Red & Gold Gradient

I'm up to Day 10 for The 31 Day Challenge! And Day 10 is gradient nails. For this look, I was inspired by Rebecca's gradient nails, which can be seen here.

Here we go. So, first I started with a base of Burgundy by Santee.

At my previous job, we sold Santee polishes for a buck. I got 50% off, and really should have purchased more. Burgundy is an appropriate, albeit not very creative name for this polish. My favorite color - a deep, berry red. The application process was not great. The polish was pretty thick, and I kept smudging it. It also seems to want to hang out in my cuticles, no matter how much acetone I use in clean up attempts. My apologies for that. I used two coats for opacity.

Next, I sponged on a light coat of Sea How Far You Go from Nicole by OPI.

It's hard to give an accurate description of how applying it went, considering I only sponged one coat on. But it did sponge on easily! I love the antique-y feel this polish has. So pretty!

Next, I sponged a coat of Sally Hansen's Set the Stage over Sea How Far You Go.

The glitter pieces were a bit hard to pick up, but with the sponge it was easier. I imagine it is sort of a pain using the brush to apply this.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this turned out. It's sorta regal and Elizabethan-y meets gore and goth meets glitz and glam. For a while I thought it seemed too Holiday-like, but today it reminds me of Gryffindor, so I guess it depends on my mood. A friend of mine really loved them, and said they need a matching fancy party dress. What do you guys think? I can't wait to try more gradient manis like this!

You might have noticed my nails are shorter than they were last post. A couple nails broke on my right hand, so I took that as an excuse to chop 'em all down. While I like how they look when they are longer, especially for the blog, I do feel much better with them shorter. They're so much more comfortable at this length. When they're longer, I feel like they're in the way, and I never really get used to them. I know that my "longer" is pretty short for a lot of nail bloggin' ladies - I have no idea how you guys do it! But, I am glad this mani looks good even on shorter nails, because I worried it would look odd.

Today I had my interview with that gallery. I think it went okay. It was pretty short, and not very discussion-based, but hopefully I make the cut.

Also I think I'm developing a dairy allergy. Bleh!

What have you guys been up to?