Spring Festival/Wedding Nails

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but my older brother is getting married on Wednesday and we're having a little shindig on Thursday. Traditionally, Chinese New Year is celebrated for about two weeks, so I wanted to do a manicure that was traditionally and seasonally appropriate to celebrate both these occasions, as well as being different from my usual paint-on-one-color-and-slap-on-a-cool-topcoat manis. So I did a gradient: red for happiness, gold for prosperity.





I used the red glitter from Color Club's Glitter Vixen Collection... I think the shade name is Art of Seduction. It's rather sheer and it's fine red glitter in a clear base, and takes about 4 coats to achieve decent opacity which is actually a GOOD thing when doing a gradient. (I actually attempted a mani with Sally Hansen Red Carpet earlier, but that's a red glitter in a red jelly base, and it's a little over powering for a gradient mani.) The gold is China Glaze Five Golden Rings, which actually gets to decent opacity in two coats. (I didn't want to use the gold glitter from Color Club because the glitter is chunkier, so I felt it wouldn't "blend" as well.) I did 3 gradient-layered coats of Art of Seduction first, then a coat of the China Glaze on top, and then a final layer of Art of Seduction to intensify the red at the tips and touch up any spots I felt weren't fade-y enough. I think it turned out looking pretty cool! Of course, this picture doesn't capture how freakin' SPARKLY this look is, but it's pretty stunning in the right light. I should experiment more often!