Mind Manicure

Hello,

Today is not a wonderful day as there's been a bereavement in the family. I wanted to show you this manicure anyway as it represents the charity I love and volunteer for. Mind is a mental health charity and does really great work, both in campaigning on a national level and in providing vital support services locally. Both myself and family have benefitted from their help. I painted my nails in Mind's colours as I was meant to go to their annual general meeting today, but I didn't make it sadly.

The manicure is a sponged gradient, a technique I struggle with. That said, this attempt is an improvement on my last go! I started with 2 coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White then swirled together the white with Barry M's Blackberry on a piece of scrap paper and applied it to my nail with a damp sponge.

I will continue to practise gradients as the effect is beautiful when it's perfected, as lots of inspiring bloggers have shown ~ the Nailasaurus comes to mind, and I've relied on her gradient tutorial when learning the technique.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Autumn Gradient Manicure

Hello!

This morning I am over the moon because I finally did a colour gradient manicure that I'm proud of! Since the seasons have changed so suddenly I wanted something suitably autumnal, and I had two lovely polishes by Boots 17 in mind.

I've had Spiced Plum for about 2 years now and it's a quintessential rich Autumn shade. For my gradient I paired it with Wishing Star, a shifting shimmer with gold, champagne and copper tones.

To do the gradient I used a washing-up sponge of all things! I firstly applied a base of Spiced Plum to my nails, then I used the sponge to dab on a gradient of the two polishes (The Nailasaurus does an incredibly helpful tutorial here). Here it is:

Gradient successssss!

I'm really glad I didn't give up trying to do colour gradients and I'm definitely going to carry on practising. For now I am very happy with my seasonal mani ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx