My very first (successful) gradient and leopard print

I know today is supposed to be AN Monday.  But I have not been too inspired lately to join in with AN Monday.

So today, I have some new to me nail art instead.

First I want to show you my first successful-ish gradient.  I had tried gradients twice before and ended up scrapping it due to the big globs of sponge left behind on my nail.  Those first couple of tries I had been painting the polish straight onto a dry make-up sponge.  After some research, I ended up cutting off a sliver of the make-up sponge so that it was so smooth, dampening the sponge ever so slightly and mixing the polish on a piece of baking paper and then dabbing the sponge into the polish.  SUCCESS!!

Now, I know my gradient isn't as smooth and seamless as it could be, but I am working on it and I can only get better with practice, right?!

I used Sally Hansen Complete Manicure Barely Bluebell and Purple Posy and of course I put a layer of CG Fairy Dust on top.  I was pretty chuffed with these!!

A couple of weeks later, I tried it again.  This time using ulta3 polishes.  This time the gradient was much more subtle as the ulta3 polishes I used were quite watery.  I still liked it though.

I used ulta3 Corsican Rose and Lilac Bloom with yet another layer of CG Fairy Dust on top.  Maybe one day I will wear a manicure WITHOUT sparkles... lol.

Another new nail art trend I attempted was leopard print.  Again, far from perfect - the black polish got a bit stringy - but I am confident to give it another whirl with a different colour palette.

All the polishes I used (except the black) are from the CG On Safari Collection.

So now that I've broken my gradient and leopard cherries, I look forward to using these more in the future.

x