Hey guys! I have to say,  I'm really enjoying putting together these Mani Monday posts, so I'm hoping that you guys enjoy them as well. Last week I started hearing that people were finding the Color Club Halo Hues popping up in their local Winners stores... which, of course, set me on course to basically stalking three different stores constantly trying to get my hands on some more for my collection. And when I get new Halo Hues, I have a thing where I like to put as many of them on my hands as possible. So far, I've done two mani's using my new holos and I wanted to share them both with you. Both mani's include stamping using a new-to-me stamping plate that I also got last week, but I think they're actually pretty different looks over all.

I decided to include the more simple mani first. Basically, this is about as simple as stamping gets and I actually did this mani because I needed something I could get done fairly quickly. I started with 2 coats of Color Club Crystal Baller, which is a beautiful cornflower blue linear holo. Next, I grabbed my Bundle Monster + elleandish XL-201 stamping plate and the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Nail Color in White On to apply the sort of waterfall of stars image to each nail, with the fade starting from the base of the nail. I finished with a generous coat of Seche Vive Top Coat (which did unfortunately shrink a little bit - I think it's starting to get old.)

Next I wanted to show you the slightly more involved mani that I did when I first picked up these polishes. I started with two coats of Color Club Cloud Nine as a base and then applied liquid latex to  around my nail to make clean up a little bit easier. Next, I grabbed my stamper and applied dots of Color Club Over The Moon, Miss Bliss, Eternal Beauty and Cloud Nine randomly over it. To minimize mess, I first pressed the stamper head against another stamper before tranfering what was left to my nails with first a solid smoosh and then lighter taps to ensure coverage. I've used this technique with créme polishes before, but I found that I prefer it with holo polishes because it packs a double rainbow punch in the finished product. Also, you don't have to be too precious with the smoosh, because it does really kind of meld together beautifully. I finished with the stripes and hearts image again from the Bundle Monster + elleandish XL-201 Stamping Plate using the Bundle Monster Stamping Polish in Straight Up Black. I have to say... I'm pretty much obsessed with this mani and I want to try this technique with different combinations of shades again soon.

I really, really love this stamping plate. I actually just received it last week and I'm completely in love with the looks I've gotten from it so far and have a feeling it's going to be a plate that I'll reach for frequently. I love that there are a lot of really simple images in this plate because as much as I love stamping, I do tend to prefer simple stamping images. I actually also used the lacy pattern second from the right on the bottom row when I did my grandma's nails last week as well - my grandma is addicted to stamping these days as well and she's the talk of the old folks home!

I'm such a happy kitten that I was able to add to my Color Club Halo Hues collection by finding them in my local Winners. In total, I bought 5 more shades - and it's very possible that if they still have them on the shelf later this week, I might just go ahead and pick up more. They're just such a great formula and being able to find good holos locally and at an affordable price kind of makes it a no brainer for me. 

Thanks for reading! I really hope you guys are enjoying more nail related content here on the blog - it's become a little bit of an obsession for me over the last year and, even though I'm still learning when it comes to nail art, I've been really happy with my progress!

Happy Monday!