Vampy Red Gradient with Nails Inc Victoria

I've been doing a lot of glitter mosaics lately and sometimes you have to do something a little different.  I've done some gradients in the past but never had too much luck, mostly because I thought I knew more better than the makeup sponge technique.  Turns out that it's the best for smooth gradients, I'm silly and should listen to the internet more.  Just as well I did because now I get amazing vampy red nails!

It seems that the trick to gradients is the base colour.  Light colours need white, dark colours need a dark base with a solid creme polish as the lighter colour.  Here, I started with two coats of Nails Inc Victoria, a beautiful deep, dark red jelly.  Once it was dry - seriously, let it dry otherwise you get dings like on my ring finger - I painted a stripe of Essie Fifth Avenue on a makeup sponge and laid a thinner stripe of Victoria next to it.  I then dabbed it on my nails, working up and down ever so slightly to get a nice blend.  I was having some difficulty building up the opacity in the red tip so I ended up just straight applying Fifth Avenue to the tips of my nails then blending it in with the gradient.  

The Verdict: I love this so much I can't really believe how well it came out.  It does take a while and a few layers of gradient-ing to get it smooth but it's so worth it in the end.  Mmm, vampy.