Recycled Blue Ombré - Double Ruffian mani

I recycled my last mani, my blue ombré mani. I thought it would look really nice to make my mani even more ombré (if that makes sense lol) by repeating the colors on the neighboring nails in a double Ruffian design. Since my nails were starting to chip anyway this was a good fix.

I played around with the colors and layering combinations while I was bored at work hehe don't tell :) I accidentally didn't save some of the custom colors I used in the beginning, so I it looks like there are more than 5 colors but there was only supposed to be 5.

Colors used:
Avon - Rapid Black
China Glaze - First Mate
Essie - Mesmerize
Orly - Snowcone
Nars - Kutki

Since my thumb, index, and middle finger were darkest originally, the colors I added on top were increasingly lighter. I didn't have any more blues I could use so I stuck with the 5 colors I had in the original mani. My ring and pinky fingers were light to begin with so the colors I added on were darker.

Finger by finger, from cuticle to tip:
Thumb: Rapid Black, First Mate, Mesmerize
Index: First Mate, Mesmerize, Snowcone
Middle: Mesmerize, Snowcone, Kutki
Ring: Snowcone, Mesmerize, First Mate
Pinky: Kutki, Snowcone, Mesmerize

I accidentally grabbed the wrong polish when I was doing my right ring finger nail so that nail is: Snowcone, First Mate, Rapid Black

For my initial ombré mani, I was happiest with the Rapid Black, First Mate, Mesmerize combination. Those colors blended together more gradually and just seemed to fit together nicely as an ombré. However as a double Ruffian mani I don't really like these colors together since they are too similar. From far away and in dim lighting my thumb, index, and ring nails look like single Ruffians because the colors are similar, particularly First Mate and Mesmerize.

My favorite color scheme for this design is the one on my pinky. I guess my middle finger has the same color scheme but I prefer the light blue by the cuticle and the darker blue by the tip.

I also feel like I need to work on my Ruffian technique. The arc shapes aren't as smooth as I would like them to be. From far away you can't really tell but these macros are unforgiving. The arcs are either too jagged looking or are too straight across rather than being rounded. I guess it's just practice? Not sure if other nail bloggers use the normal polish brush like I did or a special nail art brush...

Unfortunately, this mani chipped really fast. Within a few hours. It's actually already chipped in this picture. I guess maybe because it was so thick? I also find that whenever I try to paint over a chipped part of a mani the polish won't stick. It chips pretty quickly. Maybe I need to reapply base coat or something?

I also found these a bit tricky because the polish felt like it was dragging on my nails and kept leaving bald spots. I had to put A LOT more polish on my brush than I normally would for a manicure. I'm not sure what caused the surface of the nail polish to feel this way. Maybe the topcoat I used? (Color Club topcoat) Or maybe because it was 2 days old? I did wash my nails with soap beforehand to try to remove any oil or other residue

Anyway that was a lot of rambling lol. What do you girls think? :)