Monday, June 14, 2010

Watermelon Tourmaline

Hello ladies,

My inspiration for this manicure came from a natural crystal called Watermelon Tourmaline. It is fuchsia accented with green. I was thinking of the stone set in silver as I put this look together.

I am wearing Nubar Twilight Matte as the base. The gradient was accomplished with both Petunia and Meadow Sparkle. There is a layer of 2010 between the two glitter polishes. The sun was coy today, so the pictures show a variety of natural lighting. You may want to click on the photos to enlarge. The glitter and flakies are mesmerizing!











Petunia Sparkle, 2010, Meadow Sparkle.

Twilight Matte felt very much like applying a standard shimmer formula rather than working with a matte finish. This polish was very easy to apply. If you have had trouble in the past working with matte polishes from other brands, I feel confident the Night Sky Collection will alter your opinion about applying mattes. The formula is superb. To complete the gradient, I needed to add Diamont topcoat, giving shine to the manicure. Twilight Matte is versatile enough to also be worn as high gloss.

Here is how I created this look. If you have never attempted a gradient manicure, please check out the tutorial in this post. I painted two coats of Twilight Matte and added Nubar Diamont. I worked nail by nail with all three glitters. Each nail gradation was finished before moving on to the next nail. I began by using Orly Smudge Fixer to create the gradation with Petunia Sparkle.

I painted one coat of 2010 over the entire nail. Then I took the brush from Meadow Sparkle and wiped the excess polish against the inner rim of the bottle neck. With the sparse amount left on the brush, I tapped the brush over the fuchsia glitter on my nail in random spots. It added a little green shimmer. I tried this combination in different ways. I found that placing 2010 in the middle of the fuchsia and green glitter gave more depth.

The Nubar polishes mentioned in this post were sent to me for review. Twilight Matte is part of the Night Sky Collection. Petunia Sparkle and Meadow Sparkle are from the Sparkles Collection. All of these shades, including 2010, are available for purchase at bynubar.com.

Happy painting, ladies!

23 comments:

  1. This is just *beautiful* on your nails. :D

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  2. Very well done. A super-special mani.

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  3. Gorgeous i love a little bling xx

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  4. I dream of being able to do a gradient mani soon! Thanks for the tutorial. This looks so awesome on your long nails!

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  5. Oh Diana, this is really stunning! It looks like an Amethyst Geode!

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  6. Love the gradual change... something I have yet to master!

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  7. I love your gradient manicure. Very inspiring. If only I had your nail length! I'm afraid with my nubbins it would shorten the look of my nails too much. I wonder if you could do this look vertically? That would be interesting. Thanks for all of your hard work with your nail art and all of this blogging. It's very impressive.

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  8. Your mani is just stunning. I love it!! :)

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  9. Very pretty, I love how the colours go together.

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  10. yes, I like this! Purple and gray are so nice together! You are so talented, and I get some inspiration from you!

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  11. These look really pretty together.

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  12. Haven't tried Nubar yet but really want to! Nice combo!

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  13. Yay! What a great inspiration! I love the combo.

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