The Crown Jewels

Hello! I told you those cat nails wouldn't last long. Besides the streaking annoying the hell out of me there was a small incident with an Emu at the zoo wanting to eat the bows, along with my sapphire ring. So here I am with a new design. It's a royal theme this time, purple and gold. I wanted to try combining a few things that I've done so far, and this is the result:

You might recognise the half moons and stripes from my earlier posts. Combined they've created a sort of elongated crown effect.

Before I start this tutorial, there are 2 ways you can go about this:
1) Follow the half moon technique using the reinforcement stickers that I showed you in this tutorial.
or...
2) Free hand the half moon shape on top of your base colour.
I did option 2, simply because I thought that the gold would apply better over the purple than the purple would over the gold. It all depends on the formula of your polishes. If you're doing option 2, follow along with this tutorial. If you're going to do option 1, follow my previous tutorial and join us back here for step 3 onward.

Let's begin!

Step 1: Apply your protective base coat and then paint your nails in a single colour (in my case, purple. I used OPI's 'Plugged-In Plum').

Step 2: After allowing your first colour to dry, use a fine paint brush to paint a half moon shape at the base of your nail using your second colour (in my case, gold. I used OPI's 'Glitzerland').

Step 3: Using your paint brush and your second colour, paint 3 lines from your half moon up to the tip of your nail.

Step 4: Allow your design to dry a bit and apply your clear top coat. While your top coat is still wet, place 3 small coloured stones onto each nail. Place one on each line, staggering them slightly. Alternatively if you want a bit of extra staying power, you can use nail glue to glue them on before applying your clear top coat.

Once again I've found a reason to not like my new top coat. 24 hours after doing this design I've already lost 12 of the 30 stones I put on my nails. Normally I can get away with not gluing small stones in place and they'll last at least a few days. If anyone can recommend a good top coat PLEASE let me know! I'm sure the Queen doesn't have this problem with her jewels...