31 Day Challenge Day 2 - Orange... and Blue Marble

Hey guys! Today's theme for the 31 Day Challenge is orange! I had a bit of a rough time coming up with an idea... or rather, I had lots of ideas that just weren't all that exciting (flowers, gradients etc.). I wanted to do something I had never done before. I ended up setting out to do a Finding Nemo mani, and was quite excited about it, but somewhere along the way, I lost Nemo and ended up with some sort of Saran-wrap smoosh-mani?

So the standard Saran-wrap method appears to be different than what I do, which is basically paint directly onto a crinkled up piece of Saran wrap and then basically use it as a sponge to apply polish with a funky marbled look. I started out with a base color of China Glaze Orange You Hot?, a mac 'n cheese shade of shimmery orange neon, then decided it was too light and neon and layered OPI Hot & Spicy, a bright medium orange, over it. I then proceed to use Saran wrap to smoosh (can't think of a better verb, smoosh is exactly the right technique) China Glaze Ride The Waves, a medium blue neon jelly, Zoya Tallulah, a bright deep sky blue shimmer, and Cult Nails Captivated, a sheer orange jelly packed with orange microglitter, over my nails in a random manner, trying to create a marbled effect as much as possible. For my accent nails, I started out the same with Orange You Hot? and Hot & Spicy, then topped them off with Captivated. Take a look!

outdoors, shade

outdoors, sun

On my nails:

1 coat Innisfree Eco Peel-off Base coat

2 coats China Glaze Orange You Hot?

1 coat OPI Hot & Spicy

1 coat Seche Vite

(marbled) 1 "smooshed" coat China Glaze Ride The Waves/Cult Nails Captivated/Zoya Tallulah

(accent) 1 coat Cult Nails Captivated

1 coat Seche Vite

Part of me wants to say this looks better in person, and part of me wants to say that the shade pic looks really deceptively pretty and this mani is just not that hot. I like the idea, but what really bothers me is that I was afraid of creating a giant mess of my cuticles so I didn't smoosh enough around the edges of my nails, which just makes them look a little incomplete. Overall it certainly was an interesting endeavor though!

Have a great day! ♥