Zoya's America Belted Stripe

Need some color in your life?  More than one?  Yes, please.

Zoya - America

China Glaze - For Audrey

How did I do this?

1.  Start by painting just the area where you want your stripe.

2.  Allow the base color to completely dry, about 3 hours. 
3.  Cut scotch tape, or stationary tape into thin strips. 
4.  Place a tape strip on the nail and smooth out any bumps or bubbles.  I used a cuticle pusher to smooth down the tape and I also pulled the tape really taut.
5.  Paint two coats of Zoya's America.
6.  Remove tape immediately with tweezers.
7.  Wait for paint to dry. I waited 10 minutes, however, I probably needed to wait a good 30 minutes!
8.  Apply top coat.

Here's how it came out.  I had a few issues/trouble spots and I will explain.

Problems:

I needed a bright red for this mani, and Zoya's America, although beautiful, and excellent cream formula was not opaque enough.  In person, and you can see it in the photos if you look carefully, For Audrey was effecting the red and making it a darker, blue based red.  Not good, America is such a clean, crisp red, I wanted this to come through more.  This would have been much better, and easier with a one coater nail polish, which is hard to find.  I used two coats of America and I didn't have a nice smooth mani, plus the color started bleeding and took forever to dry.    Cutting tape, tape placement and removing tape requires patience and some skill.  This is a mani that requires a lot of time.  I would say this is a medium level manicure. 

What I will do in the future:

I will apply the stripe color in a smaller area.  When applying the final top coat I may paint in two directions, to prevent bleeding/ or paint dragging.  If you notice the top coat was dragging the red in the direction of the brush.  So next time I think I'll start placing top coat on the striped area, downwards then go back to the striped area and apply top coat towards the cuticle.  I'm I making any sense?  If I'm short on time I may just do a stripe on the ring finger. 

Overall, I loved this mani and was worth the effort. 

Anyone know of any good one coaters?