OPI Luxurious and Indugence Flames

I wonder if anyone else had a strong urge to create a gradient using OPI Luxurious and Indulgence. I wanted to snatch them right out of the press release to try this. The intention was an orange to red gradient that would be a perfect backdrop for a sunset manicure. The gradient didn't turn out I had envisioned and I'll show you why, so instead of a sunset, I went with flames...

I stamped the flames using Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and Mash plate Mash-48 over the gradient. The stamp was a bit too heavy at the tips so I carefully smudged some of it out with lint-free (very important) cotton and acetone. That seemed to really light a fire under the flames...

In a perfect world this stamp would be the inverse of itself. I want it to stamp the outside and leave the flames empty. That would give a lot of flexibility in creating different gradients and blocking out the rest. Similar to what I tried here! Much easier than starting with a black base and stamping with red/orange/yellow/etc to get the same look...

Here is what I mean when I say the gradient did not turn out as I planned. I started out with a base of Luxurious (as shown on the nail on the right) and applied OPI Luxuirous and Indulgence to the sponge (Luxurious on top, Indulgence on the bottom). When I sponged it on, the gold from both transferred, but the base color was left behind. It appeared as though I just sponged gold onto the tips of Luxurious. Not what I expected, but I love it!...

I kept sponging on just OPI Indulgence to the tips and after the sponge was saturated with base color a tiny bit of it did transfer (see the reddish stripe in the middle?). Even with that, it was mostly the gold flecks that I saw on the nail...

Have you ever tried sponging with a fleck filled polish? Did it turn out as you had planned?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

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