31 Day Challenge, Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

I was sort of in a polish funk last night and wasn't happy with any of the things I was coming up with for today's theme. I started with a sponged green look with a pattern on top that I hoped would come out looking quilted. It instead turned out look like jade with a weird grid on top of it. Then I did an orange and pink tape mani that I hated. Then as a last attempt I tried doing some dotting in a pattern on top of a Zoya matte. I was thrilled to see it turn out successfully and I love the look that I got.

For this look I used Zoya Dovima as the base. It is a charcoal grey matte and it applies very nicely. I read on All Lacquered Up that you should not use a base coat with a matte polish, so I skipped it this time.

Then I alternated dots in China Glaze Sky High Top, OPI Do You Lilac It?, and China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint. I used the small end of a dotting tool to accomplish this.

I was very nervous about letting this dry because I wasn't using a quick dry topcoat on top (it would ruin the matte effect, obviously). But I just went to bed and tried to fall asleep with my hands flat and it turned out just fine!

I like this look because it feels very modern with the two polish finishes and yet very retro with the dots and the dot colors I chose. I was glad that I kept trying until I ended up with a mani that I absolutely *loved* instead of just settling for one that I was okay with.

For fun, here's the "jade grid" mani that I mentioned in my opening paragraph. It looked cool but I didn't think it applied to "inspired by a pattern" well enough. :]