NAIL ART: Pink & Blue Gradient Butterfly Nails ft. Essie Spring 2020
Nail art has really been brain soothing self care for me recently - which is why you're seeing so much nail art content on the blog at the moment - and I really was inspired to try things out while I was doing my swatches of the Essie Spring 2020 Collection*. I really wasn't sure how this mani was going to turn out at the outset and if the two polishes I used would make for a good gradient (not all polishes really work out as gradients), but I'm pretty smitten with what I turned out.
Keep reading for a closer look!
For the base of this mani, I used Essie's Kissed By Mist* and Make A Splash*. With gradients, I find they tend to work best if you're working with very similar formulas and because these two polishes really are similar in their texture and finish I felt like they would work well as a gradient. Ultimately, because there's a bit of sheerness to these polishes, they did take a couple more layers to get to the opacity and blend that I as looking for, but in the end I think they got a really nice blend and a cool finish that really highlighted that shimmer. I sealed in the gradient and the solid nails with a very generous coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Clearly Quick.
Because the base is so pastel, I decided that I wanted to add delicate and sort of girly stamping in white, so I used this butterfly image from Born Pretty Store BP-X52 on all of my nails using Born Pretty Store White Stamping Polish.
I haven't been sealing my stamping lately because I've been out of my Seche Vive Quick Dry Top Coat (which is the only one that consistently doesn't smudge for me) so that's it..... Voila!
All Products Used
Essie - Kissed By Mist*
Essie - Make A Splash*
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Clearly Quick
Born Pretty Store White Stamping Polish
Born Pretty Store BP-X52 Stamping Plate
Sometimes you've just gotta keep it sweet, am I right? One thing I definitely think you have to be mindful of when it comes to creating gradients is that the polishes have the same finish, which can be tricky when you start to get into more unique shimmer polishes like these ones, so I'm glad this collection had two polishes with formulas that would work for this.
If you're interested in the Essie Spring 2020 Collection*, it's available from Nail Polish Canada and you can check out my full review here.
Thanks for reading!
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