Fall Transtion Plaid Nails

I’m not ready to let go of Fall yet. It is my favorite time of the year and fall colors generally fall into my spectrum of favorites. It should come as no surprise that when I was getting ready to do my nails, I automatically reached for a dark brown color.

Once I had my base color on, I decided to try doing a seasonally transitional look, hence a red-brown gradient and a basic plaid pattern!

I started my mani off with two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri – Cocoa A Go Go, once of my absolute favorite brown polishes.

Plaid stamp over Sally Hansen - Cocoa A Go Go and Wet n Wild - Burgandy Frost — Plaid stamp over Sally Hansen – Cocoa A Go Go and Wet n Wild – Burgandy Frost

I gave the brown a few minutes to set up and started in on my gradient. In addition to Cocoa, I also used Wet n Wild – Burgundy Frost. I painted these two colors onto a non-latex makeup wedge and began patting on my color. It took two passes to get to the opacity I wanted. I chose this red because it has a very similar metallic quality and shimmer to it.

I gave these about 5 minutes to dry and then stamped over them with Funky Fingers – Dark Knight using plate Cooi – 001.

POLISHES:

Essie – Grow Stronger Base Coat
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri – Cocoa A Go Go
Wet n Wild – Burgundy Frost
Funky Fingers – Dark Knight
Seche Vite – Dry Fast Top Coat

Cooi – 001

I’m really pleased with how these came out. The gradient is really subtle, but amazingly sparkly in strong light! I think using red helps to give it a more transitional feel toward our colder Winter months.

While I love this mani, the weird shape of my middle nail (do you see how it is bulging a bit on the side!?) is really bothering me. I had a bad split on Thanksgiving, right at the quick so I gave it some ORLY Nail Rescue Love to save it – I’m afraid to smooth that portion out more because it really needs the extra reinforcement so it has a chance to grow out safely. Going to be a lumpy nail for a while. 🙁