Saturday, March 1, 2014

NOTD: Beach-like Gradient

I was working on swatching Julep - Kennedy the other day (I'll probably post my review next week sometime). The color was COMPLETELY wrong for me and looked pretty horrible on my skintone.

I hate wasting the polish and work I put into a swatch,  (I know, some swatcher I am) so I tried to salvage it by using the color in a gradient. I wasn't entirely happy with the results, and originally wasn't going to share this manicure, but in the end I figured why the heck not?




As I mentioned, Julep's Kennedy was SO not the color for me. It's a "khaki" creme color, but WAY too yellow for my skin. I searched through my collection to find some polishes that would go with it and would go better with my skintone AND my personality.



I chose two teal-y blue colors that I thought would look good with the yellow-beige of Kennedy - Amy, also from Julep, and Ocean Side by Sinful Colors (which I happened to review yesterday!).  I tried sponging on a three-color gradient, keeping the tan closest to my cuticle, Amy in the middle and Ocean Side, the deepest of the colors, at the tips.



While this manicure is nothing really special, I like the way it came out. Even though it wasn't intentional, it looks almost like a beach, where the surf meets the sand. Looking back at the photos, I feel like I should have thrown some shells and other beachy things onto it to complete the look. If I had a fine glitter polish, I could have put a coat over the blue to make it look more like shimmering water.


Products used in this manicure were:
I guess it's not bad for basically a throwaway manicure! Do any of you who keep blogs have examples of nail art out there that you don't show to the public, either because of how it turned out or because you don't consider it special/unique enough? Or because you just don't have enough time to post everything?

5 comments:

  1. Nice job on the gradient! I would have never thought to pair those two colors too :)

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    1. Thanks! I just took a chance with the colors and hoped they worked out together

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  2. Good save with the gradient!

    Another use may be to use it as an accent color in a water marble.

    And as a blogger - I don't share everything because I just don't have the time!

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    1. I hadn't even thought to try it in a water marble, but I can definitely see it working as an accent! Thanks for the idea!

      And I definitely feel you on the lack of time! I've only been doing this for 2 months, and can't even imagine how many hours the people who have been around for years have put into their blogging!

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  3. this is so pretty design- love it!

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