Mint Green and Lavender Gradient

This is Essie Nice is Nice as the base (Lavender) with a Wet 'n Wild Megalast Garden Hose (mint green) gradient sponged over the top.  Then I added a layer of Pure Ice Mint Dreams which adds a mint green iridescence and helps blend the gradient.  My manicure looks more green from some angles then in the picture. 

Rimmel Mignight Blue and Essie Trophy Wife Gradient

This is the last manicure in my Rimmel Midnight Blue manicure evolution.  I added shimmer one day and did matte/shiny stamping the next day and then did the one pictured above.  If I were to start from scratch with this manicure, the shimmer would not go all the way to the cuticles, but would also be a gradient.  I used Essie Trophy Wife and Pure Ice Oh Baby (teal glass fleck shimmer that shifts to fuchsia at some angles).  I used a make-up sponge to apply Trophy Wife.  I like this one.  I'll definitely do it again. 

Essie Braziliant with a Gold Glitter Gradient

This is Essie Braziliant with a gold glitter gradient on top.  This is the prefect orange for me.  For the gold glitter gradient, add some glitter about 1/8 inch down the nail.  Apply a second coat of glitter about 1/4 inch down the nail.  Wipe your brush off.  Apply what is left on the brush an additional 1/8 inch inch down the nail (3/8).  Apply a little further down the nail (4/8 or 1/2 inch) in the center of the nail .  Apply a top coat.  Glitter gradients are hard to photograph.  It looks better in real life. 

Hunger Games Manicure, The Girl Who Was on Fire Nails

Why didn't I take this picture with the Hunger Games book?  It is currently out on loan.  Catching Fire is the second book in the series.  If you haven't read The Hunger Games, you should.  In the book they mention a manicure the main character, Katniss, got in her Hunger Games makeover.  It is described in the book as flames carefully painted on her nails.  Here is how I did my version.

This will all sound way more complicated then it is.  I did a yellow/coral/red gradient nail with a make-up sponge.  Then I used a dotting tool to add black over the top to make flames.
Step 1-  Base coat.  I used Essie All in One Base.
Step 2- One coat of white or milky colored ridge filler.  Most yellows take several coats.  Over a white polish, you need less coats of yellow polish.  I used Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.

Step 3-  Do as I say, not as I do.  Add one coat of yellow to the entire nail.  I used Wet n Wild Spoiled Mind Your Own Beeswax.  I only added the yellow halfway on the nail, but the orange/coral polish will cover better over yellow then it will white.
Step 4-  Add a 2nd coat of yellow halfway up the nail.
Step 5- My only polish color that didn't have shimmer was the yellow.  So I added a coat of Essie Pure Pearlfection halfway up the nail over the part that will remain yellow.  If none of your polish colors have shimmer, wait until you are done with the yellow/orange/red gradient, and then add a coat of shimmer.  You will want the entire gradient to have shimmer. This part will eventually become the fire.

Step 6-  Sponge an orange or coral polish beginning half way and ending 3/4 of the way up the nail.  I use a small section of a make-up sponge to do this.  If the orange/coral ends up being sponged on the entire last 1/2 of the nail, that is perfectly fine.  You will go over it with red anyway.  I used Zoya Rica.

Step 7-  Sponge a red polish onto the last 1/4 of the nail.  I used Zoya Jade.

Step 8-  Paint squiggles on the nail with a black polish.  I used Wet n Wild Black Cream.  Ideally you want a cream finish to contrast with the shimmery fire gradient.  You can either use a dotting tool or a nail art brush to paint the squiggles.  I used a dotting tool.  When I was trying this out over an old manicure a few weeks ago, I used a art brush and that worked fine too.
Step 9-  Paint black in a fine line along the edges and cuticle of the nail using either a dotting tool or a nail art brush.  Paint closed any areas at the top (by cuticle) that seem like they should be connected.  I connected a few too many squiggles.  The video shows how to do step 8 and 9 and shows an alternate way to do a fire nail. 
Step 10- Top coat.  I used Seche Vite.

I'm obviously a nail art beginner (see above pictures :)).  But, anything I can do, you can do.  I have the art skills of a second grader.  This looks complicated, but isn't.  It does take a bit of time, but probably less then you think it will take.  You could do this with other colors as a base (blues?) to look like cars or bikes painted with flames.  And remember...

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Silver Gradient Polish

For the Gradient Silver Nails I used 3 nail polishes.  Milani in Ms. Milani, L'Oreal in Silver Star (appears to be discontinued), and Wet n Wild in Kaleidoscope 460D.  First, I added a base coat.  Then I used a make-up sponge to sponge on color.  I painted Ms. Milani directly onto the sponge.  Then I sponged the color onto the nail, about 1/3 of the way down the nail.  I sponged a second coat of this polish starting further up the nail.  Next I used Silver Star and sponged near the tips of the nails.  Then I used Kaleidoscope and painted on a coat starting halfway down the nail.  Finally, I added a second coat to the last 1/4 of the nail.   Sponging on color leaves thin coats and dries quickly.  There is no need to wait between coats of polish.
To reuse the make-up sponge for another manicure, just snip off the dried polish from the sponge with a scissors.

Easy gradient color nail polish technique

This was my first attempt at this nail polish technique, but not my last. I thought it was super easy and kind of fun to do. The best part is that you don't need a steady hand. I think this is great since I don't have a steady hand. There are other techniques and videos on youtube. Do a youtube search for gradient nails or a search for faded nails to find more videos. Here is one youtube video example. The last half of the youtube video is a close up of the thumb, so you just need to watch the first half. The link in the video shows something closer to a french manicure with a colored sparkly tip.
Here is what I did. I started with the polish second from the left. I painted the polish directly on the make-up sponge. I started adding polish about 1/8 inch up from the cuticle. I sponge painted the polish on to the nail about 1/4 inch wide. This polish color actually took 2 coats.
Then I got the next darkest color. The polish in the picture is in the wrong order. The next darkest polish would be second from the right. Woops. Anyway, I painted this color on to a different part of the make-up sponge. I sponge painted the nail starting maybe 1/4 inch from the cuticle, again 1/4 inch wide. I continued doing this with the remaining two darker colors, starting further up the nail with each color.
To finish I added 2 coats of the lightest color. This color was an almost sheer nude. I don't think it came out bad for a first attempt.
I think the super cheap nail polished would work great for this look, since they are just sponged on to the nail. I'll probably add a video to this post at a later date. Be sure to look at the video in the link, as that finished look is a lot different.