Delicate spring gradient

Hi everyone!


After I came home from our sun filled trip I decided I really didn't like my manicure so I sat down to paint them again, and this time I liked the results a lot better. I chose spring colors again and this time turned them into a gradient with some delicate stamping on top. Come and take a look :)

indoors, no flash

On my index and pinky (and thumb) I painted three thin coats of Barry M Cotton, an off white that isn't too bad but, as you can see on my index, didn't self level very nice. I guess I should have waited a little longer between the coats.

I painted my middle and ring finger with a thin coat of Zoya Tiana, a pretty pale green that I'd used back in the spring of 2015 and struggled to get it to cooperate at that time. During the two years that I totally ignored it the polish had separated very badly so it needed some rigorous shaking by my husband and after that I left it on my desk for at least half an hour so any bubbles could rise to the top. I'm not sure if it was the treatment or just a lot more experience in polishing but this time around Tiana behaved a lot better. I would probably have to do three coats for full opacity but since I was going to do a gradient on top I only needed one coat as a base.

For the gradient I combined Tiana with Zoya Lillian, a lovely pale aquamarine blue polish that was released in the 2015 Delight collection, just as Tiana, and I had to sponge three layers to reach the result you can see in the picture. I finished the gradient by painting a thin coat of ILNP My Private Rainbow (S) on top to add a bit of discreet sparkle as I didn't want to overwhelm the colors.

On my ring finger I stamped a swirly image from UberChic plate 11-01 using Hit The Bottle Snowed In (if you're looking for a great black or white stamping polish, I can't praise Hit The Bottle enough and the fact that I haven't used any other black or white since I tried these should testify to that ;)

Last but not least a generous coat of Seche Vite on top of all nails and a big grin after that when I looked at my finished nails as they turned out just as I hoped they would.

The polishes I used:

Barry M Cotton, Zoya Tiana, Zoya Lillian, ILNP My Private Rainbow (S), Hit the Bottle Snowed In

Even though I'll wear anything that I want to when I want to, now that spring has sprung over here I guess I'm drawn to lighter and brighter colors and this manicure definitely fits that description. Do you pick colors that fit the season? Or do you go for the exact opposite if you feel like it or "just because"? ;)



Zoya Tiana and Zoya Lillian were bought from Pretty Polish.
ILNP My Private Rainbow (S) and Hit the Bottle Snowed In were bought from Hypnotic Polish.