Spun Sugar Gradient

Hey everyone! Sorry about the non-nail art related posts yesterday. There was a bit of an emergency Sunday that left me with no time to edit and type up posts. So, I went with what I did have. I do really hope to see a few of you joining me in the Blogs to Love Friday linkup. That said, today's post really is nail art!!

I have a few ideas for Valentine's Day nails and this was one of the first I thought of — spun sugar Valentine's Day nails done as a gradient.

Spun sugar nails are really easy. They are a bit messy but the wispy strings make it easy to clean up. I started with a base of two coats L.A. Colors white. This is Energy Source now that L.A. Colors started naming their polishes. The next step is probably the hardest and it's not hard at all! It just takes a bit of patience. I started at the tips of my nails and worked up using Sally Hansen Pink Blink first. Put a drop or two of your first color on a piece of paper, using a pin or a dotting tool mix the polish until it's thick. You can speed this along by blowing on it as you stir. You can start as soon as it's thick enough to start forming strings when you lift the pin out of the polish. I didn't wait long enough with my red polish and got some drips instead of strings, so make sure it's thick enough not to drip.

Once strings start to form you'll need to get your nail very close to the thick polish. Lay your finger on it's side angled towards the polish if you're having trouble getting the strings on your nail. Use your pin or dotting tool to quickly but smoothly pull strings across your nails, doing one nail at a time.

Continue doing the tips of each nail with Pink Blink. You may need to thicken more polish if you didn't start with enough or if it thickened too quickly. I used Sinful Colors Beautiful Girl next. I placed some of my strings over some of the Pink Blink strings to create a seamless fade of color. After Beautiful Girl, I used Sally Hansen Fuchsia Power and then finished with Wet n Wild I Red A Good Book.

Let the polish dry. It shouldn't take long! Then do a quick cleanup. I pinched off some of the wispy strings that were flying around my nails and then used some nail polish remover and a Nail Tee (a fancy pointed Q-tip) to clean up the rest.

Add top coat if you like and admire your new mani. Take into consideration when deciding whether to use top coat or not that, while it will make your mani last longer, it will smooth all those strings you just worked so hard on. It will likely take more than one coat as this is a very thick mani. It may also cause some bubbling if you're not careful applying your top coat.

That said, I did use top coat, two coats ... and I did get one large bubble that popped while the top coat dried and left behind a spot bare of top coat. It's really not noticeable though, even in my close-up pictures. I did kind of miss the stringed look though.