Before & After: 'Q' is for Quilted Nail Cheat and Queen Crown

Hello!!!

Today we're up to 'Q' in the Llama Nails alphabet challenge. I've been seeing a lot of quilted nails lately, and have wanted to try my hand at them, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Then, the other day when I was playing around with glitter layering, I had an idea--maybe I can stamp a quick cheat and get a similar effect.

I started off with China Glaze With Love, from the Holiday Joy collection; since I was just playing around, I didn't swatch it on its own, unfortunately. Over it I added a sparse coat of Laquerlicious Queen Crown (I reviewed Queen Crown here if you want to see it over a different polish):

Laquerlicious Queen Crown over China Glaze With Love

I left it a bit sparse and didn't take it to the full edge so that some of the underlying color would show though--please don't take that as an indicator of how the polish really looks or performs! Next, I stamped over the glitter using With Love again, and Cheeky plate 11, which is a diamond-shaped grid pattern:

Stamped on top with With Love again

What do you think? It doesn't have as much texture as the full quilted nails technique, to be sure. However, it was super mega fast to do, and got the job done pretty darned well. If I do this  technique again, I don't think I'll do it with a chunky glitter, because I think the effect would be smoother with either a regular polish or a smaller, more even glitter as the second layer. But given that, I think it's not too bad, and without the hassle of the nail tape! So when you're in a hurry, here's an alternate technique that can give you similar results. :)

Thanks for taking a look! Please check out the other 'Q' manicures, linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.