comments:
I wish I could say they were stamped, but I struggle with stamping! It's one of those things I want to master, but I always get mixed results. 😠For the french tips, I use good-old-fashioned stickers. These ones are pretty strong and can strip off a layer of polish underneath, so I either wait until the polish is really dry, or I apply a protective quick-dry top coat over it first, before putting on the sticker. I also remove the sticker immediately (and carefully) using tweezers while the polish is still wet, after painting in the french tip part. For gradients, I use sponges rather than brushes. I prep my nail by putting on a base coat of whatever the lightest color in the gradient is (for example: in the above photos, I painted the entire nail pink first). For a circular gradient, I apply the polish like in this video. For a horizontal gradient, I apply like in this video. It is really messy, so I don't like doing gradients very often, to be honest. My tips are to apply the polish in two layers on the sponge to make sure it's nice and saturated, and I will usually apply the gradient again in a second coat after the first one dries.. Then afterward, I clean up my skin with a nail brush and standard nail polish remover. (I've tried using a peel-off skin protector, but for me the amount of time it took to apply and remove wasn't worth it.)