Ulta Eye Popping Poppy with Silver Gradient Design

I whipped out the striping tape to make this little design, which I originally wanted to do on all my nails but realized it was too time consuming.  Whenever I do venture to do any sort of designs or nail art, I start on my ring finger so if I find it too time consuming, it becomes an "accent" nail instead. Clever, I know, haha.

Eye Popping Poppy is super hard to describe.  I could've sworn I reviewed this polish before but I wasn't able to find it on the blog so I wasn't able to reference my previous description, oops.  It's a creme like jelly, it's not 100% either creme or jelly - there's a decent amount of sheerness.  It also lean coral/pink/orange depending on the lighting.  It's BRIGHT too, definitely has neon attributes!  Shown is 3 coats.

I used L.A. Colors Wire for the silver and mapped it out with striping tape, and them used a makeup sponge to dab it on to create the gradient effect. Super easy, just a bit tedious to cut up the thin tape.  Sealed with on coat of OTD and over NailTek II Foundation basecoat.

Gradient Nails

Soooooooooo I'm not quite sure what is about gradients and my inability to do them nicely, but I pretty much cannot create a subtle effect with multiple colors. Maybe it was my color choice.  After looking at this when I was done, I thought it might've been a better idea to have orange in the middle instead of a pink.  If I did that, maybe the color change would've been more subtle and effective.

"Natural" Light

I built this on top of yesterday's Revlon Lemon Fizz manicure - FYI, the bumps are still visible even with all the extra layers of polish.

"Natural" Light

I did a layer of Orly Basket Case (one of my favorites!) and then for the darkest color, I used China Glaze Ahoy! Like I said before, I think it would've been more gradual had I done an orange and then maybe Basket Case.  It's a visually rough transition from pink to yellow.

"Natural" Light

I added a layer of Sally Hansen Diamonds for extra sparkle and sealed with Brucci Nail Dryer. I mentioned in a previous post that Brucci Nail Dryer is their version of a QDTC but it's not spectacular enough for the $5 price tag. However, I've got it so I'm trying to use it up.

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