Syrup Manicure and Sparkles: China Glaze Beauty and the Beach and Fairydust

I tried my hand at the syrup manicure the other day. I liked colour, but I didn't really like how the manicure itself turned out. I think I kinda sucked at the gradiation. So of course I did what anyone covering up for a failed syrup gradient manicure did - I put glitter over it! Here's the final look.

The syrup manicure uses just one colour, typically a very sheer jelly, in order to get the gradient effect, in contrast to other gradient manicures that use two colours. The sheer jelly shade would then be applied in successive coats to give the gradient effect. For this look, I used China Glaze Beauty and the Beach, which I bought like, in a haul a long time back, but haven't used til now (shame, I know). Anyway, I thought that since it was such a sheer jelly shade, it would be perfect for the syrup manicure.

In order to get the gradient effect, I started off with a coat of Beauty and the Beach all over the nail. I then applied a second coat of Beauty and the beach from three-quarters of the nail, and a third coat from halfway up the nail. The last coat was applied just to the top quarter of the nail, nearest the tip. That created the gradient look.



Sadly, I wasn't very pleased with how the gradient turned out. I felt like the gradient was too sudden, and wasn't very "gradient"-like. Anyway, I decided to salvage it by adding glitter on top. I mean, glitter makes every manicure look better, right? So on went a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. Muahaha, now with my tips all covered with glitter (holo glitter, no less!) noone's going to notice that the syrup gradient isn't done right! How smart am I, seriously?



Anyway, if I had done the syrup manicure bit properly, I think I would have liked this a lot more. Although China Glaze Beauty and the Beach is annoyingly sheer, when layered it has a gorgeous lit-from-within glowy shimmer that I love. And of course, its annoyingly sheer nature makes it perfect for the syrup manicure. I also like China Glaze Fairydust - I swear, this polish just looks good over anything.



So there you have it - my failed attempt at a syrup manicure, and an equally fail attempt to cover it with glitter. Maybe next time I should do a few practice nails before jumping into these things. But for now, this is perfect for the spring and summer seasons - bright, happy, and tropical.