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Hi guys, today we're going to be working on this Reciprocal Gradient.
And I got my inspiration for this design from two very talented bloggers.
The first one is Wacky Laki, and her pink version for Valentine's Day I saw
on Barielle's Facebook page.
And then when I checked out her blog post, her inspiration had actually come
from Globe & Nail,
who did this in a very cool shades of grey, and actually gave it the name of
the Reciprocal Gradient.
So, if you'd like to check out those, the blog posts are linked right down in
the information box.
And if you'd like to see how I did my version in purple,
just stay tuned!
So, I thought I'd start today's tutorial just after I've applied my
base coat.
Today I'm using Orly Bonder, because they've been out of my normal
Gripper the last couple times I went to Sally's.
And for those of you who are noticing my nails are a little shorter, I did do a
trim just a few days ago.
And if you'd like to see some pictures of that, I have before and afters on my
Facebook page.
So, for the gradient I'm going to be using three colors.
The darkest color is Zoya Pinta.
The lightest color, I'm actually using this white,
which is Zoya Purity.
And then they're going to blend in the middle into Zoya Malia,
and so that's what I'm going to use as my base color.
So, I'm going to go ahead,
and add one coat of that
to all of my nails.
And,
I think because this particular tutorial does have
kind of a lot of steps and is going to be long enough on its own
I'm going to
skip the fast forwarding,
just going to show you a couple nails for each step,
and complete the rest off camera.
So, I'm going to finish the rest of my nails, and then I'll be back.
Alright, so I've got
both hands painted with Malia,
and I gave that just about five or ten minutes so it's dry to the touch.
And I also went ahead and taped up my fingers.
That's just going to make the clean up process a little bit easier.
So now I'm going to go ahead
and start sponging.
And
there's about four
different ways you can sponge, just off the top my head.
And
the way that I choose is usually
based on randomness, or based on my mood when I do a manicure.
For this one I am doing them all
on the sponge at the same time.
And then I'm just going to,
actually, maybe I'll do this nail, be easier for you guys to see,
I'm going to go ahead and start applying that
on the nail.
And you can see as that gets a little bit on my cuticle why the tape is going
to make the clean up easier.
And by blending them on the sponge,
you kind of automatically start to build up a gradient,
from the darker purple,
into the lavender, and then into the white, there actually probably won't be much
white on my nail when I'm finished, because I'd like to keep it more in purple tones.
But, I'm just going to
build up a couple coats,
across all my nails.
I might stick in just a little bit of fast forward here,
just on my ring finger so that you guys can see as that gets built up.
And then I'll be back.
So the next step, once you have your gradient complete is going to be let it dry
completely.
And how long that takes can vary depending on the number of coats that you had to
do.
I thought this was going to take three but it only ended up taking two.
And to speed it up even more I'm going to top it with a layer of
Seche Vite,
which is a fast drying top coat.
And you just want that to be completely dry for when you apply the tape so that
the tape doesn't pull up your base color.
But you can also see, as the Seche Vite smooths out that finish,
what this would look like if you wanted to wear it
on its own as a gradient.
And you can certainly do that.
But I'm going to finish off both hands,
and while that's drying I'm also going to go ahead
and cut my pieces of tape.
So, I'm going to need about three for each finger.
That's another thing that's up to you,
depending on how wide you want your stripes to be.
OK,
my nails are completely dry, so that I can apply the tape without fear of pulling up
the base color.
I did actually buy some striping tape since the last time I've done some taping, so
I just took
and cut small strips and stuck on this little
wheel of
rhinestones.
And, how you apply the tape is up to you.
Every time I do tape
I ikind of get frustrated.
It's like if I use my fingers I wish I'd used a tweezer,
if I use a tweezer I'm like is this really worth all of the messing around and hassle.
But, you just want to start applying the tape.
Get it on there as straight as you can.
Like I said, if you want to try and get them all
kind of equally spaced you can.
Mine are going to be
a little bit uneven but still parallel.
I'm doing one kind of pretty much right up the middle.
And then
one on each side if I can
grab another piece, I've got it like
tangled on the
tweezers here.
Which like I said, makes me wonder if they're worth hassle.
But it gets stuck even worse to my finger.
So,
I'm going to place this one here,
and I'm going to continue that on
the rest of my nails,
until they're all stiped with tape.
So, I've got the striping all applied
on both hands, I have been doing my right as I've been doing my left.
And now I'm going to go back into sponging, except instead of having the
lightest on the tip and the darkest at the base,
I'm going to reverse it and have the darkest at the tip and the lightest at the base.
So that's kind of where the magic happens, by reversing the colors.
And
since my other sponge is pretty much dried out I just grabbed another sponge.
I've got like a whole bag of these from CVS.
So, I've got plenty to spare.
And, I did't really mention before, but as you're applying this white,
make sure your bush is clean before you sick it back
into
the bottle, or you're going to end up with, you know, lavender polish by the time you're
done.
So, I'm just going to start out sponging again.
With the darkest at the tip and the lightest more down toward the base.
And again, this is probably going to take a couple of coats,
that'll depend on exactly what polish you're using.
I'm just going to keep a applying it to the sponge
and do a couple layers
on each nail until it's built up to the color that I want.
And
then
I will be back,
and we'll get to the fun part of actually removing the tape.
You can see I've completed one layer of sponging, and I'm starting on my last
layer.
I've already applied it and taken off the tape on my pinky nail,
and
now I'm going to go ahead and move on to my ring finger
so that you guys can see that.
And
you know, sponging can
take some time and patience,
and some experimenting, not all colors are going to sponge equally well.
You know, if you were using a color that's very sheer,
you're going to need more layers to build up the color.
But, with a little bit of patience,
I really like the way that it turns out.
And so I'm just going to
finish
blending these colors onto my ring finger.
Make sure to get down near to the cuticle and at the sides.
And
then I'm going to grab my tweezer,
and just grab
each strip of tape,
and peel it off.
And,
I did my experiment a while ago,
showing that you get cleaner lines if you remove the tape while the polish is
still wet.
And
now you can almost see the final design.
I'm going to go ahead and finish off the rest my nails, and then I'm going to
come back and remove the tape around in the nails,
OK, I finished off my left hand and thought I'm going to go ahead and
take off the tape around my nails because that will make it easier to finish off my
right hand.
And
again if you want some more details on this I'll refer you to my taping tutorial, I'll
include a link.
I've already cut the underside, so now I'm just going to
grab on with my tweezer,
and kind of pull it off around the edge.
And there you can see
just a comparison between that nail that I've pulled off the tape and the other ones, how much
clean up that's going to save you, so
it's optional,
but it will save time, even though it does make it a little bit more
awkward while you're working.
Well, I was going to show you guys the clean up, and then I decided, you know,
that's what the Tips and Tricks playlist is for, is to shorten up things.
There's a clean up tutorial in there, and I'll also include a direct annotation, and
a direct link in the information box,
if you need some more details on how to do that.
But, once you're all cleaned up,
you can go ahead and finish with some top coat.
And that just smooths everything out really nice,
and will also help to even out
the finish so that if you have any
you know, lumps or ridges from the tape, that that gets all smoothed out.
And, yeah,
that's that.
So I really hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial,
I'd like to say thank you again to Wacky Laki as well as Globe & Nails
for introducing me to this design.
And this is also the start of my scheduled programming, so
going forward you guys can expect at least one tutorial a week from me.
And that guaranteed upload is going to be a on Sundays at about noon
Central Time.
So, something for you guys to look forward to. That's not to say that there may not
be some extra videos during the week if I do have time,
but Sunday is going be kind of the go to day.
So, there's just a little comparison, you guys can see I've top coat on the left
hand, no top coat on the right.
For sure let me know what you guys think of this down in the comments.
And as always
thanks for watching =)