Manicures with Friends Part 2: Tot's Dots

The most recent hand model for Rouge Required is my friend Tatiana. We call her Tot or Tater Tot as nicknames, thus Tot's Dot's. She wanted something that she wouldn't do for herself, and we were having trouble deciding which polishes to use, so we used several of the top choices for this 'dotticure'. 
*Products shown below were either purchased by me or received in a trade with one of the other members on makeuptalk.com. I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

 

I first painted Tot's nails with a base coat of Orly Bonder, then two coats of Essie Play Date. I applied Poshe quick-dry top coat before creating the dots.

The dots were created with my Martha Stewart dotting tools that I bought at Michael's. These photos are before I applied a final coat of Poshe over the dots, indoors under artificial light. If you choose to do a similar manicure, I recommend waiting longer than you think you need to before applying the last top coat. The dots are thicker than a normal coat of polish, so they tend to smear if you top coat them too soon.

The polishes used for the dots:

Blue--Essie In the Cab-ana

Green--Essie First Timer

Lavender--Julep Renee

Purple glitter--Zoya Aurora

*Products shown above were either purchased by me or received in a trade with one of the other members on makeuptalk.com. I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

Play Date with Dots

One of my best friend's favorite nail polishes is Essie Play Date (their website shows it as one word, but my polish label shows it as two words). I finally got my own bottle when I had some Extra Bucks for CVS (their version of a rewards program). I find it to be a very unique shade in the purple family. It's like lavender if it were bright instead of soft and pale. Look at her beauty:

Essie Play Date in slightly overcast daylight

Essie describes Play Date as a 'flirtatious light purple'. The formula was smooth and easy. I did three thin coats, but you could get away with two.

I thought that Play Date would look great with some of the Color Club polishes that I bought recently. My dot gradient was inspired by Chalkboard Nails, especially this post: http://www.chalkboardnails.com/2012/10/blue-and-pink-gradient-dots-tutorial.html. (If you haven't already, check out her site; she's an amazing nail artist.)

I used the dotting tools in varying sizes that I bought in a Martha Stewart set from Michael's, the craft supply store.

The darkest purple is OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? The periwinkle and rose dots are both Color Club, from their Spring 2012 Blossoming Collection. I bought these as part of a set at T.J. Maxx ($48 for seven polishes on Color Club's website; $9.99 at T.J. Maxx!). For some reason, they do not label the polishes with their shade names when they come in a set. But I am guessing based on online swatches that the periwinkle is Hydrangea Kiss and the rose is Sweet Pea.

I was very happy with how this turned out, especially for my first time with this style. I topped it off with Butter London Hardwear P.D. Quick Top Coat. (I didn't wait long enough before the top coat, apparently; some of the dots on the opposite hand smeared and it was sad.)

Thanks for looking, and thank you to Sarah from Chalkboard Nails for the inspiration!

*All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me with my own money, and I am not affiliated with or compensated by the brands.*