Glitter Gradient + Happy New Year!

It's 2013! We survived another entire year. Hooray! So happy new year to everyone, and I hope 2013 has been good to you so far.

On a different note, you wouldn't believe the trouble I had coming up with a tutorial for today. I had a serious case of writer's nail painter's block. After trying out (well, almost) a bazillion different things, I finally settled on a glitter gradient. It's not the most original, I know, but it's perfect for celebrating the new year.

You'll need:
- Base coat
- purple polish
- pink glitter polish
- top coat
- matte top coat (optional)

Start off by painting your nails purple. Today I learned that my camera hates purple- I must have taken loads of pictures before I got one that was acceptable. This was the best I could get, folks! Sorry! I'm in love with this purple though. It's really lighter in person than the camera makes it appear.

Zoya - Monica

Now you're going to start on the glitter! I know you might have been told to *dab* glitter, not brush on like normal polish, but listen to me on this one. You want a very thin layer, so you're going to wipe off most of the glitter on the side of the bottle before applying, and brush on carefully. Cover about 2/3 of the nail.
*Side note: Look at the little smudgie on the top of my first finger... I don't know how it happened, but I accidentally scraped it with a nail on my right hand and dented it. It's not too bad in terms of smudges, I suppose, so I won't complain too much!

Essie - A Cut Above

Time for the second layer of glitter. Brush (again, not dab!) the glitter onto 2/3 of the already glitter-ified part of the nail.

Last round of glitter (aww). Now you get to dab on the glitter! Hooray! Dab it onto the tips of your nails, about 1/3 of the entire length of the glitter.

The only step left is to add a top coat to smooth out the glitter. Or you could...

... add a matte top coat! I've been hunting for one for a while (I know it's easy to find them online, but shipping is awful these days, and it's really difficult to find them in stores!) and I FINALLY found one, so I had to try it out. Here's the result! I still can't decide if I like it better than the regular shiny version. But you can't complain about mattified glitter, I guess!

That's all, folks! Along with this tutorial, I'll be posting a list of my favorite nail-related stuff from 2012 and the Liebster award post that I kind of maybe forgot about (woops). To make sure to see these when I post them, make sure to follow here, 'like' on Facebook, and follow on Twitter! Thanks for being the best followers in the world, and I hope you all have a wonderful 2013!