How To Create Easy Jelly Rainbow Vertical Gradient Nails
•Posted on August 22 2022
Hey Beauties!
As I mentioned in Behind the Inspiration: Sunset In The Keys Quartet & Sparkling Seas Quartet, the jelly nail polishes from these collections are excellent for easy nail art applications. Over the next few blog posts, I'm going to show you some really fun nail art looks with these polishes. Here's our first look:
I call this a vertical gradient because the color gradation is moving in a left to right (or right to left) progression with vertical lines of color. So, the color sections are long and lean instead of wide and short. I find these to be really easy to do because they don't require any sort of special tools to create them. Literally, you just need your bottle of nail polish and you do the blending with the nail polish brush as you go along.
This type of gradient works well with jelly or sheer nail polishes. If you have a really opaque polish, it will be difficult to blend easily and you won't get the same effect.
For this look, I painted the right side of my thumb nail (for my left hand) with 'Raspberry Rays' and the left side of my thumb with 'Tropical Rum Punch'. I put the two colors right beside each other and slightly overlapped them so that it blended together in the middle. This works best if you overlap them while both polishes are still wet (so, don't wait for the first color to dry.).
Thumb close up:
From there, I used the same technique and painted the the right side of my index fingernail with 'Tropical Rum Punch' and the left side with 'Riptide Reflection'. On the middle fingernail I painted 'Riptide Reflection' on the right side and 'Turquoise Seas' on the left side. On the ring finger I painted 'Turquoise Seas' on the right side of the fingernail and 'Islamorada' on the left side of the nail. Lastly, on the pinky finger, I painted 'Islamorada' on the right side of the nail and 'Dark And Stormy' on the left side of the nail. I repeated this process three times to get the depth of color I was looking for.
Once dry, I added a layer of 'Sundrop' over all the nails for a little extra sparkle! Top with a glossy top coat and voilà! You are ready to go!
A few quick tips for vertical gradient manicures:
- Use a sheer or jelly type of nail polish.
- Paint quickly, don't wait for each color to dry.
- Blend as you go by overlapping colors while still wet.
- Paint in thinner layers for more control over blending and to reduce flooding the cuticle area.
- If you don't want to see your nail line at all (or to increase opacity), use a white nail polish as a base color before applying your jelly nail polish gradient or use a blurring nail line base coat. But do make sure your base coat is completely dry before applying your jelly nail polishes!
- If you still feel like the colors aren't blended very well, repeat your painting process for another layer (I did 3 layers for this manicure). You can also try applying your glossy top coat while the gradient is still wet and blend that way too.
Have you tried creating vertical gradients in your manicures? Let us know your tips & tricks or if you have any issues below!
Want more vertical gradient looks? Check out our Sparkling Pastel Vertical Gradient from the 2022 Spring Look Book!
Read more of our 'How To' series:
How To Create Jelly Sandwich Nails
How To Create Easy Jelly Horizontal Gradient Nails
How To Apply Flakie Toppers: 2 Ways!
How To Apply 'Matterial Girl' Matte Top Coat In An Icy Winter Mani!
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