Nail Art Challenge: Ombré/Gradient.

We are now on our very last challenge; Week 8 of the Polish Swap Society's Nail Art Challenge is WHO'S THAT HOMBRE? Create an ombre/gradient look with the help of this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQe6jGUkVQA.

When I swatched Barielle's Keys Collection I instantly knew I wanted to use Hawaiian Sunset, Topless In St. Tropez, and Panama Piña Colada for this challenge. I instantly saw a sunset on my nails and that's pretty much how it turned out. 

Here is my base color of Barielle's Panama Piña Colada. 2 coats. No top coat.

The only thing I didn't like about this technique is my latex sponge actually started disintegrating as I used it. Pieces of the sponge were being transferred to my nail. Not so nice. So, I ended up trashing the sponge and instead I used a piece of clean white cotton tshirt material. I folded it up to get a thick square which actually worked great. Just make sure it's not fabric that sheds. I have no idea why my sponge started falling apart but I wonder if anyone else has ever experienced that; let me know in the comments if you have.

I topped my gradient sunset with a coat of Finger Paints, Twisted, an irridescent flakie top coat (sadly, it's no longer available). I then applied a coat of In A Hurry to seal it all in. Once again I used Bridge The Ridge as my base coat and with a little extra shaking I didn't experience any chunky particles in it. This combo of base and top coat has been working really well for me lately.

I'm very happy that I stuck with the challenge; I actually found that my nail art is improving significantly (and to think I was worried when I started that I would have more fails than anything!). I want to say thank you to the admins of the Polish Swap Society for hosting the challenge and CONGRATS! to everyone who participated. It was a great way to use up some Untrieds as well as spark my creativity. 

In case you didn't see all of my posts you can see them here: http://kellsdiynails.blogspot.com/search/label/Polish%20Swap%20Society%20Nail%20Art%20Challenge

Which one do you like best? Did you participate? If so, which challenge was your favorite to do? Mine would have to be a tie between the Party Animal theme or the Pastel Galaxy Nails. My Tangelo nails would be a very close 2nd. The hardest one for me was this one, the gradient. They are so messy and it makes my OCD come unhinged. LOL