Sunday, April 1, 2012

Autism Awareness

Monday, April 2nd is Autism Awareness day so to show my support, I painted my nails blue. This cause was brought to my attention by Pointless Cafe blog. I have a close friend with a son who has Autism so this cause is close to my heart. I would like to ask any of you who can, to paint your nails blue in support as well. Even if your work doesn't allow it, paint your toes! Where there's a will, there's a way! ;)

I decided to use several shades of blue and turn it into a gradient mani. I added the accent nail puzzle piece after thinking it needed that extra touch to take it one step further. Now on to the pics. I added several to show you the process. If you check out my St Paddy's Day mani, I list the steps on how to do a gradient mani.

For this mani I used China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le, A England Order of the Garter, Julep Marisa and Lynnderella Mlle Violette de Bleu.


To apply the gradient, I used a cosmetic sponge and put a small puddle of polish on a paper plate and dipped my sponge in the polish and dabbed it off on the paper plate so I didn't get too much polish. It's much better to add several layers of the same color so it's a subtle shift between the shades of blue.

 A England Order of the Garter...


After sponging on Order of the Garter...



Mlle Violette de Bleu...


After sponging, before clean-up and top coat...


 With the Autism puzzle piece symbol...










For more information on Autism, please visit Autism Speaks.

7 comments:

  1. LoOks great! I will be posting mine tomorrow!

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  2. Really pretty! Love your color choices and nice puzzle piece too.

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  3. I like this a lot! Question: Do you wash you sponges to reuse them? Like... in acetone? Or do you just toss them afterwards?

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    1. I don't reuse my sponges because by the time I'm done applying polish with them, they're starting to fall apart and acetone just eats them. I buy the cheapest ones I can find when I'm getting them for nail art.

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  4. this looks awesome!

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