Hi guys!
I have my first successful full gradient mani to show you today. I used the warm colours from the Zoya Stunning Collection and am so happy with how it turned out!
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| Zoya Stunning Collection Warm Colour Gradient |
Zoya Australia's been having a bit of a promo lately with a lot of their polish discounted to at least 50%! So I had to indulge myself and lately I've been feeling that I need more creme colours as most of my polish is shimmery or has a foil finish. I saw the Stunning Collection was 50% off (so that brings it down to $49.50 which is retain price in the US) and had to buy it! The collection is made up of 6 creme colours; a yellow, orange, 2 pinks, a green and a blue. They look so awesome together all lined up, like a little rainbow! They took about 4 business days to get to me, which isn't too bad. Postage is free for orders over $50, so I bought Yasmeen as well. I've been holding off doing a gradient until I had creme colours that work together.
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| Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana - Sun |
For this mani I used Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana because I felt that they went really well together. I think the secret to a gradient is actually using at least 3 colours that are in a similar colour palette as the the areas between each colour are more easily blended. This is my first attempt at a full mani gradient and I think it turned out rather well.
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| Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana - Sun |
To do this look I first laid down two coats of white polish (I used SH White On) which actually looked really good on its own. I was toying with the idea of leaving the white and just wearing that but I wanted to try the gradient. I topped the white off with a coat of Poshé to make it dry faster and then I got a clean maekup sponge out and went to work. I wet the sponge (my first time doing that too) and then did a strip of each colour next to each other and patted it on the nail in an up and down motion and added new polish for each nail. I did each nail twice and it worked out really well! Using the white underneath meant that the colours were more saturated and I didn't have to do as many coats. The hardest part was getting the tips to stay coloured as the white would peak through sometimes.
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| Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana - Shade |
After doing one hand I cleaned up around the nail with cotton buds soaked in acetone and then a cleanup brush for around the cuticles. Gradients are messy! I can see why people use tape. I then topped it off with another coat of Poshé which I think helps to blend the colours a bit more. I waited for the nails to be quite dry before starting on the other hand which made it quite a long process. 3 episodes of Gossip Girl later and here we are!
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| Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana - Shade |
I'm quite impressed with the polishes from this collection. They're all nice opaque cremes with a subtle dustiness too them. they're not eye searingly bright and there's a good variation of colour. The three colours I used today all have the tiniest amount of silver micro shimmer running through them. I had to use the flash on my phone to even see it. You can see it a bit where the sun hits the nail in some of the previous photos but it's barely noticeable.
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| Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana - Indoors |
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| Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana - Flash |
See? Not even visible under normal light. These polishes go really well together and I think Zoya did a wonderful job with this collection. I'd like to try and watermarble with them too, but that has proven to be very easy for me. Here's a pic of the names of the polishes so you can see what's what.
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| Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana - Indoors |
I will definitely buy more 6 piece sets from Zoya as I think it's the least expensive way to try their polishes, providing you actually like the collection. This is the 3rd 6 piece collection I've bought from them and no regrets, the polish is also 5 free and has the least offensive smelling formula of any brand in my collection. The next set I buy will undoubtedly be a pixie dust set, but the one I want isn't listed yet. Zoya runs promos every few months, so getting polishes whilst they're on sale isn't too difficult. Here's one last parting picture of this mani.
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| Zoya Darcy, Thandie and Yana - Sun |
What do you think of gradients? Are you a Zoya fan?
See you next time!
Pins, Patterns and Polish
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