Stamping Saturday & HPB Presents: Floral Gradient

Another Saturday and another day to stamp! Today's post also doubles up for January's HPB theme of gradients. On a normal basis I do incorporate gradients into my manicures pretty often, but once this technique is part of a prompt, I was just drawing a blank as to what to do with my nails! I had a few polishes hanging out on my desk that weren't put away yet, so they became my victims in this purple floral gradient.

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I know part of the country is currently snowed in, but our weather has been getting slightly warmer lately so I'm not as drawn to winter designs at the moment. Although there still a few ideas I'd like to see on my nails before the season changes to spring. Details on this design and polishes are after the jump!


Normally when I have a gradient design, I start by painting the lightest color as my base color for all the nails and then proceed with sponging. Today I decided to try using a white base (SH Insta-Dri OMGhost), thinking the colors would be more vivid. I'm not sure it made a difference as far as vibrancy, but it did annoy me during clean up - the white kept peeking around the edges! I think I'll resume my old method for now, unless I'm using a neon color. I also tried a new to me product for protecting my cuticles during the messy job - I'll share more info at the end of the post.

The three beauties that make up this gradient are from one of my favorite indie brands Nvr Enuff Polish (NEP for short.) I keep wanting everything this brand puts out! I recently managed to grab some prototype polishes they were clearing out of inventory and I'm anxiously awaiting their arrival! 

Darkest to lightest - Cupids Crossbow, HHC Wine O'Clock (a group exclusive for Hella Holo Customs, unfortunately no longer available for sale) and Unicorn Castle.

The inspiration for the flowers came from a kimono pattern I saw in a video game, but of course my mani turned out a lot more simplistic. I didn't get the ethereal flowy look that fabric has, but for a stamped design it's not bad, in my opinion. Maybe another shade of purple wouldn't have stood out  as much as the white/silver flowers, but it's too late to change it now!

For the silvery flowers I used MdU white to stamp the cherry blossom images from a Bundle Monster plate BM-716 - I used several stampers and made decals right on the heads by filling the blossoms in with Fair Maiden Sleigh Bells in the Snow. Then I cut out individual flowers and stuck them on the nail - when the decals are fresh, they adhere enough to stay where you put them. The purple flowers were stamped with a design from a Konad plate, M57 - this was my first stamping plate ever! Purple polish for stamping is from BornPretty Store - #31 Purple.

Check out the work in progress! Pretty messy, huh? My coworkers often comment on my nails, especially how neatly the polish is applied. Haha...if only they knew!!

I ordered this Liquid Peel Off Tape with my last BPS order, just to try it out. Plus, I always need a cuticle protecting product as so many nail art forms can get messy. The name of this one does say it's latex - so stay away if you're allergic! This applied really easily and dried quickly on me -faster than the glue based protection I typically use. I'm not sure if I needed to use a thicker coat of it, but it came off easily, and was only refusing to budge along the side walls and cuticle line, but I always have that issue it seems. Nothing a clean up brush can't fix! Maybe with this, I'll brave a watermarble one day!

Hope you enjoyed, and do take a look at the linkups! I hope to get to do another gradient before the  month ends!

If making a purchase through BornPretty Store, I'd appreciate if you used my 10% off code KOIG10 if it applies to your order!   

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