Winter princess nails

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So I've been doing a lot of themed nail art lately, and I decided that I felt like going back to my roots, which is, to good old fashioned shiny nail art! I got some rhinestones and striping tape in the mail not too long ago and it would just be a shame to let those shiny little things just sit in their wrappings, would it not?

This started out as a desire to swatch my brand new matte Julep polishes. But then when I got that lovely eggplantish dark concrete polish on my nails, I couldn't resist. I just had to make it look smashing! So I added a few shinies! I love shinies.

It's been a long time since my nails have been so classy (as opposed to "crafty" I guess)! I'm really happy with them, they sparkle so much but at the same time they're kinda sobre because of the dark, matte base. The tips look kind of like icy, wintery frosting.

AND that glitter polish came from the dollar store Wal-Mart! I didn't even know they sold polishes, my mom brought that one back for me. I love it! It's got  tiny silver holo glitter and large hex blue and pink glitter. You can't see the pink ones so well but one day I'll try it on a different base and then you'll see! I fell in love with it right away. Looks like birthday balloons on my nails!

The polishes I used:

• Base coat: Essie - All in One Base
• Purplish grey matte base: Julep - Nora (I got this lovely colour as a part of the Julep Maven program, you can check it out here and get 3 polishes for $0.01!)
• Intermediate top coat: Sèche Vite
• Glitter: NYC / New York Colour - Starry Silver Glitter #105 (this is a dollar store Wal-Mart discovery, yay!)
• Hot pink striping tape
• Clear polish for applying rhinestones: Essie - Good To Go (top coat)
• Rhinestones

The technique:

Here is what I did to preserve the matte finish of my polish without skipping the top coat part: I basically "sandwiched" the top coat. I applied a base coat, then one coat of a matte polish, then one coat of top coat, and then another coat of matte polish. That way, I get the solid, long lasting effect of the top coat, without making my matte polish shiny.

Secret: I gotta tell you though, Nora did look quite good shiny!

Then I used scotch tape to tape off the tips of my digits and I painted them with my fancy shmancy dollar store Wal-Mart glitter.

TIPS FOR TAPING: In order to do a good taping job, there are two crucial things to remember.:

1- Take the piece of tape and stick it to your palm and unstick it several times before applying it to your nail. That way it won't stick too hard and it won't pull off the polish underneath when you remove it.

2- Remove the tape as soon as you've painted over it, well before the polish over it dries. If you peel off the tape after the polish dries, it'll give a ragged edge to your taping job.

I waited for my glittery tips to dry, then I used my Essie top coat and an orange stick to apply rhinestones to my nails.

EDIT: Someone asked what type of glue I used for the rhinestones, and I explained the reason why I use top coat instead of glue. I wanted to add my answer here to share with you all. I find that the top coat will actually kind of "melt" all the layers of the manicure, and so the rhinestone seems to be anchored to the whole depth of the manicure instead of just the topmost layer, which will make them more resistant and solid. But still, rhinestones are alas! very pulchritudinous, but very temporary little beings...


Then I put some striping tape along the edge of my glitter tips. The thing with striping tape is I find it unsticks really easily... So I put a small dab of top coat over each end of the tape, where it's most likely to start peeling off. I find this adds longevity to the tape because I often find it peeling off in 24 hours if I don't help it a little. Usually I'd just put a top coat over it, but I had a matte effect to salvage so this was my best option. I actually find this works even better than just a regular top coat. It's like a little clear anchor for the tape.

And voilà!