Tropical Summer Sun Manicure Tutorial

I had a pretty rough week this week and decided that I would try a new original design manicure. Since painting my nails calms my mind. I wanted something fun and summery to cheer me up. Plus I am really loving sponging nail art at the moment so I decided that it had to be a part of today's manicure. So let's get started shall we? Here's what we are going to need for this manicure

Metallic orange polish (China Glaze Cross Iron 360), a yellow shimmery polish (China Glaze Solar power), ten small (1mm or smaller) gemstones, a base coat, a top coat, a dotting tool, tweezers a small piece of sponge and lastly something you don't mind dripping polish on. I also want to mention that I am trying a tip I heard about through YouTube tutorial (by StellarDistraction) about how to make your manicure last by using Instant Artificials as a base coat. I figured I already had this product and would see if it really lengthened the wear time of a manicure. I'll report back later on that though. I'm digressing again back to the manicure. 

White Konad polish, a stamper, a scraper and Shany Plate number SH11.

It might be useful to have one of these as well. This is a gem stone picker. The little clear plastic ends make it really easy to pick up the gem stones.

Start with a clean dry nail.

Apply a base coat, don't forget the free edge.

Apply the yellow polish to the whole nail. Use as many coats as you need for the color to be opaque. I used two coats.

Put a dab of the metallic orange polish on the lid (or whatever surface you don't mind gunking up with polish).

Dab sponge in orange polish gently

Sponge polish onto the nails in a diagonal from the top of the nail. Then clean up any polish that got on your skin. Apply a top coat and allow to dry. You want a top coat here so that if we mess up stamping it's easier to clean up, stamp, and try again without having to remove all polish and start from square one.

Stamp the pattern diagonally across all nails. Let dry. Sorry I didn't take more pictures of this process but You have to work so fast when stamping that taking pictures becomes burdensome. 

Drop some top coat on the plastic surface and select 10 gem stones.

Use your dotting tool to place a dot of clear polish in the center of the flower you just stamped on your nail. 

Then pick up the stone like this. Or...

Like this. I use to use the above method until I found this beauty in Sally Beauty Supply. It picks up the stone every time, no need to have clear polish on the dotting tool to pick up the stone. It also makes it easier to place the stone and seat them firmly on your nails. For me it also seems more precise, you know exactly where that little stone is going. But use whatever you have.

Place the stones on the dot of top coat that you placed at the center of the flower you stamped earlier. Place all stones and let dry.

Apply a heavy top coat. You want to secure those stones. Don't forget the free edge. Also It's helpful if you let your nails dry a few hours then apply another top coat to seal the stones to the nail to reduce the risk of them popping off.

And here's the finished product. A fun summery look that to me screams beach...except I live in Idaho and the closets thing we have to a beach is a sand dune. Translation all the sand in you crevices and none on the waves. But if you are geographically blessed this could make a great beach manicure for you. Any way I hope you enjoy this manicure and want to try it yourself. If anyone has any requests for tutorials you would like to see in the future leave me a message below and I'll see what I can do. As always stay classy and stay polished.