ABC Challenge: T is for Tessellation

The latest addition to my vocabulary is the word “tessellation”, so obviously that’s what inspired this manicure! It also helped that some of my stamping plates have cool pictures of tessellations on them, because I cannot draw freehand to save my life! So, for those of you who don’t know what it is, let me elaborate: A tessellation is a repeat pattern consisting of interlocking shapes, without any overlap or gaps, that can be extended indefinitely. So here it is, my nail art for the letter T:

The base colour on all my nails is four-five coats of Essie in Limo-Scene, depending on the finger. Mini-rant: This nail polish always frustrates me to no end; I don’t like high-maintenance polish — or anything else, really — and it drives me nuts that this takes at least four coats to get rid of the streaking! Also, I’m not sure if my bottle had just gone bad when I bought it, because I know that some people own a more pink version of this, but it also takes forever to dry beyond the second coat. I actually applied the four-five coats over the course of the day during work breaks to allow enough drying time in between coats. Regardless, there were a bunch of dents after I showered at the end of the day. However, I do really like the soft, white colour, and that is the singular reason it still has a home in my stash, but I don’t know how long my patience will last/how long it might take me to find another soft white crelly polish in a better formulation! Okay, I’m done; inhale, exhale…

Back to this mani, over the white base, I stamped using Born Pretty black stamping polish and three different plates: Bundle Monster Around the World Egypt plate (BM-XL152), and two plates from the UR Beautiful series on Aliexpress (the exact ones I bought are no longer available, but these are similar & from the same seller). To finish off, I applied a thin golden line (Maybelline in Bold Gold) to the tips (hey! T is for Tips?) and topped it all with a matte top coat. Now, if you’ve been reading my nail art posts, you know how much I love matte top coat. However, this was one of those rare occasions when it didn’t make much of a difference. 

I really love black & white manis, and look how gorgeous this looks in black & white:

Check out my other ABC Challenge posts under the nail art tab [Nails → Nail Art → ABC Challenge].

Wondering what the other ladies have done this week for the letter, T? Click on the blue button below to check out their manicures!