Gradient Stamping Spring Celtic Knot Design

I feel like I’ve really lost my nail art mojo lately. My full-time job is taking a lot out of me at the moment and I think there’s no space left for creativity.  Or energy left at the end of the day. I came up with this gradient stamping design because I wanted something with a little more interest than a straightforward stamped mani, which has kind of been my default lately.

It’s still quite simple and quick, and the gold flakes in the base colour show through delightfully.

Teal to lime gradient stamping

Polishes and tools

Orly Bonder
Illamasqua Melange
MoYou London Arabesque 06, Key Lime and Electric Teal
Clear Jelly Stamper The Big Bling and Bling Brush
Seche Vite

After my base coat, I used two coats of Melange. It’s really pretty and totally opaque in two coats. This is a sage-green with loads of gold flakes. It dries true to colour and the metallic flakes give it a shimmering finish.

Before I stamp, I always use a coat of top coat to set my base. Since I have really curved nails I need to stamp firmly to get the design right into the side walls. A firm base stops everything from squidging and sliding around.

Gradient Stamping over Illamasqua Melange

Gradient stamping is easier if you are using creme polishes. Metallics frequently are more striking, but they dry quickly so it’s difficult to get the same effect.

To get the colours to blend well, you need to scrape lightly but repeatedly over the plate. Scrape perpendicularly to the gradient or you just push one colour over the other. For this design the gradient runs from teal at the top, to lime at the bottom, so I scraped side to side.

Base is two coats of Illamasqua Melange

You’ll still need to move quickly, but creme polishes are easier to work with for this effect if it’s the first time you’re trying it.

Definitely use proper stamping polishes too,  especially if you are working on a tone-on-tone look like this. Otherwise it will be a bit too subtle and disappear into the base.

Gradient Stamping Celtic knot design

After a quick clean up with a brush and acetone, I use (as always) Seche Vite to seal it all in.

As you can see, I aimed for the star-shaped Celtic knot at the centre of my nails, with gradient centred there too.

Base polish Illamasqua Melange

Gradient Stamping

I really like this tone-on-tone effect, but I think the key is getting the colours just different enough to stand out. The metallic flakes give the base something interesting too.

Either the lime or the teal alone would be very bright, but the sage base softens it all up. Overall, I think it’s very Spring appropriate.

Gradient stamping with MoYou London polishes

I know that a lot of my readers are also bloggers, so my question today is: how do you get yourself out of a blogging funk? Please share your tip with me below!