Lime Green Cheetah Gradient

So I was discussing putting prints over a gradient with a friend and I took my first manicure request! She said a friend of hers would be thrilled if I did a cheetah/leopard print on top of a lime green gradient, so I said, what the heck, sure!

However, gradients are not really my strong point. I’m not sure why, since they’re supposed to be like, the easiest thing you can try to paint on your nails yourself. But I also have issues making jell-O, but can cook normal food quite well, so clearly having issues with the easy things is just how my life works.

I also learned that sheer polishes make for TERRIBLE gradient polishes if you want to do it in one step. Since all the lime green colors I wanted to use are very sheer, I ended up sponging the gradient itself on about twice, then the darker color in layers two more times on top of that. It turned out well although I did not manage to get a color-correct picture. Stupid neons.

I love how you can see that I start getting bored of drawing leopard spots. My right hand looks terrible and not because I am painting with my non-dominant hand, simply because I got bored. It’s just kind of random spots all over the place. In good news, I stayed focused enough that my right hand looks pretty good still.

For the base color I painted my nails with Revlon Buttercup then stamped two lime green Spoiled Polishes on top. I made the spots in Buttercup as well, because I figured since that was the base color under my sheer polishes, that it was guaranteed to match.

Yeah, the picture without flash is a little better in terms of color-correctness. I really like this manicure, despite its ridiculousness. It’s not something I’d rock all the time, since I’m not too into green, but it’s definitely aesthetically pleasing.