Challenge #6: GRAYdient (aka FAIL!)

When I saw "gradient" was one of the inspirations for this challenge, I cogitated for awhile, mentally pouring over all the different creme options I had, or maybe even a holo gradient, but I kinda already did that this past summer... And then KABOOM!, outta the blue, I knew exactly what I should do: a GRAYdient!!!!!!!  Puns and plays on words are totally my thang, so don't that just beat all! :D  LOL

I laid down two perfect, smooth, shiny coats of Cult Nails Tempest.  Seriously, I was rubbing my nails ALL DAY.  Now that I've used it for a full mani, I would recommend it as the  ultimate white creme. PERFECTION!

And then I grabbed my grays; note that the night before I did this, a perusal of Wal-Mart's beauty aisle endcaps rewarded me Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here, which I'd been looking for since I saw it on my friend Essie's blog last spring!  Who woulda thought that a Pure Ice polish would be so stinkin' hard to find?!  Well it was, and it also happened to be the perfect gray to complete the GRAYdient!  'Twas meant to be!

Or NOT.  Uhhhh...NOPE.  Just no. :(  THIS LOOKS AWFUL!

Why did mine look more like color bands than a smooth, melty blend?! And patchy and ugggh... Well, for some reason I thought you were supposed to take a tiny piece of sponge and sponge on the colors one at a time.
After some research & consulting experienced nail art blogs, I discovered you're supposed to use a wedge makeup sponge & paint all the colors on in strips and use it rather like one big foamy stamp! DUH.  Oh well, I am now "in the know" for the next time I attempt a gradient.  But for now, I'm going to chalk this up as a learning experience and move on to the next mani!

BUT first... 

after that horror, I will give you a nice gray to feast your eyes on:

GRAY HOLO!!!  :D  This is Hit Polish Pewter Goblet.  Not a strong linear holo, but very purty nonetheless, and it satisfied my desire for Too Fancy Lacquer's Silent Night at a much  lower price!  Unfortunately, Hit Polish closed up shop as of a couple weeks ago due to a new business venture for her & her hubby.

This is one coat Pewter Goblet over two coats Kiss Me Here.  PG is a tad sheer on its own, and KMH really is the PERFECT MATCH to go under it.  Polish serendipity, I tell ya!  These photos are without topcoat - it's just that shiny. :)  PG actually felt a bit thick and gloopy to me, but a thin-medium coat was perfect, dried fairly quickly, and obviously, produces a nice holo effect.  

And I happened to be wearing a gray sweatshirt, so hey, why not do a good ol' Essie "sweater shot?!" :D  Except I'm clearly not her, so it didn't really turn out... I'm blaming it in part on the fact that I was operating the camera with my non-dominant hand! lol

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!!!

HOTT holo sauce!!!

If Collide Into You and So Unique were mild sauce, Color Club's Cosmic Fate is hot sauce for sure!  Oh my, Melissa (a la Lacquer Reverie) must be rubbing off on me, 'cuz I just made a food reference! hahaha
And get this; after a couple days of taking Cosmic Fate into my own hands, I decided I'd amp up the awesomeness by trying my first sponging gradient as an accent nail - with two other holos.  OH YESSSS I did! :-D

Yup, these are my holo-y, unshapely nubs.  Be distracted by the Spectraflair!!! :-P

After lemming strong linear holos for SO LONG (not being willing to spend upwards of $20 a bottle for those darn "original" ChG's or OPI's), I originally "splurged" on Color Club Revvvolution, but that really wasn't the blow your mind holo I was hoping for.  So after looking at countless swatches, I decided that Angel Kiss from the 2012 Halographic collex was beautiful light aqua color that I had to have. 

And whenever I saw the 2013 Halographics, I was always drawn to Cosmic Fate like a bug to a zapper, because peachy shades seem to be "my thing."  

Fun fact about my photo shoot for this mani: the screen was off my bedroom window at the time, so I was kneeling on my bed, sticking my arms out the window & snapping photos.  I tried to pull them in every time I heard a car coming, but . . . I wasn't always successful!  So I'm sure whoever saw my arms (the window is at a 90 degree angle to the street, so there's no way they could see the rest of my body) was pretty weirded out!  I kinda stopped caring - especially if I had the pose just right. :-P

I'm so glad I finally went ahead & treated myself to this yummy orange sherbet!  I found it on eBay for $7.00, free shipping. Loving that price for a full-size bottle!  . . . unlike Jade Delirio Rosa, which although lovely, and also $7.00 (on Llarowe) is only 8ml.  For some odd reason, I did not notice the size until it arrived.  Oh well!  It's certainly a fun, bright "Barbie pink" as some of the reviews have said. :-)

Application for Cosmic Fate was easy, and no special "aqua base" coat required.  I honestly don't even know what that is, but I've heard other bloggers mention it as necessary to keep Layla holos from . . . being patchy?  I dunno!  haha
What you see here is two coats, and I think one quick swipe of Sally Hansen topcoat.  Pretty sure it was my 4-in-1 base/nourishing/strengthening bamboo/top coat stuff.  I love something that multitasks!

Aaaaand the gradient!  One of my roommates gave me a pack of round cosmetic sponges she doesn't use, from which I cut a teensy, tiny triangle and used my tweezers to gingerly sponge on some Angel Kiss at the bottom, and Delirio Rosa at the top.  Voila!  My 3 strong linear holos on one 'lil nubbin! ;-)  Hehe!

And that's all she wrote!  Enjoy the last few hours of your weekend, peeps! . . . unless you're my dad and have Mondays off.