Reverse Purple Glitter Gradient

 I had planned on wearing my Nfu Oh 66 for a few days, but it chipped quickly much to my dismay. So I used it as an opportunity to do a manicure I'd been wanting to for awhile. The ombre aka gradient. Since I was swatching Zoya Megan I decided to go all purple. While I like the normal gradient that has light->dark. I decided to go dark->light.

To do this manicure you will need:

1. a sponge of some sort. I used Maybelline makeup sponges.
2. at least 3 complimentary colors: one base color, and two sponging colors.  
3. scotch tape to make clean up easier. Just tape around the cuticle and sides of your nail.

The actual process of sponging I found really easy. Just daub some nail polish on the edge of the sponge and lightly tap it on. 

Zoya Megan

OPI: Grape Set Match, Lincoln Park at Midnight, Serving up Sparkle

I daubed this one on first covering about 3/4 of the nail.

I sponging this one on second covering 1/2 of the previous color.

This was last to add some sparkle to the darkest area of the gradient. I'm still on the fence if I like the glittery addition.

 

 Lastly finish with top coat. I used Seche Vite.

My results!

My orphaned thumb. She never gets in the photos anymore.

Where I try to do a half-moon mani

I've been wanting to do a half-moon mani for awhile. I finally picked up some of those round reinforcement things awhile back and today I decided to go ahead and do it.

So this is my first attempt and my first quasi tutorial. Be gentle!

 

For a half-moon mani you need something like these circular reinforcements. This works like a scotch-tape mani and if you want it to be in a rounded shape these work awesome. I think I paid like $2 for a sheet of 560,

 Next you want to pick the color you want to put over ysour base. I chose OPI's Road House Blues to go with my base of OPI's I have a Herring Problem/CND Sapphire Sparkle from my earlier post.

 You peel off one of the stickers and put it on your nail where you want the base color to show through. You can make it very short or very long. I chose a medium length.

 Then you take your 2nd color and paint your nail from the edge of the stickie down.

 Pull the stickie off (I used tweezers) and you have this!

 Repeat the stick-and-paint step until all your nails are finished. Do some clean up and this will be your finished product!

Of course this being me I couldn't leave well-enough alone. So I added a very thin French tip using China Glaze Sea Spray.

Slap on a layer of top coat (I use Seche Vite) and you're done!