Red Matte and Glossy

I've been wanting to try this look for so long. I bought American Apparel Downtown LA a couple weeks ago and thought this would be a good color to try it out on. It's a great classic red, but after the matte coat I felt a little meh about it. It's always trial and error finding out which colors look good matte and which ones don't. I don't think this one does. But I will try again and have some good polishes in mind.

I know if I just used a matte polish this would have been much simpler. Since I don't own any I started with two coats of Downtown LA, followed by Seche Vite top coat. Once it was all dry I taped off the tips. I wanted to make sure I got a really crisp line so I used striping tape. You can see I got a little confused with the process on my pinky nail. Then I painted on China Glaze Matte Magic from cuticle to the tape. With that extra coat it made the polish get a little thick where it met the tape. 

I had debated whether I should do it this way or just start with the matte coat over the whole nail and then paint the tips next. I'm pretty sure I should have done the latter. I just thought the Seche Vite would dry it really well so that the tape wouldn't mess it up. I'll try it the other way next time and will let you know how it turns out!