China Glaze - Grape Pop

I've been wearing the mani above for almost two weeks now, which is why I haven't posted anything new.  I started with two coats of China Glaze Grape Pop and then stamped the flower pattern from GCOCL K04, which I used last month.  I thought it still looked a little unfinished so after that dried, I used tape to cover the flowers and painted a stripe of light purple using OPI Do You Lilac It? along the left side of each nail.  Loved the way it turned out!

Checkered with a Twist (Tutorial)

The other day I wanted to use tape for a checkered mani with a little twist--instead of splitting the nail into four perfect squares I wanted to use slanted lines so that it looks like the pieces 'lock' together.  My first attempt was a disaster because I didn't wait long enough for each step to dry, so I thought I'd slow down for round two and take pictures along the way.  Click "Continue reading..." below for the tutorial.

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shades Secret Encounter

I'm so glad the sun is out so I can start taking pictures again!  For the mani above I used Secret Encounter from shades (by Barielle), which is a shimmery wine / magenta.  It reminds me of Just Dancin from Confetti except with more shimmer.

I taped off part of the nail to add a swipe of Orly Rage from the Foil FX collection, which is a rose / bronze foil, and then I stamped the big white flowers using GCOCL plate K04.

Edit (4/17): I posted a pic of GCOCL K04 here

Purple & Black Zig Zag

I came up with this purple and black mani as a combination of the zig zag from this mani and the half and half look from this one.  I started out by painting my whole nail lavender using Confetti Belle of the Ball, and then painted over half with Confetti Centerstage.  I added a layer of Seche Vite (because I wasn't patient enough for the polish to air dry), then added two triangles of tape and painted over everything with Sinful Colors Black on Black.  Then I removed the tape, and that's it!  This look took a little longer than I would've liked since it required three colors + top coat, but I like the way it turned out.

Confetti - Just Dancin

Love this color!  Above is Just Dancin from Confetti.  It's sort of a plum / wine color, between a purple and red.  I don't have anything quite like it so I was happy to add this to my collection for just $2.  I wore this plain during the day but I wanted something more flashy for night:

I used tape to cover a section of Just Dancin on each nail then applied a coat of Rage from Orly's Foil FX collection.

Another Zig Zag Mani with Metro Chic and OPI Ink

Here's another zig zag tape mani using OPI Ink and Metro Chic.  OPI is so shimmery I feel mesmerized every time I wear it.  Check out my tape mani tutorial from last week or individual swatches of Metro Chic and OPI Ink if you're interested.

Zig Zag Tape Manicure Tutorial

Here's another mani using U-Concrete-Me:

I created the zig zag pattern by using tape and included a step by step tutorial after the jump:

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