Let me start off with a disclaimer: I’m NOT a huge fan of the 50 Shades series. I’ve read book 1 and part of book 2, and while they are definitely steamy, I have a very hard time getting past the writing style/lack of plot. Words can only be so sexy when they’re being used over and over… and over again! Because of my feelings for the actual books, I decided to make this post more of a tutorial, as opposed to a review.

Since the humble birth of my blog, I’ve had the concept for a 50 Shades manicure in my head. I’m pretty much obsessed with everything ombre, so a gradient grey mani was a no brainer. With summer trickling into fall, I thought this would be the perfect time to break out one of my favorite autumn shades and do this!

Let’s start with the tools I used for this manicure:

I went back and forth between using different shades of grey verses lightening black 5 separate times. After a bit of experimentation (and some failure!), I came to the conclusion that lightening the black would keep all five shades of grey in the same family. Black nail polish tends to have blue undertones, and I didn’t want to run into the possibility of ending up with three blue-black nails and two warm grey! NOT about that life!

I wasn’t too scientific with the ratio of white to black. If I was to do this mani over, I would try to vary the second and third nail a bit more. They’re twinning a bit TOO much. Even with all of that, I am still very pleased! With the first three nails, I began with two large drops of Sally Hanson black nail polish and added white to the mix. The last two, I reversed the formula and started with a white base. When it comes to mixing nail polish, it’s very much about experimenting and adding little by little to achieve the desired color.

Be wary of the nail polish’s consistency after it has been out of the bottle and gone through the mixing process. It thickens rather quickly, which leads to strings of nail polish that strangely resemble melty cheese! I don’t have enough experience with mixing yet, so that’s definitely something I’m going to keep experimenting with in the future. I will report back on any interesting findings!

As I mentioned earlier, black lacquer contains strong blue undertones, so you might notice the lighter greys have more of a blue-black-grey quality to them. Pictured next to the book cover, I decided this was a happy accident, because it ended up being complimentary to the cover’s color palette.

Fall and winter are perfect for subtle patterns and designs, so now is the time to play with manicures like this one! Have you read the 50 Shades trilogy? What did you think? Happy Reading!