Relaxed 31DC Week 2: Orange

Greetings All!

The weekend is nearly here! Hope you all have something fun planned. Right now we're in Week 2 of the Extra Relaxed 31 Day (week) Challenge, hosted by Rambles of a Polish Addict. I actually have 2 manicures for you today - the one I originally did, and a better one I did last night! I found 'orange' to be a tricky theme because what can you do with orange? I very nearly did Halloween nails, but I'm saving myself for October (there will be sooo many Halloween manicures here then!). I'll show you the better one first, as I actually thought about this one and planned it and everything! The second one was more of a back up.

I've gone for a tropical sunset theme. It's mostly orange! There's a bit of purple and yellow too, but I think they pass as orange nails. Yes, I did another gradient, and yes, I used Frilly Knickers again. Orange made me think of a lovely sunset, somewhere warm and beautiful with sparkly stars. So that's what I've tried to recreate.

I have this Hawaiian style lei bracelet wrapped round the lamp I use for photos. I decided to hold it. I'm not sure why! Similar colour, I guess.

And yes, I got another picture of the naked gradient, pre-cuticle cleanup I might add! Don't look too closely.  I love my thumb, the colour blend is nearly perfect! I can't believe how much my gradients have improved, even over the course of this year, it really shows that practice pays off, even if at first you don't have the flair for it lol. My first few gradients were truly shameful, but this actually looks good, and it has three colours! Those colours are OPI The It Color, and Barry M Gellys Satsuma and plum. The breathtaking sparkle is Butter London Frilly Knickers, and the palm trees are W7 Black. I just wish I had used topcoat. I was hoping for the palm trees to stand out, but they look kind of bumpy and lame. I'm still ruling this one a success though!

Before I thought of this though, I wanted to make sure I had something to post. I went with some stamping.

So this is Barry M Gelly Satsuma again, stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and a cheap stamp I got off eBay. It's not really a Fauxnad, as they don't have Konad images. It's just a cheap stamping plate and to be honest, I'm surprised it worked. As you can see it's a little bit patchy, but it did stamp! They also have very big full nail designs on them, which is great for me! I'll be playing around with them a bit more.

So there you go! At least I picked a good orange. Satsuma is lovely, deep and bright and juicy. Perfect for summer.

Here's a quick reminder of all the themes for the challenge:

And remember to check out everyone else's awesome orange manicures!