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?

Blogger rant!

If you guys ever read my comments I'm sure you've seen me say more than once that I have accidentally deleted a comment. You may be thinking what the hell is wrong with this girl and why is she lying so when I did it again yesterday I decided to take a screen shot of the email they send you so you can see why my fat fingers keep hitting delete! Please change the email setup Blogger! Sorry Gnarly Gnails. But thank you for the lovely comment. :-D

Tape Mani With OPI Grape...Set...Match and Sally Hansen Celeb City

     As I was cleaning up my work station from the previous few days mani's, I piled all the polishes together and when I saw Grape...Set...Match next to Celeb City I knew that I had do something with these two colors.  I had seen this mani pop up in my Facebook News Feed a few days prior and knew this would be the perfect mani to attempt with these colors.

     I must say that I am pretty impressed with this tape mani.  I have tried others before and been impatient, but my patience paid off and I wore this proudly for three days.   If you do not know how to do a tape mani you can visit my blog post here.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

Base color: Celeb City by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - 2 coats.  Swatches are available here.

Top color: Grape...Set...Match by OPI - 1 coat.  Swatches are available here.

All of these pictures were taken indoors with out the camera flash.

What do you think of my interpretation of this mani?  Yay or nay?

OPI Grape...Set...Match Swatches and Stamping With Mash Plate 46

     I picked up OPI's Grape...Set...Match for free!  I am sure that you are asking yourself how by now.  Well, let me tell you.  Because I am such a nail freak enthusiast I follow many other nail enthusiast on Facebook.  When something cool pops up in the polish world every single one of them like to talk about it.  Turns out the website copius.com is kinda like an E-Bay thing.  People are allowed to list, sell, and buy stuff on there and when a new person signs up from someone else's link they get a $10 credit to use.  I actually paid $.59 for this polish because the asking price was $9.99 and of course they threw som $.60 fee in there.  But whatever, $.59 for a new OPI, great, SOLD.  I don't have a link for you guys to follow but if you follow a lot of nail bloggers on Facebook, trust me, you will see tons of opportunities to snag the $10.00 Copius sign up credit from them.

     Grape...Set...Match was released in 2011 as part of the Glam Slam! Collection.  It is a purple metallic duochrome that shifts from purple to blue.  It isn't a very big color shift, in my opinion it is more of a purple metallic with a blue shimmer to it.  Maybe the duochrome effect would be more noticed with three coats instead of two.

     Of course I had to add some stamping to my swatch because plain swatches bore me to death, lol, unless they are the perfect ones that come from Scrangie's blog, of course. 

Base coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener

Base color: Grape...Set...Match by OPI - 2 coats

Stamping color: Stamp Me! White by Essence

Stamping plate: Mash 46

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

Finished product

Taken outside in direct sunlight

Taken outside in indirect light.  The duochrome is most noticible here

Taken inside with out flash

What do you think of Grape...Set...Match?  Do you have it in your collection or did you pass on it last year?

Nicole By Opi Studio Mama Swatches and Sally Hansen Big Money Accent Nail

     As I mentioned in my previous post, I had gone to TJ Maxx and found those Sally Hansen nail wraps.  Well, I also found some Nicole by OPI duo packs and some Essie polishes.  I picked up a duo pack containing Studio Mama and I've Got Bieber Fever.  Both of these colors were relaease as part of the One Less Lonely Girls Collection, which if you haven't figured it out yet, was inspired by Justin Bieber.  The best part of these polishes, it was 7.99 for the both of them.

     I am not hugely drawn to light shades of polish I decided to try wearing it with an accent nail.  Which I am shocked I have never done before.   I wish I could have captured some better pictures but the Gem Crushes don't photograph well.  To much grazy glam!  Bam!  I love it.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener

Main color: Studio Mama by Nicole by Opi - 3 coats

Accent nail: Big Money by Salley Hansen Gem Crush

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

Outside in direct light

Inside with no flash

Outside in indirect light

I applied the three layers very thin so they dried rather quickly.  I wish this was a little more pink looking but overall like it.  Do you have any of the colors from the One Less Lonely Girl Collection or did you stay away from them?