Well… I’m back with another mani.

As part of my birthday present from my younger brother, he got me a collection from Rainbow Connection. It was a nautical collection of 10 plates which I can’t seem to find on their website now.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE nautical mani’s but I always struggle on how to make them look pretty without being over whelming – which I don’t think I have managed! I think in my mani there is so much going on it all gets a little confusing.

I do still like them but they aren’t as nice as some other people’s I have seen. I will definitely be trying the stamping plates again to see what else I can create as there was some lovely images of surfers and some nice Hawaiian flowers. *I have just given myself an idea*

This is the finished mani, the base is a navy to gold gradient with my nautical stamping on top. I hate gradients, they are the worst to clean up even though I use liquid latex to stop that happening!

Full tutorial is now on YouTube, find it here.

Step one: Paint a white base – I already have my gel white base from last week.
Step two: Paint the two colours onto a sponge in the order you want them on the nails. I used  Night Watch (Navy) and Wedding Glitters (Gold) from  Sally Hansen from the Complete Salon Manicure collection.
Step three: Top coat the gradient, I used a ice flakes top coat from Essence – if you look on my macro shot you can see the tiny translucent hexagon glitters – I added this for texture to make it look like under the water.
Step four: Pick your stamping plates, I used Bundle Monster plates BM-S401 & BM-S403.
Step five: Pick you stamping polishes, I used black and white from Essence and Silver from Pretty Perfect Polish.
Step six: Place liquid latex around your nail for easier clear up
Step seven: Stamp your chosen images on your nails – I used my Clear Jelly Stamper.
Step eight: Take off the liquid latex, and clean up using non acetone remover
Step nine: Apply cuticle oil – I used Essence nail repairing oil.
Step ten: Apply gel shine top coat – I used one from Avon UK.

Thank you for reading,

Katie, xox.