Guest Post: Tips on Tuesday with The Classy Anarchist

Hello hello! I got home from my trip late last night and I can't wait to share some photos from my trip! 

For the last Guest Post, I invited Aly from The Classy Anarchist to do a Tips on Tuesday post for you! She chose to give you some tips on achieving the perfect Gradient Nails! I am so pumped to share these tips with you guys because I will definitely be using them! She did an awesome job!
Thanks Aly!

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Perfect Gradient Nails

First of all, I'd like to thank Christa, the wonderful blogger behind Possibly Polished, for giving me the opportunity to guest blog for her! The topic I am covering is gradient nails (a favourite of mine)! Gradient nails are an easy and fun nail art technique to learn. They add pizzazz and dimension to any nail art design, and I'd like to share with you some nail gradient basics, plus my top five tips when doing gradient nails. This is not a full tutorial; it is geared towards anyone curious about gradient nails, and how to improve the end result.

Here is what you'll need to get perfect gradient nails (with little to no cleanup involved):

*3-5 different nail colours

*topcoat (I use Orly's Sec'n Dry)

*nail polish remover (I use Kit Advanced, or CVS Advanced nail polish remover)

*cuticle oil (I like to brush it on after the topcoat dries, to give my cuticles some lovin' after all that work)

*painter's tape

*scissors (to cut your painter's tape)

*cosmetic wedges cut into smaller nail-sized pieces

*angled eyeliner brush (for precise cleanup around the cuticle area)

*2-3 Q-tips (for the minimal cleanup you will have)

My top 5 tips:

1. Use good quality cosmetic wedges: I had decided to try a cheaper grocery store brand of cosmetic wedges, just to save a couple bucks (it was Market Basket brand). Unfortunately, these wedges weren't dense enough and bits began to kind of fall off as I was dabbing my gradient onto the nail. Most drugstores sell decent cosmetic wedges (CVS brand or Quo for those in Canada, work just fine). You want to make sure they are densely packed, and don't look like they will fall apart easily. I prefer the ones with a curved shape on the wider end, so it matches the curve of your nail when dabbing the gradient on.
   
   
2. Tape around your cuticles using painter's tape! You can also use other tapes, like scotch tape or masking tape, but painter's tape works best for me. I find it sticks better, and wraps around your fingers much better than any other tape. I bought a roll for $1.50 at the dollar store! You will be amazed at how much better your gradient turns out when you don't have to spend 20 minutes cleaning up afterward. Eventually, taping your cuticles takes about 2-3 minutes total!
   
3. Pick nail polishes that are densely pigmented, and not sheer. Whether you are using cream shades or holo shades, you want to make sure they are very pigmented to make sure each colour shows up well. I would rarely use a jelly for this, unless every colour was a jelly so the gradient would come out equally sheer.
   
   
4. When starting out, pick a natural gradient of colours. Pick one colour, and make a gradient that represents different shades of that colour. For example, if you choose red, start with a light baby pink, a neon pink, then a bright red, and finish with a burgundy or purple.
   
5. Before you dab on your gradient, you want to paint your nails with two coats of a white nail polish (like Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear White On), or the lightest colour in your gradient pattern. I prefer to use the lightest colour in my gradient pattern. If I need to use a nail art brush for clean up around the cuticles, no white peeks through because the base colour is the same as the lightest gradient shade.

Here are some finished nail gradients I did to inspire you:

Thanks for reading! If you have any more questions about gradient nails, feel free to visit me at Facebook, or on Instagram: @theclassyanarchist!