Twinsie glitter gradient with my BFF!

Hey ladies!  I'm pretty excited to show you this today.  My first attempt at a glitter gradient!!  I was trying to come up with ideas for something my best friend would want to wear with her stunning outfit for a friend's wedding in Chicago; a wedding for which she played piano and sang, and her husband officiated.
So it needed to be stellar.  And since she's a pianist, it had to be executed in a way that would ensure staying power.
After showing her a couple of my ideas that I'd done on those clear Sephora cellophane squares with fingers outlined on them (maybe you've seen them in stores now? They're for testing out the polishes :-), something in what she was describing made me show her this mani:

ALL credit goes to www.chalkboardnails.com!

Her response: "Oooh! I l♥ve that!!" ;)  So the next night I set to work on my own nails so I could practice the technique and test drying times on a couple different options of reds and I wanted to show her another color just for the sake of variety. :)

The difference is almost inperceptible; I have Zoya Karina (2 coats) on my thumb, Sally Hansen Unbreakable Heart (2 coats) on my pointer & index, and Zoya Daul (1 coat over OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI?) on my ring and pinkie. Personally, I love the extra glitzyness that Daul lends to the gradient, but Michelle opted for the classic red - her favorite nail color. :)

Don't ask me why, but there is some optical illusion going on making it look like I got the red all over the side of her ring & pinkie fingers. It's not, I promise.  So, pay no attention to the optical illusion behind the curtain and focus on the loveliness! ;)  (and a gold star to anyone who caught that movie reference)

I will however make the disclaimer that for some reason, my photos are not showing the warmer tones that Zoya Karina has IRL. :( I did try to edit and color correct them, but it still came out more of a dull, cool brownish tone. :-/ Grrr!  I'm so sorry, readers. :(

Both of us together!!! :D  ♥  This was SUCH a fun night... I gave her a full-on mani/pedi complete with foot soaking and massages. I love doing that kind of thing with/for my friends!

To execute her mani with staying power, I started with one base coat of Orly Bonder, then 2 coats of Sally Hansen Unbreakable Heart (a rich, vibrant shimmery cherry red with tiny gold microflakies), and then I took a tiny triangle of makeup sponge and using a tweezers, I sponged on Essie Set in Stones and Milani Gold to add more depth to the effect. Then I covered the whole thing with Sally Hansen Ultra-Wear Top Coat (the box says "Salon perfect finish up to 10 days. Guaranteed."  They're the same bottles as the Salon Manicure line with the silver caps).  

Oy. Trying to photograph two peoples' hands in the same frame is NOT as easy as I thought!
Not to mention I was laughing so hard my hands were shaking. :P

Aaaand apparently my plan and the polishes worked because I talked to my friend on Friday and she still had no chips!  I did the manicure the previous Wednesday and she'd played piano on Sunday morning and again for the wedding. :D :D ...plus full work days of typing. WIN!  Oh, I forgot to add, I had her take top coat with her and put on a second coat while they were driving the next morning.  It was about 11 pm by the time I finished doing her mani (and the matching pedi - I did the gradient on her big toes :), we were super loopy, and after the photo shoot, we were done for, so the 2nd application of top coat had to wait!

My hand, chillin' out in the background ;)  SO hard to get both on the exact same plane

I hope you enjoyed ogling the prettiness - I know I sure did!  Seriously, I was constantly admiring the extreme flashiness of Set in Stones in the fluorescent lights at work all day, every day I had this on. ;)
And rest assured, there will be future twinsie manis because I (&, hopefully she) had a blast doing this!!!

Another lacquer first, and some random fun

Ahhh...what a great Saturday! :-D  I hope all of you lovely ladies had a good day too.  As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, I met my sister, brother-in-law, and their 3 kids (ages 6, 4 3/4, & 3) at a pretty darn great indoor water park in Grand Forks, ND.  We've been there a few times now.  So, we spent a few hours there, ran some errands (I resisted going into Sally Beauty AND two lovely polishes I spotted at Target - YAY me!), and then got Caribou and spent an hour or so at a fabulous park by the river.

I planned my mani around my swimsuit colors, and I must say, it turned out exactly as I hoped and I think it looked pretty sweet.  I was hoping to add a tish of Silly Lily's Pacific Fantasy before the Seche Vite, but after my mishap in the car, I decided to quit while I was still somewhat ahead.

What was the mishap, you might ask?  Well, I wanted to make sure my first layer of Revlon Royal plus the thick, gooey Milani Teal glitter had ample time to dry, so I decided to finish my mani in the morning.  Of course I didn't leave myself enough time, so what did I do?  Finish it while I was driving.  Yes, this is highly unrecommended BUT, the road to Grand Forks is extremely straight and boring!  SO, I finished the top layer of Royal on my left hand, and as I went to move the bottle to the other hand . . . well, I'm not entirely sure what happened or how, but it ended with my hand slimed full of polish and some of it on my seat and middle console.  YIKES!!!  Unbelievably, it wasn't as bad as it could've been.  But I could only wipe my hand off on a napkin, and I'm sure you can imagine the blue stain that Royal left all over my palm!  Didn't have any remover with, so I was like, I guess I'll be looking like a Smurf for the rest of the day!  How embarrassing.  I was going to take a picture of the carnage, but never got around to it.  The story has a happy ending though: did you know chlorinated water takes nail polish residue off?!  :-D  YAY!!!!  Smurf-be-gone!

Okay, again, enough with the jabba jabba - I will give you the pics!  As I'm sure you lacquerheads have ascertained by now, I did a jelly sandwich!!  My very first one. :-D  So without further ado:

One coat of Revlon Royal
I would say it's more of a translucent, "thin" polish versus a jelly, but it gives the same effect

Add the goopy Milani Teal (which is actually medium-sized blue, green , and silver hexes)

And add another coat of Revlon Royal *NOT in a moving vehicle.
I decided to try an Essie-esque shot ;-)

Hehe!  Here you can see a partial fingerprint in Royal - evidence of the "mishap."

Oh, and don't forget a heavy coat or two of Seche Vite!  That really creates the deep, "squishy" jelly look,  IMO.

I took these post-waterpark, so I must say I was very impressed that I didn't have any major gouges, cracks, or chips (well, one on my right ring finger), what with all the going down waterslides, navigating the extra-coarse grit floor/pool surrounds, and getting in & out of tubes countless times.  Just that darn tip shrinkage, courtesy of Seche Vite.  Ugggh.  Such a love-hate relationship.

Now for the other "things" that made today great:

Haley, sister-in-law
Jayla, niece (my sister Amanda's daughter)
Jacob, stepbrother (married to Haley)

Kyle, nephew (Jayla & Brea's big bro)
Jason, brother-in-law (dad to all 3)

Brea, niece
She just got done kissing & hugging the dragon that she named: Dragon

Caribou Hazelnut Mocha with biscotti pieces (passable attempt at replicating their bomb-diggity Biscotti Mocha)

SUSHI!  And I love me some "fresh" ginger slices!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a stroll through my fun Saturday! :-D  I hope you had a wonderful day as well!