NOTD: My First Gradient Manicure

I've seen a bunch of bloggers with these gradient manicures and they sounded easy enough to do, so I thought I'd give it a try. It seems like everyone has their own technique, so I decided to use 3 shades of purple and a sponge (or packing peanut in my case since I don't have any make-up sponges).

The colors I chose were: Sinful Colors Purple Diamond, China Glaze Spontaneous and OPI Funky Dunkey. I put on 2 coats of Purple Diamond, then sponged on Spontaneous and Funky Dunkey. Then on top of it all, I put on 1 more coat of Purple Diamond to tie it all together. Here's how it all came out:

inside (no flash)

inside (with flash and artificial light)

There aren't any outside shots because it's raining.

I wasn't really happy with how this all turned out. It looks ok in the pictures, but in real life, it's kind of bumpy looking and the tips look really thick. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't use Purple Diamond. It's not really pigmented enough to be the first color in this gradient and layering it on top of the mani didn't really turn out how I had hoped either.

Even though I just put this on, it's coming off tonight and I'll be back with a new mani tomorrow. I'm going away on Tuesday for the rest of the week and this is not the mani that I want to take with me. :p

Ta-ta for now!