Tape Mani and Doticure With Matte and Glossy Finish

     Hey guys.  I'm back from another 80 hour work week and my cuticles are proof of that.  They look like total crap!  Ugh.  It is so frustrating.  I will definitely be giving them some TLC this week.  The inspiration for today's manicure came from this post on Chloe's Nails.  I pinned it on Pinterest a few months ago and needed some inspiration yesterday.  Once I saw this I thought, hey, I can do that!  If you haven't visited Chloe's Nails I highly suggest you do because she is one of the biggest nail bloggers out there, (that I know of) with over 9000 friends.  She has not been blogging for a few months due to spending the summer with her kids but I have my fingers crossed that she will return soon.  I love all of her manicures.

     I was so in love with this mani until... I applied my top coat.  I should have listened to my gut and opened my new one but I thought, no, I don't want to waste my money, I will just use what is left in this bottle.  BAD IDEA!  IT RUINED MY MANI!  It came out completely gloopy, took hours to dry because it was so thick, and because of its thickness, it bubbled when it dried.  I wanted to cry!  I even had to redo one of the nails because it was so thick it just scraped right off.  :-(

     To achive this look I applied two coats of Wet Cement from Wet N' Wild.  I then applied my Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Topper to give it the matte look.  After completely drying I used tape to apply Lincoln Park At Midnight by OPI and then with a dotting tool applied Wet Cement of top of that.  I only applied my top coat to the glossy side of the mani since I wanted the matte side to stay mattefied.  If you need more specific directions on how to do a tape mani, you can view my blog post on it here.

I feel ok about this picture if you only look at my pinky and ring finger.  lol

This was taken inside without the flash

Again, ok if you look at the pinky and ring finger.

I am including this picture because it more acuratly shows the colors.  The colors

are more washed out in the above photos for some reason.  This was after a full day of wear

so I apologize for the tip wear and the huge chip missing from the pointer finger.

Have you ever done the perfect mani and then ruined it by applying your top coat?