Tutorial: Reverse Gold Glitter Gradient

From the first time I saw Julep Oscar I knew it would be the perfect gold glitter for a glitter gradient! So that is what I have for you all today.  I created what I call a reverse glitter gradient with Julep Oscar, Essie Cosmo's PSS Shimmer, and Saint Germain Sea Green. I have included a tutorial for the glitter gradients again because I get a lot of requests on how to recreate my other glitter gradients and they are so easy and beautiful.

Step One:

Paint your nails with you base color of choice.  I used three coats of Saint Germain Sea Green.

Step Two:

I used one very thin coat of Essie Cosmo's PSS Shimmer do add some different sized glitters to the gradient.  I started painting it at the base of my nail and went 3/4 of the way to the top and left a space of just the base polish.  I also tried to stagger how high the glitter went up.  You don't want it to just look like it stopped at a specific line, you want it to look like it just happened.

Step Three:

Next I added a thin coat of Julep Oscar on top of that, bringing it to around the same area on the nail and staggering where the glitter stops.

Step Four:

I then added more Oscar, but this time adding a thicker coat stopping half way up the nail.

Step Five:

Next I repeated step four but only adding Oscar to the bottom 1/4 of my nail.  This makes the glitter dense at the base of the nail, and leaves the tips of the nails looking like the glitter is floating off of it.

Indoors

Sunlight

Sunlight

I think the combination of Saint Germain Sea Green and Julep Oscar look stunning together.  Also the addition of Essie Cosmo's PSS Shimmer adds some different color and textured glitters to the look.  I looks so sparkly and sophisticated! This is a beautiful fresh look for summer and it is so easy to replicate for yourself.

Have you tried glitter gradients?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

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Jazzed Up Nails!

The other day I brought you swatches of Deborah Lippmann Dancing in the Sheets and today I have for you the way that I spruced them up after a couple of days of wear.  I decided to try out my Essie Cosmo PSS Shimmer that I had received in a giveaway from Cosmopolitan Magazine. Cosmo PSS Shimmer is a fine gold glitter polish in a clear base.  I wanted to keep it simple so I used scotch tape to create diagonals across my nails.

This is what my nails looked like before I put the Cosmo PSS Shimmer on them.  They have two coats of Dancing in the Sheets on.

Above are pictures of my nails at various angles after I put Cosmo PSS Shimmer on.  I really liked how delicate the gold glitter looked over the dark polish.  Also it was so simple to do with the scotch tape.  Make sure to  stick the tape to the back of your hand a couple of times before you stick it to your nails so that it does not pull your polish up, or smudge it if you are doing it over recently painted nails.  After looking at these pictures I cannot wait to get my striping tape that I just ordered because I feel that it would have added something really cool to this design.

St. Patricks Day Flakey Manicure!

I figured since I am 100% Irish and I love my Irish heritage that during the next few weeks leading up to St. Patrick's day I will post some cool St. Patrick's day manicures!  Today I am going to start out with a basic green manicure that I topped off with some flakey top coat!

For this manicure I used China Glaze Holly-Day as my green color and Essie Shine of the Times as my flakey top coat.

This is what the finished product looks like.  The first picture doesn't really do it justice.  I couldn't really find that great light in my room to show off the amazingness of the flakey polish.

Later in the night when I was on RA Duty I found better light in the office and in the picture above.  I really like this manicure because over the green polish the flakey color gets a golden / copper color to it which is also very St. Patrick's day.  Gotta represent the Green White and Gold!!

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