After my last go at glitter tips, I decided to buy some of those PVC stencil things (off ebay) and try doing it properly. This is the result! The base is funkey dunkey (two coats) with two coats of mad as a hatter and two coats of lumos, to try and smooth out the gritty tide mark where the glitter met the creme. The Alice glitters are my absolute favourites - Burlesque really didn't tickle my pickle in comparison - and I'm terrified of using them up, so I like the fact that I can wear them as tips and not waste them quite so much (since both seem to chip on me when worn as full manis, meaning I usually only get two or three days' wear).
Funkey dunkey is a great 'Cadbury' purple. I just love mad as a hatter - the glitter is so bright and cheerful. Interestingly, I see the purple most in the bottle (it lives with my purple polishes) but wearing it over purple seems to bring the silver out more. I had a hell of a time doing this mani, though. I left the base for a couple of hours before stenciling. I don't know if the base wasn't thoroughly dry, or if the stencils are just vicious, because removing them pulled huge chunks of purple off on about 50% of the nails. Fortunately it's a thick cream so I touched up the bare patches in two coats and was able to cover the join marks with top coat, but it was a total PITA. So next time I will sleep on the base coat and be careful not to stick the stencils too hard.
