Stamping Saturday: Mermaid Scales

Stamping Saturday is here once again and today I decided to return to a gradient manicure. I'm happy that my nails have grown this long without breaking, so I wanted to take advantage of that and try a 4 color gradient. As we're packing more seriously now for our move next week, I feel like I'd better shorten them down before a casualty occurs and I'll be left with nubs!

My color choices for the gradient are blue-ish and that determined my stamp - mermaid scales! 

For my lightest color I wanted a silver, and this Essence bottle was hanging out in my helmer next to another polish I was already intending to use, so it came along. This is Super, Man! and upon swatching it I realized it's more of a chrome, packed with tiny holographic glitters. This is 2 coats and it dried slightly textured from the glitters.

For the gradient I sponged on Essence Under Water Love, Enchanted Polish May 2015 & December 2014 and the Super, Man!which was my base. So far in my gradients I'm sponging over the lightest color, instead of white as many others do. Maybe I'll try white base next, but I have this pre-conception that it'll be harder to do neat clean up and the white will show on the edges...what do you think? What base color do you use? White or lightest shade? 

Under Water Love ended up being a textured/sandy finish, it's a really pretty dark teal/slate blue with green shimmery particles. 

For the stamping, I used Ya Qin An Black and Hehe 005 stamping plate. Mermaid scales are a popular design and there are plenty of stamping plates and even vinyls, but I really like the Hehe plate. Rather than the usual rectangle designs, this plate is quartered so the area with the scales is big and it would work for short as well as long nails. I did a post about my first Hehe and Qgirl plates a long time ago, and since them I've accumulated more, and just more stamping plates in general. Perhaps I'll do more posts swatching my plates. 

 I used one of my more recent stamper additions - a marshmallow round XL from Chelle We Stamp.  I'm really happy with how crisp the pickup is and there's no issues covering with my c-curved nails as they just smoosh into the stamp. I was however, getting concerned that XL is barely big enough for my nails and wondering if I should order one of her Jumbo stamper heads...haha, good excuse, right? But after I trip down my nails it shouldn't be a problem anymore.

I'd love to get feedback! What do you think of the mermaid trend? Love it? Getting tired of it? Stamp vs vinyl?
And don't forget to link up! You can also join the FB group - Stamping Saturdays. 

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