Today's mani was directly inspired by one of my favorite nail artists -  @iv_juli. I try to take more loose inspiration from other artists, generally, but as soon as I saw the mani that inspired this one I got full on grabby hands and I knew I wanted to put my spin on her design. I think sometimes one of the most valuable things about looking at other people's work, especially when it comes to nail stamping, is that they can really inspire you to use a plate in a way you might not have thought of, and that's definitely what happened here. 

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What actually inspired me to finally do this mani was getting Painted Polish's Right as Rainbows from my June PPU order in my hands. This polish is just... I mean, it had to be some kind of under the sea vibe, right? Described as a "Deep ultramarine jelly base with pink-​orange-green color-shifting iridescent flakies", this polish is just an absolute stunner. I don't wanna go on too much about it, because quantities were really limited and it's once again unavailable, but I highly, highly recommend checking out the Painted Polish jelly-with-shifty-flakes formula because the ones I've tried are just next level stunning and I want them all.

For the stamping, I obviously knew that I wanted to do the layered stamping from the inspiration mani, because that's what really made it stand out to me. When choosing which polish to use, I really wanted a blue that was light enough to show up over the base and in a similar tone, but not so light that it would compete with the white. Once I had chosen my stamping polish, I went in and applied the shells image to all of my nails, alternating the direction I applied it for a little bit of subtle interest. Next, I went in with my accent stamping, applying the smaller images in white stamping polish and varying the position on my nails so that it didn't end up being too samey.

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

I mean. I just love this mani so much. I love the base polish, I love the layered stamping, and as someone with an almost obsession with sea turtles, obviously this mani is going to hit for me. I'm so, so grateful for the inspiration mani and that it ended up just the way that I wanted. 

Keep an eye on the blog next week for a whole slew of neon nail art - it's summer and it's time to go!

Thanks for reading!