Tutorial: Sponging Technique (featuring Palm Tree nails)

Hey there!
The next nail art tutorial I was asked to do was the palm tree nails, and I actually wrote a tutorial for them a pretty long time ago! *Click* here to see my old tutorial on it, and also *click* here to see Cutepolish's Video on YouTube for it.

Since the tutorial for the palm tree nails isn't really needed anymore, I decided to make this tutorial more about the sponging technique that is used for the design.
As you might remember, we first painted our nails with a  pale turquoise color, and then used a medium blue for the darker part. Here I took China Glaze's For Audrey as the base color and China Glaze's First Mate as the darker shade.

All you wanna do in the beginning is pour a little bit of the dark polish onto a piece of paper and pick it up with the side of a sponge. The you want to get the polish onto the tip of the nail with just some dabbing motions. The you want to pick up some color again and sponge a little further, making the polish a little lighter there for the transition. When you sponged too far down, just pick up some of the base color with the sponge and go over it. You do the same with the yellow on the bottom, btw.

just the tip sponged

see how there are pieces of the sponge stuck on it?! Arrggh :/

Now, concerning the sponge you use, there are a few things to keep in mind. You can use whatever sponge you like, I personally prefer these cheap cosmetic sponges you can get at any drugstore for little money. But when you use the sponge, make sure it's still spongy and soft, that there are no hard places. And also there should still be the sharp, crisp lines of the sponge, so you can be more precise. When your sponge doesn't fulfill these things, it might end up like it did with me when I tried to take pictures for this tutorial. All the time there were tiny pieces of the sponge stuck on the polish, not getting off anymore.

Sponging can leave a really uneven surface,so it's always recommended to go over it with a top coat afterwards.
With the sponging technique you'll also be able to do gradient nails, which is pretty, too.
You really only need a little bit of practice for sponging, and then it should work out soon ;) Don't worry if you fail in the beginning, it'll get better gradually!
I hope this helped you out!
I'll see you later,
xoxo, Misch