Gradient Nails

The "Fade" is a pretty popular thing in clothes right now.  This trent is one in which the color fades gradually from one color to another.  It has also become pretty popular on nails.  On nails, I have heard it referred to as "the fade", "the gradient manicure" and "sponging".  There are several different methods to do this.  I have tried many of them, and below I am going to show you the method I found the easiest.

The "fade" on a dress.

The fade on my nails!

Cool right?  It is actually easier then it looks. 

Supplies: 

3-4 nail polish colors.  Do not use quick dry formula. 

Makeup sponges

q-tips

Polish remover

Base and top coat

Small cup of water

Directions:

1.  Paint base coat on your nails. After base coat is dry, paint your lightest color over entire nail.

2.  After the first color coat has dried, take all your colors and line them up from lightest to darkest. Unscrew the caps of each color. You want to have everything ready so that you can work quickly.   Take your makeup sponge and dip it in some water. Squeeze 80% of the water out of the sponge. This is very important because if you do not get the sponge wet, it will soak up too much polish and the polish will not go on evenly.

3.  Start at the edge of the makeup wedge and paint a thin strip of your darkest color.  Paint a thin strip of each color, from dark to light.  Go over each color once more.

4.  Take your sponge and press it firmly on a piece of paper or paper towel. You will notice that the more you press the sponge, the more the colors blend. Next step, press sponge onto nail.  You can press twice at slightly different spots if you notice the color is not blended enough.  Make sure you press with firm even pressure.

5.  You will notice that the polish gets all over your skin, and has the texture of the sponge. The skin issue is easily cleaned up by using a q-tip dipped in polish remover. The texture issue is fixed by putting a top coat over.

My nails before cleanup. 

6.  Paint your top coat on and you are all done! 

Other tips:

Do not use quick dry polish for your gradient. It will dry before you have a chance to get it onto your nail.  

I found this a little more difficulty to do with metallic polishes, because most of them also dry rather quickly.  

The wet sponge is very important to make this come out correctly.

Remember to press the sponge firmly against nail so that you get the edges of your nail as well. 

For this manicure, I used the following polishes.

Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat

Revlon Tropical Temptation

Revlon Cherries in the Snow

mystery polish I have had for years

Revlon Valentine

Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat