Sunrise, Sunset - A gradient with water marble overlay

Hello Lovely Readers!! So, this look kind of evolved today. The finished result ended up like the picture below, but originally I was going to do a 'plain' gradient (although I don't know if you can actually call a gradient 'plain'). Once I was done however, the colors were just a bit brighter and more Summer-y than I wanted for a Fall look. Adding the brown water marble turned out to be the perfect touch to bring it back in season! So, here is how I created this look.

 As always, I started with a basecoat to protect my natural nails. Then I applied a single coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White as a base color to make  the gradient pop.

Using a make-up wedge sponge, I created my gradient with colors that reminded me of a sunrise or sunset. I chose Sinful Colors Anchors Away (the orange-yellow color), Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Coral Reef, and Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Pucker Up. I painted a stripe of each color directly onto the moistened sponge so that they blended at the edges. Then I 'stamped' them onto the nail moving it up and down and side to side a little to further blend the colors. I applied three coats to to each nail to get the opacity I wanted. I applied a top coat for shine and cleaned up around my cuticles. Below are pictures of the result, which although I liked, just didn't meet my goal for a Fall manicure.                                                  

 I considered a water marble in grey, black or brown and then decided to go with the brown. It seemed to go better with the color palette. I filled a 3oz Dixie cup with room temperature distilled water. The polishes I used were Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry Slick Slate and Sinful Colors Clear Coat.

I used about 3 drops of each polish to build up my bulls-eye. Then I drew in lots of thin petal shapes. I dipped one taped-up finger at a time so that I could capture the petal shapes. After using a q-tip to clean the surface of the water, I slowly removed my finger and tapped it lightly in a paper towel. Once I was finished I removed the tape, added a top coat and cleaned up around my cuticles. I was in love with my finished results! The water marble over-lay gave this manicure the cherry on top, so to speak!

 Oh crap moment of this manicure? I was preparing tape for my water marble after the gradient was done and the nails were touch dry but not completely dry. I goofed and the tape fell across 3 nails on the right hand and when I tried to remove it, it tore off several layers of polish with it! I had to take off most of the polish on the right hand and begin my gradient all over again! *grumble, grumble, grumble*

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this manicure as much I do and as always, thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!!