Glittering Stained Glass

Hey, everyone!

I've been wanting to try some stained glass nails for a while, so I figured I'd go ahead and give them a shot. Keep reading to find out more about this design!

In the world of nail art stamping, leadlighting has been pretty popular for a while. It's essentially where you stamp an image in black over a white/light-colored background and then fill in the white with different sheer colored polishes, so that you have a wash of color that doesn't cover the black lines of your stamped image. Having made my own sheer polishes a while ago, I've been wanting to try my hand at some stained glass inspired nails. So I finally did it!

I debated for a while whether I would use a white base color or a super glittery one, and I finally settled on Virago Varnish Allure, a gorgeous holo silver micro glitter that's fully opaque in two coats. I painted Allure on all my nails, not quite all the way to my cuticles (since it's a pain to clean up what with the microglitter). Then I used a small brush and did a kind of extended ruffian in black polish on all my nails. Then on my left hand, I stamped a Gothic arch design from MoYou London Gothic plate #5 in black on all my nails except the ring finger. After a few moments, I applied some liquid latex over the window design, leaving the big empty space empty. Then I stamped a design from MoYou London Kaleidoscope #3 onto every single nail, left and right hands, centering them differently according to whether there was a window already stamped there or not. I hope that makes sense! Next I peeled off the liquid latex to reveal the full design.

My next step was to do the actual leadlighting. I used a few of my DIY sheer polishes and a detail brush to apply some color to my design. Finally I sealed all my nails with topcoat, although I think next time I'll use two coats to really smooth everything out. I really love how these turned out, and for once I like my right hand better than my left!

I also took this video of my mani in the sun to show how great the glitter still sparkles through the sheer polishes I made. I couldn't take my eyes off these babies!

A video posted by Millie Smith (@milliethenailsmith) on Jul 21, 2015 at 3:34pm PDT

Materials Used

Virago Varnish Allure

Wet n Wild Black Creme

The Nail Smith Sunburn

The Nail Smith Sunshine

The Nail Smith Garden Addict

The Nail Smith Clear Skies

MoYou London Gothic #5

MoYou London Kaleidoscope #3

So what do you think? I can see myself doing a lot more leadlighting in the future after my success with this design! Thanks for stopping by!