Pastel Gel Gradient + Stamping

Hi guys!

I'm on a bit of a roll now that I've got my computer working again. This post features a technique that I haven't done before, gradients with gel polish. It was fairly easy to do, I'll tell you more after the jump!

Pastel Gel Gradient with Stamping
Indoor Natural Light

After seeing some awesome gradients floating around Facebook the last few days I decided that my next gel mani would have to be one too. I've done a few gradients with regular nail polish using the sponge technique but I haven't tried one with gel and didn't know how I'd go about doing it. Gel is different to regular nail polish in that you don't want uncured gel on your skin, so the sponge technique wasn't going to work for this. I found a great tutorial on Youtube for a gel gradient using a flat square shaped brush. My next issue? I don't actually have enough gel colours for the look I had mind. Never fear though, Gelibility is here! Yep, you guessed it, I used Gelibility to create the pastel gel colours along with some China Glaze polishes I have in my stash.

Pastel Gel Gradient Using Gelibility
Indoor Natural Light

On a piece of alfoil I mixed up little batches of each colour to create my gradient. Then using a flat brush I dipped each corner into a different colour and applied it to the nail. Each nail has three colour that sort of follow the rainbow. I used two dabbed coats of gel over a light pink base to get what you see in the picture above. It's not my best work and I could have really used a third coat on some nails. But I was in a hurry. I had some difficulties with the little batches of colour as they seem to dry out much quicker than when I make a big batch of one colour using Gelibility to apply to 4 nails. So keep this in mind if you want to try this look out. 

Pastel Gel Gradient with Stamping
Indoor Natural Light

After the gradient was cured and top coated with my favourite Gelish Top It Off I proceeded to look through my stamping plates for a design that I liked. I found this sort of lattice look on one of my new Born Pretty plates BPL-03 (I seem to use this plate a lot!). I used Mundo de Unas white and my XL marshmallow stamper to stamp the images.

Pastel Gel Gradient with Stamping
Indoor Natural Light

I'm quite happy with how this turned out, it looks cohesive and the pastel is all brought together with the stamp. the stamping also takes the eye away from the patchiness of the gradient. I love how this turned out in photos!

Pastel Gel Gradient with Stamping
Indoor Natural Light

Have you tried doing a gradient with gel before? What technique do you use for it?

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