Before & After: Abstract Ocean (Or, now I get the point of crellies)

Hello!

I recently went on a trip to one of my favorite places in the world, Carmel-by-the-sea. I've been going to Carmel for years because it has many things I love: possibly the world's most beautiful beach; fun boutiques; quaint, quirky, fun houses and architecture; excellent restaurants; art galleries. Layered over all of that, Carmel is a dog-loving town in the most beautiful of ways, and I've always loved that even though I didn't have a dog. Once I was adopted by my puppy-baby this past October, I knew I had to take her for a visit so she could run along the gorgeous off-leash beach...I had one of the best afternoons of my life watching her discover the water--at first scared, slowly testing it out, learning to love it, and then impossible to separate from it. That night, I knew I wanted to create a polish inspired by that beautiful beach and that wonderful day...and when I got home, I did exactly that.

Here are swatches of the polish, which I've named Carmel. It's supposed to be an abstract representation of the beach, with a beige base for the sand, blue glitters for the ocean, green glitters for the seaweed, and brown glitters for the rocks. There are also a few pearl white glitters for shells:

Lacquer Or Leave Her! Carmel, artificial light

Unfortunately, when I put this on in a full manicure, the base is too opaque and covers the glitters too much (I guess maybe this is the beach at low tide?), so I need to tweak it a bit more, but here's what it looks like for the moment; I want it to look more like the swatch above, so I will add more clear suspension base.

Lacquer Or Leave Her! Carmel, indirect sunlight

Lacquer Or Leave Her! Carmel, direct sunlight

Lacquer Or Leave Her! Carmel, artificial light

I wanted to do a little nail art on this, particularly because the glitters weren't doing quite what I wanted them to. So I stamped with Pueen45, using Zoya Breezi; I picked a flourish image that is sort of wave-like, to make it ocean-y and flourish-y at the same time. Then I added some glitter on top of the stamping and the glitter circles to give it more pop; I used Wet n Wild Fergie's Mermaid Curves:

What do you think? I know it's not perfect yet, but do you think it has potential? Or should I just give it up and start over on a different polish, lol?

Thanks for looking, and big hugs. :)
M.