Sometimes when I end up doing a skittle mani, it's literally just because I'm looking at a bunch of polishes and I want them all on my nails - and that's exactly what happened with this mani. I have A LOT of polishes out on my nail desk at the moment - I really, really need to do some organizing! - and a lot of those polishes are the neons from Color Club that I reach for so consistently during the hotter months of the year. I just kept looking at this sort of jewel toned gradient of polishes and thought... "Well, might as well put them all on and pair them with some black graphic stamping, right?" Right.

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When it comes to a skittle mani, there has to be a rhyme to the reason when it comes to the colors chosen as well as the order that they're presented on the nails. This one is not exactly rocket science - I had to go with the very logical rainbow order. With all of these polishes, I went with two coats for full opacity - although for a couple of them I probably could have gotten away with only one coat. 

Once I had all of the polishes on my nails, I decided that they needed a topper for a little bit of shimmer and interest. I decided to go with this one from Dam Nail Polish that has an iridescent purple/blue finish. It felt like it really fit with the color family I was working with and brings a cohesiveness to the whole look. I went in with one coat on all of my nails and let that dry down completely. 

For the stamping, I really wanted to go for a full cover, graphic design that would bring some balance to the overall mani. I don't know if I'm explaining my intentions correctly. I wanted to pop the base but also keep it from being too over the top, if that makes sense, and I think this image really worked well in that regard. As per usual, I alternated the direction that I placed the image to add a little bit more visual interest to the overall look.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I sealed it in with a water based top coat and then finished with a generous layer of quick dry glossy top coat and voila!

I have to say, I'm really, really loving toppers lately. Whether it's my long beloved flakie toppers or more subtle shifty ones like this one, I really feel like you can add a ton of oomph to a fairly simple nail art design with some gorgeous toppers. If you're interested in this one, or one of the other two from the Dam Nail Polish Pixie Dust Collection, they're low on stock over at NailStuff.ca so get 'em while you can. I am an affiliate with Nail Stuff so if you're a new customer do feel free to use my code TRYSH for 10% off your order!

Thanks for reading!