The Good, the Bad...wait, it's just the Bad and the Okay...
I started off the evening attempting a red and gold version of a tutorial by IHaveACupcake titled Funky Red Carpet. However, I discovered to my regret that what I thought was gold is not nearly opaque enough for this technique. It's too bad, too, because my red went on sooo smoothly in just one coat!
But I'd already had a bad enough day (I stayed home from work due to an overwhelming anxiety attack) and I have a committee meeting on Friday that I'd like to have a nice manicure for, so I did something I seldom do - stripped the whole thing and started over.
I started with the same two colors I'd tried to put together originally: an old nail polish I pulled out of my box that I haven't used in ages, Revlon Limited Edition - Wrap Yourself in Rubies, and one of the new polishes I bought last week, Pure Ice - Gold Mist. Since my first vision refused to come out on my nails (and now I know I still need some gold polish!) I picked something else, and decided to do a sponge gradient. So I grabbed my other Pure Ice - Best Friend, and pulled another old polish out of my box that I thought went well as a bridge between the Revlon and the Gold Mist. The label says à la mode by Orly, but there's no color name anywhere (there may have been a sticker label once upon a time that is now missing, I don't know.)
Sponging from base to tip was done in the order in the picture, from left to right: Best Friend, Gold Mist, Orly, and then Rubies. I added some rhinestones on my accent nails, and this is what resulted:
I'm not terribly happy with the result, but it's not bad. I've got some nasty bubbling on a few of the nails, though, which annoys the heck out of me. Also, the accent nails are slightly different on my two nails - I had intended to leave them with the base color, Best Friend. I did mention I'd had a crappy day, right? So I'm not paying enough attention to what I'm doing, really...I sponged on Gold Mist on one accent nail before I noticed. Well, fudge. To salvage it, I put on a straight coat of Gold Mist and decided to leave the accent nails *that* color instead. Then I noticed because I'd sponged it on part-way, it now had a gradient color shade that looked nice. So I did the same on the other hand to match. Then I started the sponging with the Orly...you see where this is going? I managed to skip the accent nail on my right hand. When I realized I'd already sponged my ring finger on my left hand? *sigh* So I decided to sponge it all the way down. And then, because one finger is slightly gold tinted and the other is a light rose-gold? I did a slight color rearrangement on the rhinestones I had planned. You can see the red-yellow-red rhinestones on the left hand? It's yellow-red-yellow on the other hand. :) That screw-up turned out to be my favorite part of the entire manicure.
And of course, I don't notice until after I've got that picture that the teardrop "red" on my right hand is more of a purple. It looks red by itself! It doesn't look purple like that until I hold them next to each other. :::sigh:::
But I'd already had a bad enough day (I stayed home from work due to an overwhelming anxiety attack) and I have a committee meeting on Friday that I'd like to have a nice manicure for, so I did something I seldom do - stripped the whole thing and started over.
I started with the same two colors I'd tried to put together originally: an old nail polish I pulled out of my box that I haven't used in ages, Revlon Limited Edition - Wrap Yourself in Rubies, and one of the new polishes I bought last week, Pure Ice - Gold Mist. Since my first vision refused to come out on my nails (and now I know I still need some gold polish!) I picked something else, and decided to do a sponge gradient. So I grabbed my other Pure Ice - Best Friend, and pulled another old polish out of my box that I thought went well as a bridge between the Revlon and the Gold Mist. The label says à la mode by Orly, but there's no color name anywhere (there may have been a sticker label once upon a time that is now missing, I don't know.)
Sponging from base to tip was done in the order in the picture, from left to right: Best Friend, Gold Mist, Orly, and then Rubies. I added some rhinestones on my accent nails, and this is what resulted:
I'm not terribly happy with the result, but it's not bad. I've got some nasty bubbling on a few of the nails, though, which annoys the heck out of me. Also, the accent nails are slightly different on my two nails - I had intended to leave them with the base color, Best Friend. I did mention I'd had a crappy day, right? So I'm not paying enough attention to what I'm doing, really...I sponged on Gold Mist on one accent nail before I noticed. Well, fudge. To salvage it, I put on a straight coat of Gold Mist and decided to leave the accent nails *that* color instead. Then I noticed because I'd sponged it on part-way, it now had a gradient color shade that looked nice. So I did the same on the other hand to match. Then I started the sponging with the Orly...you see where this is going? I managed to skip the accent nail on my right hand. When I realized I'd already sponged my ring finger on my left hand? *sigh* So I decided to sponge it all the way down. And then, because one finger is slightly gold tinted and the other is a light rose-gold? I did a slight color rearrangement on the rhinestones I had planned. You can see the red-yellow-red rhinestones on the left hand? It's yellow-red-yellow on the other hand. :) That screw-up turned out to be my favorite part of the entire manicure.
And of course, I don't notice until after I've got that picture that the teardrop "red" on my right hand is more of a purple. It looks red by itself! It doesn't look purple like that until I hold them next to each other. :::sigh:::