Sparkly Pond Stamping Mani How To with the OPI Color Paints

Today I'm going to show you guys a stampwich, aka a pond manicure with stamping in between the layers, done with the OPI Color Paints Mini Set, Bettina nail polishes, MoYou London Pro XL 06, and Pretty & Polished Halo TC. My twin sister had this idea she was trying to do but it wasn't quite working out. So I offered to see if I could do it and record a tutorial to help her out. I whipped this up over the weekend and I'm happy to report that she likes it and it did help her out. Check below for the macro shots and  scroll all the way down for the video tutorial .

Ok, first the disclaimer. I got this awesome new lamp recommended by fellow blogger Jenne over at Polished Pathology and it makes holos and sparkles just pop! However, it also casts a yellow tone to everything so I've had to edit all of these pictures in Photoshop to make them color accurate and not extremely yellow. Ok?

Moving on, why did I use the Color Paints and not simply any other jellies? Cause the only other jellies I own in a set are the Shinespark Polish 90s kids neon jellies. While I love those, it's not the look I was going for, although I'm sure they'd look super cool in a stampwich as well. Sadly, I looked through my over 500...(umm, so there's probably close to 600 but I'm not counting again so yeah, let's go with that...500), polishes and I could only find a couple of jellies, and none of them in the colors my sister had requested. So my only solution was the Color Paints. Turns out, these are slightly too opaque for a true jelly sandwich. If I brushed them on, I couldn't see the stamping underneath. If I sponged it on, I could see the stamping but the layer looked splotchy and not jelly like. So the answer? Sponge on layers of colors, in between layers of top coat and stamping to create the multidimensional translucent pond effect!

Ok, I'm done talking, here's some pretty pictures and the tutorial.

Start with a sparkly base, I used Orly Mirrorball. Did you even know it was *that* holo? Look at it! I die. This is 2 coats with top coat.

Purple Perspective, stamped with Bettina Daydream

Pen & Ink, stamped with Bettina Cotton Candy

Watercolor technique, stamped with Silver Canvas

Turquoise Aesthetic, stamped with Bettina Aqua and Peppermint

Video Tutorial

https://youtu.be/mN7G6pDxNFY

Ok so I lied, I'm not done talking. The technical details: the colors I used from the set are Purple Perspective, Pen & Ink, Turquoise Aesthetic, and Silver Canvas. I alternated between HK Girl and NYC Grand Central Station for the top coat in between the layers and when I was done I used Pretty & Polished Halo top coat (which gives it a nice subtle but still sparkly holo effect, and it's a real top coat so you don't need to add another one after it, dries in about 5 minutes to that shiny finish you see in the pics, just like my favorite top coat Swift Sparkle, except holo.) I used MoYou London Pro XL 06 for the stamping, Bundle Monster stamper, and Bettina Nail Polishes in Daydream (purple), Cotton Candy (pink), Aqua and Peppermint (teal and blue). Whew! That was a long post!


Let me know if you read the whole thing! Lol. So, what do you guys think? I'd like to see this done with actual jellies, if someone tries it please let me know!