Memorial Day Manicure: Bundle Monster Plate 321

Hello Beauties!

Today is Memorial Day in the US, the day we honor those who have given their lives for their country.  I thought I would pay tribute with a Memorial Day-inspired manicure.  Being the Beauty Novice that I am, it turned out to be quite an adventure!

I used Borghese Espresso Brown for the French tips and accent nail.  I created a gold accent on each French tip with LA Colors 24K Glitter, and I stamped the yellow ribbons with Konad Special Yellow polish using Bundle Monster image plate number 321.

The positives: If not examined too closely, the manicure is fine.  It’s not as beautiful, in my opinion, as I’d envisioned, but I can wear it for a few days without being embarrassed.

And the not-so-positive: Everything that could go wrong with this manicure did go wrong.

• I used French tip guides to create the French tips, and the particular brand I used was terrible.  There’s way too much glue on the guides, and it left my nails with a bunch of schmootz.  I was able clean up the part of the nail not hidden by the brown polish, but there was glue left just under the tip.
• It was my first time using the glitter polish and my application was beyond amateur.  It was wide and clumsy and not flattering at all.  So I widened the French tip to hide some of the glitter because ultimately I thought I would need more space for the loop on the ribbon.  I was wrong about that (more on that later).  In hindsight, I could have cleaned up the glitter with some acetone and the look would have been much more elegant.  The French tip ended up very thick and wide.
• The yellow ribbons on the accent nail did not stamp cleanly.  It’s very faint in places.  I was hoping it would be much more opaque.
• The ribbon I used on each nail is tiny.   I didn’t want to use the large ribbon, but the small ribbon is too small.

When it’s all said and done, I have a manicure that will last a couple days, and I learned some valuable lessons.  I’ll have to reserve judgment on this design.  As it stands, I’ll have to give it a thumbs down, but if I’d been able to execute better, it might have been a winner.  What do you think?

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Ultimately, though, I got to pay tribute to those who have given their lives for their country.  I adorn myself in their honor!

Stay beautiful!

Update: I re-did the manicure.  See Take Two here.