Monday, October 08, 2012

Reciprocal Gradient Tutorial

As promised, here is a step-by-step picture tutorial of my Reciprocal Gradient nails from yesterday's post.  Here is what the finished mani looks like:


For this look I used Zoya Dove and Orly Decoded, though I'm sure it would look great in a lot of other colours combinations too!   Please excuse the the less-than-desirable lighting in the tutorial, it was nighttime and I had to use artificial light (I seriously need to make a lightbox) but I figured you'd rather have a funny-coloured tutorial than none at all! 


1.  Begin with a base coat, and paint your nails the lighter of the two colours you've chosen.  
2.  Sponge on a gradient, I use this method. (Skip to 2:10)  Add a quick-drying top coat.  
3.  Place pieces of striping tape (or very thinly cut pieces of normal tape, if you have no striping tape and a lot of patience.)
4.  Sponge on another gradient using the same method, but this time reverse the colours.  So if your gradient was going light-to-dark before, now sponge on dark-to-light.  You may have to go over this one a couple of times to completely cover the gradient underneath.  
5.  (not shown)  Peel off the striping tape, and clean around your nails, first with q-tips and then with a makeup brush dipped in acetone. 
6.  Add a couple coats of your favourite quick-drying top coat for a nice smooth finish, and you're done! 


How do you like it?  Was it easy enough to understand?  Will you be trying this?  If you write a post about it, please link back to this post.  If you do try it, email a link or a picture to ecm.dancer@gmail.com.  I'd love to see!  :)


26 comments:

  1. Such an awesome idea, thanks for sharing!

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  2. I'll definetely let you know when I try this, thanks for making this tutorial!

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  3. Wow this is bloody amazing!! Going to have a bash at this!! :-)

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  4. What an amazing idea and your directions are so clear. I will definately be trying it. Thanks for sharing :)

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  5. I really loved your nails and attempted it myself. I posted it on my blog today and gave a link back to your blog and posted one of your photos as well. :) If you'd like to check it out, here's the link:http://fanningthefumes.blogspot.de/2012/11/globe-and-nails-reciprocal-gradient.html?showComment=1352146642875#c661250698778302458

    Feel free to delete this post (after you've checked the post, if you want). I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to pimp my blog in a comment. :)

    Thanks so much for the great tutorial!

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  6. This is so cool! I'm going to try it!

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  7. I love this look! Thanks so much for the tutorial! I just stumbled upon your blog and now I can't stop gawking at your beautiful nails. :)

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  8. I love this look! Thanks so much for the tutorial! I just stumbled upon your blog and now I can't stop gawking at your beautiful nails. :)

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  9. This is totally amazeballs. A MUST TRY. Thanks for sharing!

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  10. I have been stalking different nail blogs for a long while now. I have just come across yours (2/14/13) and am soooooo excited to finally see something original! Stunning job and thank you for the precise and clear directions in your tutorials. If you have time, I request more tutorials, I have gotten alot out of them. Again, thank you!

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