First attempt at tape manicure

So six degrees of Kevin Bacon, I just discovered Chloe's Nails and her awesome tape manicures. I was inspired by this one in particular:
St Patty Patchwork
I did so many coats, I really hope this holds up through the wedding I'm attending Saturday. I tried to complement the art deco inspired elements of my dress.
I started with one coat of SpaRitual LacquerLock bc, one coat of CND stickey bc, two coats of Essie Smooth Sailing (a cornflower blurple shimmer from the 2011 Summer collection), and one coat of Seche Vite. The first time I jumped the gun applying tape and it got wrinkly, so I waited a good half hour the second time. Then I applied a diagonal strip of tape to each nail and layered one coat of Illamasqua Boosh over the Essie and one coat of seche vite.


After that dried I used a second diagonal tape placement and did two coats of OPI Spark de Triomphe (a 2011 Serena Williams Grand Slam duo release - loads of silver glitter with larger subtle-y gold glitters) with another coat of seche vite. After that dried I finished with a coat of seche vite over the whole nail. For those not counting, that means my tips have 10 frickin' coats. It's definitely not perfect, and it was time consuming, but I am still into it.
These pictures were taken indoors using an artificial light source.

Etude House WH004

Today's manicure is Etude House WH004. Etude House is a (very cute) Korean brand of cosmetics. For a time their polishes were available from etudehouseusa.com, ostensibly the brand's US distribution arm, but the site was actually unaffiliated with the brand and was shut down due to copyright infringement. This information is gathered from the internet, so take it with a grain of salt. For the time it was active, polishes were often massively backordered. These polishes can be ordered from eBay, and likely other webstores.
This polish is a vampy black with blurpley teal duochrome macroshimmer particles. It's tough to catch the shimmer without a strong light source, but it is lovely when viewed in sunshine.
This mani is one coat Spa Ritual bc, one coat CND Stickey, two coats of varnish, and one coat of Out the Door tc.
These pictures were all taken indoors using artificial lighting.

Comparison Post: Finger Paints Avante Garde Green VS Illamasqua Viridian

This manicure is an alternating comparison of the new Finger Paints Avante Garde Green that I just purchased at Sally Beauty Supply from the 13 new shades display and Illamasqua Viridian from the Art of Darkness collection last year. When I swatched the new fp, Viridian was the first thing that popped into my head. They're not exact dupes; I think that the Illamasqua is darker (with more of a blackened effect), but they are quite similar.
This mani is one coat Spa Ritual bc, one coat CND Stickey, two coats of varnish, and one coat of Out the Door tc.
These pictures were all taken indoors using artificial lighting.




Embarassingly, messed up the labeling on this photo.