Challenge Day #10: GRADIENT nails

Hola todos! Today is gradient day :D I intended to do something relatively simple, but as usual, I couldn't stop adding glitter and pretty things to it. This was the final result:

Sweet and girly. (Taken outdoors in the lovely bright sunlight.)

I started with a base colour of the lightest pink you see at the base of the nail, which is by Color Club, called She's Sooo Glam. (Love that name!) I wore that alone for a day while I thought about what to do with it. Go lighter? Darker? Gradiate to a totally different colour?

And then I saw this post over at The Polished Perfectionist, which is one of my very favourite nail blogs. Amy Grace does such perfect, professional-looking work, and she is such a sweetheart to boot! I adored this Valentines-esque design and decided to go for a similar look. I didn't actually intend for the manis to end up quite so similar, but they did. Not that I am complaining :D

I used a sponge to dab on a darker pink (the middle colour), Zoya Jolene, on the top 2/3 of the nail. When that was dry, I then sponged Soulstice Spa's Buenos Aires onto the last third, wrapping the tip as well. Often these gradients are done using a makeup sponge, but I wanted a bit of a courser look, so I used an old washing-up sponge instead that I cut into small pieces. Atop the pink-to-red gradient I applied a coat of OPI Pirouette My Whistle, which is such a beautiful polish--small silver microglitter with larger slightly-translucent-white hexes in a clear base. Then, while the polish was still wet, I added a few pink holographic flower-shaped glitter pieces. I got this tube of glitter from Michael's:

No real brand name in sight, but the name of this mix was Princess. Pink holographic flowers and circles. And enough to last a lifetime (or three)!

Finally, two generous coats of Seche Vite to smooth everything over.

Indoors with flash. This was right after I finished--apologies for the topcoat all around my nails. I wouldn't have posted this one, but I really liked how the three colours all showed up well, as well the holographic nature of the flowers!

Another outdoors in the sun, just because I really liked this photo. So sparkly. And yep, you guessed it... SHINY :D

Outdoors in the shade. You can see how pink the flowers are and how well they match the base colours when they aren't in direct light. :) And aren't those white glitters lovely?

Bonus pic! These flowers outside my apartment are so gorgeous. They were the backdrop for my previous picture, but I thought they deserved a shot of their own.

That wraps up this post. What do you think of these? I may be too old to wear girly cotton-candy nails, but sod it--I love these and they make me smile when I look at them.
See you next time! xoxo