Gradient French Manicure

After trying out galaxy nails again, I decided to go with another old favorite (and my manicure that's by far gotten the most re-pins on Pinterest): the gradient French!

I started by painting my nails with two coats of Julep Layne, then applied a quick drying top coat and waited for them to dry.  Next, I put some Julep Brigitte and Layne on a makeup sponge, and sponged them on to the tip of my nail to create a gradient.  Added a top coat, and I was good to go!

Gratuitous engagement ring shot to re-create the original frequently re-pinned image.

I'm still considering doing this design on my wedding day (it is what I was wearing for my engagement pictures)..... but I'm also leaning towards just wearing a solid pink or purple (current frontrunner is Julep Evelyn).  Your thoughts?  Weigh in on this very important decisions! ;)

Gradient French Manicure

Arden: Hey everyone!  For today's post I decided to go simple, and I'm SO glad I did!  I'd seen this picture popping up on Pinterest for a while, and I finally decided to try my hand at a gradient French manicure.

I started with one coat of L'Oreal One Stop Base Coat, then painted on two coats of Julep Layne (see another simple manicure using Layne here). I followed up the last coat with one coat of Seche Vite, to quickly dry the base coats.

I then applied both Sally Hansen White Out and Layne to a makeup sponge, and sponged on a gradient.  I tried to just sponge the white on top, but think that sponging on both colors as a gradient made it look wayyyy better.  It caused the colors to blend a lot better, and helped there not be a solid line at the end of the white tips.  I finished with a coat of Essie Good to Go.

The one thing I don't like about these nails is how the tips of my nails aren't very neat-- you can tell how the sponging and Seche Vite caused there to be some shrinkage at the tips.  In the future I would probably go back with the white polish and wrap the tips to prevent that messy look on the ends of my nails.

But other than the problem w/ my tips, I LOOOOVE this manicure!  So much more than I thought I would.  And since it's a gradient, it was so so so easy.  I love manicures than can be done quickly, and don't require precise lines or time-consuming artwork.

Since this is such an elegant nail look, I couldn't help posing with my new favorite prop-- my engagement ring!  (Yes, getting engaged three weeks ago is partly to blame for our recent dearth of posts.  And yes, this does mean there will probably be several bridal nail posts in the future-- hope you like them!)

If you aren't looking to do anything crazy on your nails on your wedding day, I think a gradient French manicure might be the perfect option for you.  It's not anywhere near as time-consuming or precise as giving yourself an actual French manicure, and I actually think the gradient version looks better.  I'm not gonna lie, the gradient French has moved to the top of my list of wedding nail ideas!

What do you think?  Like this better than the traditional French manicure?  Let us know!

Review: Nailene Perfect Tip Stickers, Part 2

As promised, I'm back with pictures of how the Nailene Perfect Tip stickers work when you're using them to do a traditional French tip manicure.

If you missed part 1, check it out here.

I started by applying the stickers to clean, bare nails, then painted two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls to the tips.  When I removed the stickers, here's what I was left with:

Not exactly what I was hoping for.  There was some messiness around the edges of the nails, plus a fair amount of polish seems to have bled under the stickers.  (Obviously a lot of polish also got on the skin around my nails, but that was wholly my fault, and the fact that I'm pretty messy.)

I then used a small brush dipped in acetone to clean up all the edges.  That resulted in: