Quadruple scaled gradient: Mexican rug inspired madness

Oh ma gawd what in the hell is this?!?! I don't even know. Pretty sure it might be a quadruple scaled gradient...but yeah. I have no more words. My head hurts just thinking about how I did this (and then re-thinking how I really should have done it instead), so you best just stop reading words and look at pics instead.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

I was somewhat inspired by traditional mexican rugs, and I'd seen some nail wraps around that had this kind of look but without the mini-gradients in each colour block. So I decided I'd spent an entire day trying to get this look out of my head and onto my nails cause I have no life, yay!

Obviously there's no way I could hold all 12 polishes I used, but I do my best.

What's this?! I added more?! Yup. Added some lines with a set of striping brushes from Born Pretty Store.

Striping brush from Born Pretty Store

Which nail is your fav? They all turned out a surprise to me!

2 MIN VIDEO TUTORIAL:

(so sorry I had to break my 1min max rule... trust me, you'll forgive me)
(see also part 1 and part 2 15sec versions on Instagram)

The video has subtitles so the steps should be clear. A couple things:

• It it important to use straight nail vinyls (any thickness) and not just tape for your lines in order to get a clean edge after removal - you can get straight nail vinyls from Nailvinyls.com
• The green painter's tape can be bought from your local hardware store
• My fav quick dry top coat to use between gradient layers is HK Girl by Glisten & Glow
• For tips on how to do a scaled gradient mani check out my Gradient Guide
• Striper brushes from Born Pretty Store

For the record I had NO PLAN going into this, I just started working my way up my nails with different variations of gradients on different nails. Woo, mad nail art scientist!

Polishes used (well here's a list and a half):
- Finger Paints 'Pop art purple' (magenta/purple neon creme)
- Orly 'Hot shot' (neon pink/red crelly)
- Essie 'Meet me at sunset' (orange creme)
- China Glaze 'Sun worshipper' (neon light orange creme)
- Pure Ice 'Show stopper' (yellow creme)
- Spa Ritual 'Firefly' (neon green crelly)
- Essie 'I'm addicted' (neon aqua blue crelly)
- Sinful Colors 'Savage' (turquoise creme)
- Nails Inc. 'Baker street' (royal blue creme)
- Quo by Orly 'Infused' (rich purple crelly)
- Cult Nails 'Tempest' (white creme)
- Cult Nails 'Nevermore' (black creme)