31 Day Challenge, Day 10: Gradient Nails!

I just finished messing around with my stupid heater. A few hours ago I noticed that my house was really cold despite having cranked the heater. Low and behold! My heater wasn't freaking igniting! What fun! It took dismantling the damn thing and cleaning the ever loving hell out of the filter to fix it. Then, my daughter exorcist vomited all across my living room. My husband is a saint and is currently cleaning that one up, since I will hurl up *my* guts if I encounter that much vomit. Yikes. What a night. But, lets get to the nails!

I had originally planned a bright, sunshiny gradient for today, but I was itching to play with Zoya Tao, so I chose a more fall appropriate (not that I follow trends - I tend to use whatever polish strikes my fancy) combination, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

For this mani, I used Zoya Tao as my base, and Petites Hazel (a little known gem in my opinion!) for the sponging.

First, indoors with natural lighting:

 

And in sunlight:

Both hands at once, which proves I'm not cheating and just doing one hand!

And a crappy macro shot (I need a new camera!)

What do you think? Did I pull it off? I was really pleased with the formula of Tao. My local Ulta only has a handful of Zoya polishes, and this little baby was the very first I picked up. I don't know why it has sat in my untrieds for so long. I really love this shade of gray, and Tao has some lovely subtle shimmer to it. It's actually a pretty understated color, which is unlike me, but I dig it nonetheless.  Hazel is a Petites polish, which I picked up on one of my much hated trips to Wal Mart. I detest Wal Mart and every time I go there I have to refrain from punching the living hell out of some rude asshat that either won't move out of the damned way or is just rude as all hell, and their polish selection (at least at my wally world) sucks. Its rare they get anything new, and I have most of the Pure Ice colors that I want to layer with, the SH's and the Nicoles. Anyway, Hazel was a $1.29 bargain, and it looked a little duochromey in the bottle, so I brought her home. It's a lovely coppery shimmer, with glowy red tones and it reminds me a little of autumn leaves. Another color that isn't very me, but I'm trying to branch out of my comfort zone (blues, purples and vampies).

Speaking of Wally World, I did manage to pick up Pure Ice Heartbreaker today (it's been out of stock there for a good while. Bastards! Keeping me from an awesome layering polish!), as well as a couple of the new SH Diamond strength (they re-vamped the bottle and added a few colors) and a Kardashian. I managed to be there on a day that they re-stocked their polishes, and since it's nearing Xmas, they actually have some new stock. One of the diamond strength polishes actually has flakies! Silver flakies! I'm actually planning on swatching a bit this week just to show you guys some of my recent haul buys. I don't normally swatch, but I can't wait to share some of these babies!

Tonight I'll be working on some Polka Dots to show you guys. I just received my new dotting tools, and I'm excited to use them! Polka Dots are something I'm new to, and I'm just hoping I can make this one look decent. :) Wish me luck!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber