Holy holo quilted northern, Matban! LNTC Quilted

Hey y'all!

Forgive me for the silly title, but there is SO MUCH going on in today's nail art that I didn't even know where to begin!  I've got holographic, I've got leather-look matte, I've got microbead studding, and it's all centered around today's Llama Nails Technique Challenge theme: Quilted Nails.

This was my first time doing a quilted look, and in my research I discovered at least three different ways to achieve it!  Ultimately I opted for striping tape, because I just knew after my textured scales fiasco that if there's a way to goof up denting a topcoat on purpose, I'll find it.

I started these all-over-the-place pretties with two coats of the gorgeous periwinkle #IHateMondays by Tara's Talons.  I won this polish in a giveaway from Jenni the Nail Art Novice, along with another TT polish that I'll reveal later.  I'll be showing off full swatches of this gorgeous polish in a couple of weeks on Hey Swatch It! Saturday, but I can say that it has a very light scattered holo effect, and I wanted to play off that in the rest of the mani.

Essentially, after my base color was dry, I criss-crossed striping tape as close to evenly as possible, forming diamond shapes across my nails.  I then painted over the top, alternating between Mentality Hard Candy (holographic purple) and Barry M Espresso (matte black).

When I removed the striping tape (in reverse order of how it was applied, and before the top polish set), the resulting quilted pattern was revealed!

Naturally, there's a bit of smudging at the tips, which I think is inevitable when you're faffing about with striping tape.  It's so dadgummed fiddly!

Finishing the look was a matter of applying microbeads at each join.  I chose black beads for the purple/blue nails, and purple beads for the black/blue nails.  For the black beads, application was as simple as setting them into fresh topcoat, but the other two nails had a gorgeous matte/gloss finish contrast that I didn't want to ruin with topcoat, so I painstakingly dabbed topcoat on the joins with a toothpick and then set the purple microbeads in it.  As a result, the purple beads stand up a bit higher off the nail than the black ones, but it was far less noticeable in person than it is in macro pictures.

Hey, speaking of macro shots, you wanna see some?  I got you covered!

So, you can totally see where my topcoat went a bit all over the place as I was trying to set the beads, and it also went a bit stringy.  I tried to work as fast as possible, but these things happen.

Hope you enjoyed this look - it was a bit of a bear to create, but I think the result was worth it.  Please do make sure you take a look at the other quilted designs from the Llama Nails ladies below, and have a fantastic week!