Fancy French Bows

Today I have another french tipped design, I am much happier with this than I was with my French Sequins manicure. I used scotch tape and white polish to create the french tip on each nail. I've attempted to depict this simple process in the photo collage below. 

As always I applied a base coat and let it dry. Then I took a small piece of scotch tape and stuck it to my arm to make it less sticky, you don't want the tape to pull off your base coat. Turn the piece of tape sideways so the flat edge is toward the tip of your nail, and position on the nail leaving enough space to create the desired tip, press down so the tape is flush with the nail. Using Zoya Purity for the white, I painted one even coat across the tip and immediately removed the tape. I followed that with  two coats of Sation - Of Corset I'll Call You, which I received in my April Ipsy Bag (both 1 and 2 coats depicted), plus a coat of Zoya Armor top coat.

The bow stamp is from Bundle Monster Stamping Plate BM-317, and is stamped with Konad white stamping polish. Tiny pink rhinestones add a cute, whimsy touch to the middle of each bow. I sealed the bows and stones with another coat of Zoya Armor.

Products Used:

One coat Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Base Coat

One french tip coat Zoya Purity

Two coats Sation Of Corset I'll Call You

One coat Zoya Armor Top Coat

Bundle Monster Plate BM-317

Konad Special White Stamping Polish

Tiny Pink Rhinestones

One coat Zoya Armor Top Coat

24 hours later - One coat Seche Vite Top Coat

French Sequins...

...aka Fail Dots.

This is the second of two 'failed' manicures I attempted last night. Even though I'm not totally happy with this, there are things I do like about it, so I wanted to share it anyway. I'll explain some of why it is a fail for me, along with a bonus picture of the manicure I started with, and then redid in favor of this blue tip design.

I picked this Hard Candy Celebrate Sequins up at Walmart a few nights ago, and had visions of a french tip design with a sparkly holographic base. So after my base coat dried, I applied a coat of Celebrate Sequins to the whole nail. I then used french nail tip design guards to section off the french tip, and added a nice coat of China Glaze First Mate to the tips of the nails, immediately removing the tip guards after painting. I was happy with the way it looked with just the glitter and blue, but I felt the need to add something to break it up a bit...and this is where I failed.

I am not one to do free hand nail art, and I don't have a lot of experience with dotting, I like to stick to glitter and stamping for the most part. The dots are too big, erratically spaced, and smudged due to my lack of patience before adding top coat. Sigh. I should have left it at just the glitter and blue tips, lesson learned!

Below is the manicure I did first, which doesn't look too bad in the photo. The fail here came from the pink I chose for the tips, Orly Fabulous Flamingo. It took three coats to get the color opaque, and by then the tips were just too thick for my liking. I do think I did a better job on the dots here, though.