very nice, gradual change in colour. For the third shade, I used China Glaze Dorothy Who?, which is a jelly, but was actually a touch too dark compared to Blueberry Burst. But needs must since all my other blue jellies were even darker!


[Blue gradient mani: Pictorial]

 After I had my base polish on, I painted with Blueberry Burst from point A up to the tip of the nail. I add progressive layers, always starting a little further away from the cuticle. As shown above, the subsequent coats of Blueberry Burst start from point B, C and D. There's really no hard and fast rule to this, just gradually add coats in a way that looks good!

Since Dorothy Who? was quite a bit darker, I had to use one very, very thin coat starting from point E. This part is optional, but I also dabbed a little of it at the very tips.

The final most important step is a coat of quick dry topcoat over the manicure to even out the different layers of polish.



[Blue gradient mani: LA Splash Ocean Sprinkles, Revlon Blueberry Burst, China Glaze Dorothy Who?]



So that's my own amateur-ish attempt at a blue gradient mani. Here's a pink-red one.



[Left to right: Zoya Tiffany, Revlon Cherry Fizz, China Glaze Ruby Pumps]

I chose Zoya Tiffany as my base here. I really do love this polish, don't I? I use it for so many occasions. Tiffany is peach-pink with gold microglitter. Very pretty, yet work appropriate. My medium shade is Revlon Cherry Fizz, which is a red-orange jelly with sparse dark pink microglitter. The third shade is China Glaze Ruby Pumps. It's definitely too dark, but it was the closest match.



[Red gradient mani: Zoya Tiffany, Revlon Cherry Fizz, China Glaze Ruby Pumps]

Similar to the blue gradient, I only did one very thin coat of Ruby Pumps, and dabbed a little onto the very tips.

I find Revlon's Glimmer Gloss collection to be very useful for gradient manicures. They're a little light, but with enough coats, they work rather well. The gradient manicures always attract the attention of strangers and friends alike, so others like them just as much as I do!

Next week, I'll cover the sponge method for gradient manis.