31 Day Challenge - Day 10: GRADIENT!

Welcome back for Day 10 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge, sponsored by Kimber of Kimber's Lacquer Korner. Today's challenge was something that honestly made me feel a little intimidated....

Gradient!
(dun, dun, DUUUUUUUUUN)

Before I go any further with my post, I would like to apologize for being MIA this week and for being late for today's post. It was my last week at my most current job and the stress was high enough where I would go to work, come home, pass out, and then drag myself out of bed long enough to start the whole cycle again. Tomorrow I start working with a new company, and I am very excited about the oportunity. I am also excited about working a 40 hour work week instead of a 50-60 hour work week (more time for nail polish and blogging... and a life)!!!!

Enough about my personal life - let's talk about nails. More importantly, lets talk about the fact that this is the first time that I have come close to creating a proper gradient effect on my nails. Very cool.

For a first time, I don't think it's too shabby.

 I picked up the polishes for this manicure during my fun weekend home with the folks last month. One of the places that I went with my mom was Sephora, and I was very excited to see that they were carrying the Illamasqua Rubber Brights collection. Eventually I would like to write a post focusing on the colors that I picked up (Aorta, Devotee, and Serenity). For now, I'll just say that the polishes are a lot of fun. As cool as the rubber finish is, I knew that I wanted to use Serenity as a base for my gradient manicure.  The heart wants what the heart wants... and my heart wanted blue. So I looked through the rest of my family weekend stash and picked out Nails Inc. Baker Street for the second half of my gradient. I also decided to do an accent nail with Baker Street as a base and OPI's Last Friday Night on top to add some much needed glitter. Really, when do you NOT need glitter?

Psssh. You ALWAYS need glitter.

 After applying two coats of Serenity, I sponged on Baker Street until I was happy with the outcome. I have attempted gradients before, but I have never come close to the quality of this manicure. I think that the main difference was the kind of sponge used. In the past I had tried using facial make-up sponges. In retrospect, they probably weren't porous enough to give a good sponge effect. This time I ended up using a "natural" bath sponge.While I don't think this gradient is perfect, I was very happy with the overall effect and ended up wearing this manicure for a few days. It recieved a ton of compliments and most imporantly it was very, very pretty.

I'd go as far as to say that it was SUPER DUPER pretty.

 All right, now you know what I did for day 10 of the 31 Day Challenge. I invite you to join me in checking out the other challengers and their gradient offerings. See you there!

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  
Thanks for stopping by!