Diagonal Gradient with Nicole by OPI Modern Family Collection Polishes

Diagonal gradient with Nicole by OPI Alex By The Books and Am I Making Myself Claire?
Topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust

I was inspired by this mani from The Polished Perfectionist. Hers is crazy amazing... it seriously looks like fake nails that were just airbrushed.... I'm so in awe!

I started with 2 coats of Alex By The Books. I applied Seche Vite to make it dry faster. Once it was dry, I started using a damp makeup sponge to do the gradient. (I dipped the makeup sponge into water and then squeezed out as much water as I could. I only wet it once at the beginning, not as I went. I thought that it stayed damp enough. I didn't want the polishes to be watery and run everywhere, I just wanted them to show up on the nail more easily.) I painted both colors onto the sponge so that they were overlapping slightly. I went back and forth over the area where the colors met to blend the colors better. BTW please ignore the ding on my middle nail. I hit it on another polish bottle before it was dry :(

Here's a bunch of pictures. I took tons because it was hard to capture the gradient and Fairy Dust accurately.

 Blurry shot to better show the scattered holo goodness in Fairy Dust :)

Here is Alex By The Books with Fairy Dust on top. No gradient. Well except on my pinky which was the "test finger." I originally intended to do all my nails on my right hand but yeah I got lazy. I was doing my nails really late last night and decided I should really go to sleep. I hate having to wake up for work!! I still spent way too much time taking a million pictures after when I should have been sleeping haha oops

I'm not sure if the Nicole by OPI brushes are skinnier than the regular OPI brushes or maybe I just got used to them? They didn't bother me at all this time. I used to hate how they're so wide with my small nails. I liked how the brush was flat and smoothed the polish out pretty well. Alex By The Books applied pretty well in just 2 coats. It was prone to bubbling on the first coat so make sure that you don't shake it before you apply. Maybe just roll it between your hands and even then I would wait a while before applying. It is a bit thicker than normal polish but self levels as it dries nicely.

Thanks for stopping by! :)