Nails Tutorials so Easy You Can Bleed (3) : Gradient Nails

I actually think that my nails tutorials are really normal tutorials. Like, you can find all these tutorials easily from Youtube because they're all so normal. They probably have even better tutorials cos' it's video format, would be better to follow up.

Flunyway, I do my best with what I can. Because most tutorials are done by experts in the Youtube, so I think a lot of times, they seem easy to do it but when you try it yourself, it's actually a lot more difficult. And because I'm not an expert in this, so heh, I'll have similar experience and problems with you guys too and together, we solve them! : D

Today's tutorial is gradient nails! 

I did once before. I never really liked making gradient nails, I don't know why. Probably because they're too simple looking. I always prefer something challenging cos so hard to do and that's the fun part of it! 

Did it once before using fake OPI maroon and The Face Shop's gold colour. 

If you're a beginner in doing this nail gradient, I would recommend you to just use shiny colours first. Because opaque colours are well, more opaque.. it's usually harder to apply. You will also see scratches colours and uneven colours if you use opaque colours, so it's a little bit more difficult. If you use shiny ones however, their shine will cover up everything else, and it will look perfect even with the first try!

But well, when making this tutorial, I wanted to try using opaque colours so I'll be using these colours this time: 

From the left:

1. The Face Shop top coat. 
2. Elianto White Colour (that I do not quite recommend, hard to apply and thickens a little after only  couple of months)
3. Etude House baby blue (really cute colour! Nice shade of light blue. Would be perfect if you want to draw a sky. But then it's not very opaque, you might need to have at least 3 coats so that colour is better looking. But fairly easy to apply and drying time is reasonable too!)

And what you need is a facial cotton. 

Because my explanations are kinda complicated actually (suck at explaining this), I'll just brief to you how it's actually done:

At first, you paint later one, then layer and lastly layer 3. Yeah, so this is basically the overall idea towards the entire thing. Now, you can read my more detailed explanations. :D
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Okay, so first is of course, paint your base colour. I'm using the Etude House's baby blue for this.

Painted about 3 to 4 coats to get such even nice colour. But at least it dries fast.

Then now I painted the facial cotton with white at the end. There's no need to put too much paint on it. Just a suitable amount. Ya, just read what I wrote in the pictures la. 

Remember, less is better because if it's less, you can add more. But if it's more, you can't undo and have less! That's because I'm going to dab the cotton onto my nails. And because it's gradient, I'll want to make sure that as I dab more, the colour gets lighter. So that's why you can't dab too much colours. 

Okay, this is the first layer that you going to dab. Follow what I say in the picture. Have to add the second layer after that so that the white looks more obvious. Don't worry if it looks ugly now or you see uneven surface. We'll settle that later. As you go down, just tap really gently on your finger so that, you know, the white gets lighter.

Then you add on the second layer. You see this picture ah, the part marked with number 1 is the first layer. And the second layer is number 2. The second layer, you just dab until the middle of your nails, no need to dab till end.

Then you add in the third layer. You can also used the same step as in layer 1 and 2 (that means dab using the cotton). But if the colour that comes out is not opaque enough, then this is what you can do:

Paint like how you paint normal nails using its brush but of course, only the top part (layer 3). There's no need to put too much colour on it or else it looks thick and doesn't look like it blends well.
Remember, only use this way when dabbing using cotton is not opaque enough for you.

You might feel like small little cotton "threads" (I dunno what it's called. If anyone knows, please tell me) on your nails. You will feel it when you do it yourself. What you do is that you remove them .

Like this. Thank god for my clear semi-pro Nikonnnnnnn, I can shoot this small little stuff so clearly!!!
Flunyway, yeah, what you do is to remove them slowly because when you paint your top coat over, or when you paint your layer 3 (painting normally using brush one), it might mess up your colours.

This is how it looks like after I added the third layer using the brush.

Okay, so now, if you realised that the third layer's top part isn't blending that well, like if it's too thick (so it somehow looks like there's a line when it shouldn't because well, it's supposed to be a gradient), what you can do is to take your brush (make sure it does not have excess nail polish) and tap a little downwards. I'm soooo sorry I didn't take a picture of this direction.. but I drew an ugly picture as your guidance.

Pleasseeee excuse my ugly drawing. I'm never good drawing using my tablet (cos too lazy to practise). Dab lightly at these parts:

Dab at around where my black dots are... pretty much at parts where you you think the blending is not enough. And then you're done with the gradient! As you can see from the pictures, the nails have rough surface and ugly like hell.

All you need to do, is to put on a layer of top coat! And then the surfaces will turn shiny! :)

This is how it looks like after top coat! You can paint 2 layers of it if you think that there's still some rough surface.

My explanations are soooo complicated I don't even know if you actually understand what I'm explaining. It might look complicated but ... it's really simple. A lot of times, I'm only predicting what problems might happen and how to solve them so chances are, you will be fine doing it and will turn out beatutiful.

Flunyway, enjoy! If you don't understand my explanations.... probably you can just go Youtube and watch! XD