A touch of fall

This is mani I was sporting yesterday. I really love how it looked, I just wish it didn't get me fits AND had lasted longer, but I think that was my fault. Let's start with the base color......

I began this mani with 2 coats of Road House Blues from OPI's fall/winter collection. To my (very small) disappointment, this is more of a "blurple" than a true navy blue. It doesn't bother me too much, it just wasn't what I was expecting. The color went on very nicely but a few nails did need a third coat for full opacity.

Now, I really should have left this mani at that, but no. I had to add a coat of I Juggle...Men........ yeah >.< I have come to the conclusion that IJM is just a pain in the ass to work with. I did this mani over twice because it caused horrible shrinkage, and that was by itself. On the third try, I topcoated with SV and let that completely dry before applying IJM. I still got a teeny bit of shrinkage but it wasn't too bad. It looked really pretty....... until I got to work and I started getting chips -.- I think this was my fault for having done the mani over so many times. Next time, I'll know better. Here's how it looked.