Red holo gradient

I'm determined to do a holo gradient for every colour range that I can.  Still my favourite by far was the purple one, but I have enjoyed wearing each of them.  Today's is an red themed one, which despite not looking very holoy, is made with three different holo polishes, all from different brands.

The base colour was GR8 from China Glaze.  It is probably the least holographic of all the China Glaze OMG polishes.  The middle shade is the very unique HITS Deméter, which also has a more muted holo effect.  Finally, the tip colour is Ozotic 518, the ultimate red holo.

Like I said yesterday, it's pretty bloody cold here in Canberra in the mornings (-5 the other day) and I ride a motorbike to work.  BRRRRRRRRR. The day I wore these nails, I got off my bike, took off  my gloves and looked at my fingers.  They were freezing cold to the touch and literally made me think of this...

I really did have popsicle fingers, both in appearance and touch!

Have a great evening and thanks for reading and commenting everyone!

More about → Red holo gradient

Pink holo gradient and 15 years!

Running with my holo gradient theme from earlier this week, here is another.  A pink version.

The base colour for this one is Layla Hologram Effect in Coral Glam, then I did the gradient with China Glaze OMG polishes BFF in the middle and QT on the tip.  The strong holo effect from the Layla polish underneath gives these photos a very orange glow overall, which makes the final mani look slightly more coral coloured.  I still love the effect though.

This macro really shows how much more holo the Layla polish is compared to the two China Glaze holos.

And also happening today is my husbands and my 15th wedding anniversary.  Yes, I really am that old, although we did get married in our early twenties.  I can't believe I've been married that long and still only have a four and one year old!!

Being the beginning of winter here down under, there aren't too many people that get married at this time of year. We got married on the Queens Birthday June long weekend, which is perfect now cause we always get a long weekend for our anniversary.

 This old photo is a little lopsided, cause it's a photo of a photo.Ahhhh look how young we were!

More about → Pink holo gradient and 15 years!

Purple holo gradient

Kristy got in first yesterday and requested a purple holo gradient, and it also seemed to be a popular choice from all the comments I received, so I am very happy to show my my purple holo gradient.

This is actually my second attempt at doing a purple holo gradient. I learned last night that not all holo polishes are created equal when it comes to using them for gradient manis.  My first effort started with a base of Ozotic 509, the silver holo.  I then tried sponging on Ludurana Supremo as the mid shade and Hits Dionisio as the dark shade.  

After three sponge applications of the colours, I could barely see the colour change on my nails at all.  By that stage my nails were getting thick and sticky and I didn't want to be wasting much more of my little Hits bottle trying to get a more saturated colour.  I don't know why those polishes didn't sponge very well, as they seem quite saturated in the bottle and as a regular mani.

After my failed first attempt, I pulled out some polishes that I knew would work perfectly, the China Glaze OMG collection. 

I did a base with OMG, the mid shade is IDK and the dark shade is LOL.

This time, whoa -  I love how all the tiny linear holo particles line up.

Had enough holo gradients yet?

More about → Purple holo gradient

Holo blue gradient

You know how I said yesterday that I wanted to do more holo gradients in a multitude of colours, well I didn't muck around.  I did one straight away in pretty shades of blue.

The base for this gradient was China Glaze OMG, although it is silver, when placed next to blue polishes it really does end up looking like a very light blue.  The next colour I used was also from the China Glaze OMG collection, 2NITE.  2NITE is the gorgeous cornflower blue linear holo.  Next colour was OPI DS Glamour (yep I really pulled out the big guns for this mani!) Finally, the very tips had and even darker blue holo franken that I had created (and haven't even worn yet - let me know if you want to see it as a mani).

Again, the holo finishes don't really match between the super fine finish of the OMG polishes down to DS Glamour and my franken, but the rainbow shimmer is still there and I really love the final look

Sorry I pulled out a number of my HTF holo polishes for this mani, but it was these colours that were calling me as I was going through my swatch sticks to pick which colours went together.  Hmmmm, what colour combo gradient should I try next.  I could do gold through brown or pinks through to red, or lavender through to dark purple.  Damn I think I will just have to do them all. YAY for not sucking at gradient manis anymore!

More about → Holo blue gradient

Holo green gradient

I'm so glad I finally worked out how to create gradient nails that don't suck.  My first attempts were terrible, but now that I know the right technique it really is so simple.

I have to say, after my last gradient using the Nailsaurus' technique, I was having trouble with my makeup sponge breaking off and bits sticking to my nail.  Her technique is where you paint your gradient colours on a plastic sheet, mix them together at the edges, then pick it up with a sponge and press it on your nails.  For me, because there wasn't enough polish on the sponge, my sponge got tacky really quickly and started sticking lumps all over my nails.

It was only on the weekend when I read someone's post about painting directly onto the sponge that I had my light bulb moment. So for these gradient nails,  I simply painted lines of the three polishes directly onto a piece of makeup sponge and then dabbed it on my base colour.  So much easier and quicker and I only used one piece of sponge with nail polish on it.  I actually feel like a bit of a dumb-ass cause I didn't think to do that earlier!

This gradient is created with a base of China Glaze GR8, the golden holographic from the OMG collection.  The middle colour is Nubar Reclaim and the bottom colour is aEngland Saint George.

Saint George doesn't have quite the same smooth linear holographic effect that GR8 and Reclaim has, but it still makes the grade ok for this mani.

I love this effect of gradient nails in similar tones (does that make it an Ombre?) I'm definitely going to try this in a multitude of other colours.

More about → Holo green gradient

Ozotic 745 layered over black/white gradient

Last week I show you Ozotic 745 duochrome, which has two completely different looks depending on whether you layer it over black or over white.

Rebecca wondered what it would look like layered over a black and white gradient, and I thought it would be awesome to try, so here is the result.

Kinda weird and interesting at the same time.  Unfortunately I did get some bubbling on of few fingers, which made it a bit of a fail, but I was still glad to have tried it out.

More about → Ozotic 745 layered over black/white gradient

Feeling Autumn colours with Pretty Serious

Quick post tonight.

Here is a mani wore earlier this week.  When I saw Pretty Serious' VT100 and Morning Java next to each other, I could see that they both had the exact same gorgeous golden shimmer.  

Gradient nails are all the rage now cause of The Nailsaurus's excellent tutorial, I thought I would give one a go.  My gradient's in the past have been less than stellar. In fact, they have been pretty bloody awful. Therefore I was exceptionally happy with how this turned out. My aim was to represent the last of the fading autumn for those of us in the southern hemisphere, with green changing to brown.

Not perfect, but my best gradient so far.

That's all for today.

More about → Feeling Autumn colours with Pretty Serious

Nail Art: The Hunger Games

Today I have a manicure to show you that is inspired by the book trilogy, Hunger Games. I think the first movie has just come out or is about to come out. I'm all booked to go and see it a day before my birthday! 

For this gradient I used two lovely Misa's called Under My Sunbrella and Endless Keys. These guys were released last year in Misa's summer collection Paradise Shore.

To create this manicure I started with a coat of yellow followed by orange just dabbed on the tips. The formula of these two polishes made it very easy to blend.

These polishes are quite sheer though. This is a huge benefit when doing manicures like this though! I kept adding layers in the order of yellow/orange/yellow/orange. Only painting the yellow half way down the nail though and slowly bringing the orange up on each coat.

This is how I envisioned Katniss's nails and dress to look when she entered the Hunger Games.

Can't wait for the movie! :D

More about → Nail Art: The Hunger Games

Tropical Sunset

Today I woke up and again it was raining and it has been raining for the past 2 days and I'm tired of it Boston  weather is crazy! We had snow like 3 days ago and its Spring. I need a vacation to a warm state or country. So I decided to cheer myself up by doing a tropical mani. I've wanted to do a gradient for a while but never had the time and I don't like how they usually come out because I can never bled the color very well. This time I did a little practice on a nail and liked how it came out.

Here is everything I used:

Wet N Wild White creme

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot

China Glaze Sunworshiper

Sally Hansen Diamonds

Cosmetic sponge and a CD

Started off by painting my nails white so that The colors would really pop then started with the yellow and started working my way up. I got a tip by another blogger that you should work from the tip then start blending the colors as you go up and lighter dabs is better because you can always go back and make it darker and here's what I got.

I felt like it needed something else and I was going to add so crackle to but I remembered I had a image plate that had a palm tree with the word California across it and that just happens to be where I want to go for vacation. So I busted out my konad supplies and got to stamping.

M42 got it on EBay with a set of 30 image plates for $17

Click here to check it out on eBay

Stamped with Konad Black

Closer look



I liked how it looked by then I thought the other nails look a little plain so I took out my favorite and a lot of peoples favorite Konad plate M57 and stamped some tropical like flowers on all the other nails.

Konad M57

Damn Scraper got my pinkie!

I am really happy with my first gradient mani even tho it took me awhile to be happy with it and still kinda see where I started with each color. Have any of you tried a gradient manicure before? Any tips on how to get it to transition from color to the other smoother? 

More about → Tropical Sunset