Kaleidoscopic Leadlight Rainbow Awesomeness!

Hey, everyone!

I've been meaning to try the leadlight technique again for a while. My last attempt was not quite to my satisfaction... I didn't make my sheer polish quite sheer enough, alas. But this attempt is MUCH better, I think! Keep reading to find out more!

Wow, look at all of those fabulous colors! The keys to making this mani work better than the last one were two things: better sheer polishes, and stamping with black polish. I ended up creating my own DIY sheer tint polishes using cheap clear polish (hooray for $0.99 Wet n Wild!) and a combination of jelly polishes I already owned and Sharpies. Actually really the only one I used a Sharpie for (to make my own DIY alcohol ink, tutorial by a great gal here) was the yellow because I was having a tricky time of it without doing that. Overall I ended up making red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and pink-leaning purple tints (along with black, not pictured). Finally, saving all my old Seche Vite bottles has paid off!

Anyway, for the nail art, I started with two coats of Sally Hansen White On on all my nails except my ring finger, which I painted with two coats of Sally Hansen Celeb City. Then I painted a thin coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust on all the white nails. When all were dry, I stamped with black polish and MoYou London Kaleidoscope plate #10 over all the white nails. Next I applied liquid latex to all my cuticles for minimal cleanup afterwards. I then used a makeup sponge to apply Pop-arazzi Star Shine, a silver holo chunky glitter topper I got on my last trip to CVS, onto my ring finger. This allowed max glitter payoff without buildup of the clear base. When all of those layers were dry, I just used the brush from each bottle of my DIY tints to carefully apply the colors over the stamped nails AND the glittery ring finger. I cleaned up a tiny bit after removing the liquid latex, applied topcoat, and sat back to enjoy the sparkle!

Materials Used

Sally Hansen White One

Sally Hansen Celeb City

China Glaze Fairy Dust

Pop-arazzi Star Shine

Franken black stamping polish

Franken sheer tints

MoYou London Kaleidoscope plate #10

Liquid latex

This mani makes me yearn for warmer weather! It's just so happy and bright, I love it so much! If you have any questions about my DIY sheer tints, like what colors I used and such, don't hesitate to ask! Thanks for stopping by!