NOTD--Count on Marley's Harmony--a funky french mani

Don't you just love when nail bloggers combine polish names to make dorky post titles? Today's dorky title is brought to you courtesy of Nicole By OPI Count on Me, China Glaze Harmony and Zoya Marley, which (in case you somehow couldn't extrapolate this from the title) I used together in a funky french manicure.

Count on Me is a super sheer and super gorgeous iridescent lilac polish that flashes pink, purple, blue and even teal in some angles. It came out a while back as a Walmart exclusive. My camera is completely disrespecting this beautiful polish in these pics as it shows absolutely NONE of the multi-chromatic flash. I layered 2 coats of Count on Me on top of Zoya Marley, a greyish lilac cream polish with a super secret shimmer (from the Spring 2011 Intimate collection). Then I let that dry, taped off my tips with Orly french tip guides, and painted the tips with China Glaze Harmony, a metallic purple from the Romantique collection (which I basically got exclusively for its stamping awesomeness). After that, I peeled off the tip guides and put on 2 more coats of Count on Me, followed by a coat of Seche Vite. Then my clutzy ass smudged my index finger before it dried, hence the random caviar accent finger (oh, wait, I forgot only Ciate can call that 'caviar'...I suppose I could go back and change the word...meh), which I created by painting the nail with Gelous and then dipping it in some light purple microbeads I got at Michael's. 

So have you ever rocked a funky french? Do you need tip-guides or are you able to free-hand the tips (in which case I am jealous as I have NO free hand nail art skills whatsoever)...