Blended colors!

"Hello. Salute. It's me. Your duke. And I made something that's real to show you how I feel. Hello, Hello. It's me, Picasso, I will paint my words of love with your name on every wall...When you leave, my colors fade to grey. Little lover stay, all my colors fade away. Every word of love I used to say, Now I paint it every day... Mya-hee, Mya-hoo, Mya-ha, Mya-ha-ha!..."


*ahem* I like that song... Dragostea Din Tei in english... ANYWAY!... Speaking of fading colors, on to the topic of the day! Blended colors!
As those of you from DeviantArt know, this is my most recent blended look. I did this last week, and it seemed pretty popular.








But I also did this look a few months ago, and it was by far the most popular look I've done. People loved it... And a couple were bummed when I took it off to do a different look.
(click on photos for full size.)





So anyway, how do you do it? I got that question a few times, and it's hard to describe exactly how to do it other than showing the video I found on how to do it, found here: Jolleh8D's nail polish blending tutorial
No, I did not come up with the idea alone, someone else did, and I just used the tutorial they made to create a very popular look. All I can offer are tips and tricks to make the process easier for newbies:
1: Use a nail polish that is sheer enough to allow the color it overlaps on to show through, but make sure that the polish isn't so sheer that it doesn't alter the color it's fading into, 'cause then it takes forever to get it to work and usually requires a million coats, earning you a very long drying time.
2: Fade two similar colors together, it makes it easier. I tried to fade green into pink and ended up with an embarrassing and ugly mess that I won't post on here. You can find it on my DA account.
3: Cremes are harder to fade because of their opacity. If you want to use cremes, you need to actually mix the colors together where they meet, so be willing to work for it.
4: Texture is important as well. If the polishes are a different texture, it will be more difficult to blend it, but could also yield awesome results if it works out.

So there you have some tips and advice to hopefully make your blending experience go smoothly. I find that Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear nail polish is awesome for blending. It's a good consistency for blending, and there is a wide variety of colors to choose from.
Here's some options that you could try using this technique:
*Try doing it in different directions. Horizontal, diagonal, vertical...
*Try fading different shades of the same color.
*Try fading different colors on each nail.
*Try doing a faded french manicure by fading nail polish on the tips of your nails, then shaping it into a french manicure by using a nail polish remover-soaked Q-tip to remove any excess and shape it just how you want it.
*Add a cool topcoat to add some extra pizazz. Try a tinted topcoat, glitter, a mattifying topcoat, or glow in the dark nail polish. I also have blacklight reactive nail polish that I would like to use sometime... But I'm not quite the rave/clubbing type, haha. I'll have to go to an arcade or Killer Pizza From Mars sometime.
*Try doing a Yin/Yang design with a solid color on one side, and faded colors on the other.
*Add in black as an accent color to your faded colors design.


So get to it, dear readers! Send me a link to a picture of your design in the comment section if you attempt it, and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions about something I didn't cover or wasn't clear on anything. I'll add a comment answering your question as soon as I can, so check back to see if I responded to your comment!

My nail polish list (constantly updated)

Okay, so I figured that I would start off this blog telling you what I have in my nail art inventory... More like my obsession after I listed and counted everything I've collected over the years... I will try to keep this post updated as long as I remember
... I have 101 bottles of nail polish, and 148 nail polish items in all...

Okay, so I'll go by company names...

NAIL POLISH:
Sephora by OPI:
Base Coat
Top Coat
Curve-aceous
Personal Shopper
Dear Diary
I'm With Brad
Set The Mood
Wardrobe Change

Nicole by OPI:
Poised In Turquiose

NYC:
Big Apple Red Creme
Black Lace Creme
Big Money Frost
Purple Pizzaz Frost
Charming Rose Creme
Starry Silver Glitter
White Lights Glitter
Times Square Tangerine Creme

Del Sol:
Calypso
Superhero
Pretty In Pink
Heartbreaker
Secret Crush
Sun Kissed
Spanish Flirt
Reckless
Ruby Slipper
Spike
Electrick
Peek-A-Boo
Rock Star
Surfer Girl
Island Fever
Foxy

E.L.F.:
Pearl
Bubble Gum Pink
Light Pink
White
Maggie's Pink Slipper

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Extreme Wear:
Ocean View
Lime Lights
Deep Purple
Purple Potion

Disco Brites UV Reactive Nail Color:
Funkadelic
Turntable
Strobe Light

Astral Lights Glow In The Dark Nail Paint:
Green glitter
Orange glitter
Purple glitter

Sally Girl:
U Glow
It's So Me
U Betcha
Unnamed emerald shimmer
Unnamed neon pink creme
Unnamed neon purple creme

Milani:
Green Glow
Lemongello

Bari Cosmetics Pure Ice:
Heart Breaker

Hot Topic Bloody Mary:
Unnamed dark neon blue

Maybelline Express Finish 50 Second Color:
Base & Top Coat

Revlon:
Gold Get 'Em
Silver Screen

ORLY:
Shine On Crazy Diamond

Nina Ultra Pro Salon Formula Nail Lacquer:
Pucker Up
Solar Flair

Icing By Claire's:
Bedazzled
Blackout

Bon Bons:
Unnamed light blue shimmer
Unnamed pink glitter
Unnamed orange glitter
Unnamed purple duochrome shimmer

(old bottles) Wet 'N' Wild:
431B
431C
456E
425A

(old bottle) Essie Cosmetics:
Sentimental Red

(old bottles) Cover Girl Nail Slicks:
China Coral
Rambling Rose
Misty Mauve

(old bottle) Loreal Grow Strong:
Mauve Dure

(old bottle) Brucci Nail Hardener:
#29

Generic nameless colors:
Dark wine shimmer
Cherry red shimmer
Dark mauve shimmer
Neutral pink shimmer
Light baby pink shimmer
Pale pink shimmer
Grey duochrome shimmer
Hot pink shimmer
Fire engine red shimmer
Dark rose duocrome shimmer
Grey glitter
Nameless NYC teal/blue shimmer
Light purple glitter shimmer
Mint green shimmer
Light orange shimmer
Peppermint red shimmer
Baby pink glitter shimmer
Gingerbread shimmer

Frankenpolishes (home mixed polishes):
Turquoise
Starry Night
Malibu
Twilight

TOOLS:
Migi Nail Polish Pens:
Gold Set
Silver Set
Bronze Set
White Set
Black Set

Konad Gold Kit, containing these colors of special polish:
White
Pearl Pink
Red
Blue
Green
Yellow
Black

Woohoo!

Hello, all! I have a blog now, it seems, so I'm sitting here figuring out how everything works and setting up my profile template.

So to get a post on my wall, I'm gonna throw on a photo of me.

... Yes, this is me. Say hi!
HAI! :D

Anyway.
This blog was started at the suggestion of one of my watchers on DeviantArt.com, so here it is! A blog for me to share tips, tricks, techniques, pictures, reviews, and tutorials for all kinds of nail polish designs. ^-^

I'm just bummed that I can't reply to comments on my posts. That's no fun. :(

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go edit my template some more.