Hey guys! I have to admit... This mani was hard fought, but I'm pretty in love with how it turned out. Between having to cut my nails down after a couple of breaks that I'd been holding together with sheer will and a bunch of glue finally grew out enough to do away with them, a bit of anxiety inducing health situation with my dog, and a couple of mani's that I did and was unhappy with, this one ended up being nothing at all what I was planning... but so very much exactly the vibe I wanted.

With June being Pride month, I wanted to put together some rainbow nails to go with the #CBBxManiMonday Brights theme - which I fully admit I didn't quite hit the nail on the head with this week - and I felt like butterflies both looked pretty and felt like they suited the idea of celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community, to me at least.

Keep reading for more!

Whenever I do a gradient, I like to start with the lightest shade in my spectrum as a base. For this mani, I applied the yellow and pink shades to my fingers on the nails where they would be the lightest shades. The polishes I used for the gradient are Color Club Wicker Park, Color Club Factory Girl, and Crayola + Sally Hansen Canary. I was really, really happy with how much dimension and spectrum I got just from using these three shades - it really does look like more, doesn't it? 

Once I got the gradient to the opacity and blend that I was looking for, I added a coat of KBShimmer Prism Break to a little bit of holo glitz and also to blend the shades a little bit further. For the stamping, I really wanted an image that wasn't too delicate, so I applied this image from the Born Pretty Store BP-X52 Stamping Plate using my clear stamper and Maniology Bam White Stamping Polish.

I finished with first a coat of Unt Ready For Take Off Base Coat to protect my stamping and then a coat of OPI Plumping Top Coat. After this much work, it would be an absolute shame to smear my stamping and ruin it on the last step. And voila!

All Products Used

Unt Ready For Take Off Peel Off Base Coat

Color Club Nail Lacquer in Wicker Park

Color Club Nail Lacquer in Factory Girl

Crayola + Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Canary

KBShimmer Nail Polish in Prism Break

Born Pretty Store BP-X52 Stamping Plate

Born Pretty Store Clear Stamper

Maniology Stamping Polish in Bam White

OPI Plumping Top Coat

I'm so, so happy with how this turned out! And honestly, guys, I feel like this is one of those mani's that has way more impact than effort and looks a lot harder to achieve than it actually is. You should try it out!

Be sure to head over to See The World In PINK and Tea & Nail Polish today to check out their (probably more) Bright nail art looks for this week's #CBBxManiMonday!!

Thanks for reading!