Glitter gradient

So I recently posted some very sparkly nails on my Instagram.  I always get a lot of questions about how I do glitter gradients and how I make sure they don’t look lumpy etc.  Below are step my step pictures for how I achieved this look.

Polishes used for Glitter gradient

The polishes named from left to right are; Nails inc. Kensington base coat, Nails inc Phillimore Gardens, Nails inc Dovehouse Street, BarryM Aqua Glitter, BarryM Magenta Glitter and Glimmer by Erica Vegas Baby. Oh and not in the picture but vital is Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat.

Base Colour for Gradient

I applied 2 coats of Philimore Gardens and 1 coat of Dovehouse street which gives the base colour a nice shimmer. These are sheer colours also great for French manicure manis too.

First Layer of Glitter

I used BarryM Aqua glitter as the base glitter, its important to have a smaller hex glitter under the larger Hex ones as it helps to give a better gradient effect. When applying don’t have too much polish on the brush, apply to the tips and then pull downwards towards the cuticle.

Second glitter for Gradient

The second glitter I used was BarryM Magenta Glitter and again applied to the tips then spread back towards the cuticle giving a graduated effect.

With final Glitter added

Well what can I say about the final glitter I added but eeeekkkkkkk I’m in love, Its called Vegas Baby and is by an indie polish maker called Glimmer by Erica. It so packed with beautiful glitter hex’s in such lovely vibrant colours, which makes it the perfect final glitter for this gradient.  I got this polish from Beauty so Fly, which is a Singapore based online beauty shop.

People always ask how I get my gradients not to end up lumpy and thick at the tips.  Well for me it just took a bit of practise, also sometimes a good way to get more glitter than polish base is to clean off the polish brush on to the neck of the polish and get a little orange stick or dotting tool to pick up some of the individual hex’s of glitter left on the neck of the polish bottle.  Just dot them onto the areas you feel you want to look more loaded with glitter 🙂

I’m a big fan of Seche Vite top coat and find it helps even out the whole glitter gradient at the end.  It also dries very fast, which is great for me as I tend to do all my manis late at night, and don’t want to sit around waiting too long for my nails to dry.

Feel free to ask any questions 🙂 Have a great day xxx