Striped First Mate

Hi folks! Today I'm wearing China Glaze's First Mate from the Anchors Away collection. First mate is a beautiful deep navy, very opaque and easy to apply, I used two coats.

To spice up my mani I added gold stripes on the ringfinger by placing thin strips of stationery tape on the nail, then I applied China Glaze's 2030 on top of that. The stripes really give the whole something festive and the technique is so simple! I love using Scotch tape because it's such an easy and fun way to create new, bold looks. My biggest inspiration in Scotch tape manis is Erika from Chloe's Nails, she's done a ton of gorgeous, mouthwatering tape manis, so make sure you check out her blog if you haven't. 
On the last picture I used different polishes to show you what effect the layering polish has on the base color. I must say that the holographic polish was really difficult to work with, the polish dries so fast that it gets stuck to the tape right away. When removing the tape the holo comes off with it. I always take the tape off as soon as I can to prevent the polish from sticking to the tape, but for holographic polishes I might consider an exception. Oh, wait! Perhaps I should do the holo first and then apply tape and First Mate on top of it. Well, there's something that might work...

From left to right: Essence - Matt topcoat, China Glaze - DV8, China Glaze - For Audrey, OPI - Simmer and shimmer