Before & After: Ancient Rome

Hello!!


Today's prompt in the Llama Nails Time Periods challenge is Ancient Rome. I love ancient Roman mosaics like the one below, so I decided to try to do a manicure based on them:

Source for this: click here.

I started with a base of Hard Candy Crush On Copper, which has a very Roman sort of feel to me; it reminds me of the colors of the buildings you see in pictures of Rome. It's a fleck-finish copper/orange/rose duochrome with excellent application and nightmarish removal:

Hard Candy Crush On Copper

Next I cut a thin slice off of a make-up sponge, and then cut a square piece off of the end of it, so that I could simulate mosaic squares. Then I started with China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, and sponged 'tiles' onto my nails, leaving gaps at the top where tiles would have broken off. Next I sponged the bottom part in the same way with China Glaze Mahogany Magic, I ended the sponging portion by putting some lines for definition with Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris, using the edge of the sponge:

I liked how this looked, but it didn't capture the mosaic sort of look I had hoped--when I looked at it, it began to look more like the background of a shot of Rome to me, so I decided to turn it into that. To that end, I stamped an image of the Coliseum with my Wistonia plate W114, using Barry M Silver Foil polish:

I absolutely adore the final look--I love the contrast between the silver Coliseum and the abstract background, and I love how the colors work together. Which do you prefer, the mosaic look alone, or turned into a background for the Coliseum?

Thanks for looking, and don't forget to take a trip back to Ancient Rome via the other manis linked below. :)

Big hugs!
M.