Gradients and sponging are one of those things that should be easy in nail art but sometimes can be a bit of a pain in the ass. If like me, you have trouble gripping smaller pieces of foam or squeezing tweezers to hold the foam for an extended amount of time, then this will be perfect for you.
This being the Gradient Sponge Stamp from Born Pretty Store.
In the pack, you receive one handle, which is the same as the handle for stampers,
and 5 grey sponges which you push into the handle to use much the same as you would the normal stamper.
The sponges are really porous, which makes it great for gradients or sponging. The polish sits really well on the sponge and because or how porous it is, there is barely any excess on the top of the sponge, which gives a fantastic and even gradient coverage.
With one side of the sponge, you can do all 5 nails on both hands without any issues and the sponges are thick enough to flip them around and use the other side for a whole new mani. You could even use the edges/sides of the sponge for extra sponging.
To demonstrate it, I decided to do a mani with both a gradient and sponging, my Cloudy Blue Skies mani. I love how this turned out and so I have just a few pictures of it.
I started with a base of Barry M Matt White, then for the gradient I used Barry M Cyan Blue, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream and Barry M Blue Moon.
I did a single strip of each colour on the sponge right next to each other and pressed onto the nail, I then moved the sponge up and down on the nail to blend the blues a little bit more.
I may have been a bit of an eager beaver with the sponging as I got a few bubbles which you can see in some of the images.
After that, I used Barry M Matt White on the top edge of the sponge to add the clouds. I put less polish on the sponge this time to make them fairly sparse in most places to make them look as cloud like as possible.
Although I am super happy with this easy breezy mani, it wasn’t my first attempt. It’s been a while since I attempted a gradient properly, and my first idea for this review was a sunrise/sunset type of gradient. It didn’t go incredibly well, it wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t Cloudy Blue Skies.
I took the picture in terrible light to see how it photographed, but then I decided I wasn’t happy with it and didn’t bother with decent lighting photos. But yeah, bluergh.
Anywaaaaay, if you were so amazed by my gradienting (definitely a word, definitely) that you now want to buy the Gradient Sponge Stamper, you can buy it here for $3.48 (approx £2.09) and of course, don’t forget to use my code CBAQ10 for 10% off your entire order.
:)x
*The stamper and sponges in this post were sent to me for review, everything else mentioned was purchased by myself. All opinions expressed are my own, honest opinions. 