Hello sweeties! For my second NCC look of April, I recreated a gorgeous manicure from fellow Pittsburgher, Stephanie of A Little Polish (see her blog post here). She did this beautiful striped gradient look for a neon manicure, and it really called to me! I’ve been feeling these fuchsia/ bright purples and pinks recently, and this mani fits so well with that.
I love how this came out! It almost looks like a chunky neon tie-dyed manicure. Stephanie’s original was so perfect, and I think I came close at least in the color choice!
I do wish I had left more of the darkest shade of purple showing. It’s just so pretty, and I had enough nail canvas to work with to get all the colors in. But I got overzealous with my white stripes*.
*Not this White Stripes:
Hehe – that resting bitchface of Jack White’s gets me every time! But back to the nails…
Polishes used/ how I did this:
- Base color: China Glaze Violet Vibes… This is a beautiful pink/red leaning fuchsia. It’s bright and vibrant and one of my FAVORITE shades of purple! Previously I had some issues with the formula (it tended to slide towards the sides of the nails and pool in those places), but this time I used thinner coats and had no issues. It did, however, take 3 coats to get opaque with this technique. I don’t mind because it’s my favorite shade of purple!
- Using a medium sized nail brush, I dabbed on a messy vertical striped gradient with the following colors:
- First, a base of Rica Whiteout… The best white for nail art!
- Then KBShimmer Beach Please… One of my favorite names for a polish! And it’s gorgeous too ๐ This is a neon purple-leaning pink, and it’s an amazing formula. LOVE!
- And lastly, Models Own Shades… One of the most amazing neon coral with slight pastel-leanings. It’s part of last year’s Polish for Tans collection, and it’s perfection!
- Top coat: Digital Nails Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That… one of my top 2 top coats!
- Matte top coat: Essie Matte About You… this is the only matte top coat I’ve tried, so I have nothing to compare it with. But it works just fine.
What do you think? Have you tried a waterfall gradient like this? What colors would you combine for this?
And now for your daily David Tennant:
… especially if you’re David Tennant ๐