Hey guys! For this week's Summer Lingo themed #CBBxManiMonday, I went with the word mermaid. I love scales nail art and I had some random nail stencils that have been hanging out in my collection for years that I decided to give a go. Full coverage nail vinyls have always been kind of tricky for me, but I decided to use them to make decals and I'm... kind of obsessed, as I tend to be. 

Next, I reached for those old mermaid stencils along with three pastel shades in a purple, a blue, and a turquoise. I wanted to stick in the same colour family, but not blend in with the base at all. I pressed the decals down onto my nail art mat and then applied dots of each shade of polish to my stamper head before smooshing it into the decal. You could do this on your nails, but I find that the flat surface of the mat gives better adherence and ultimately a more crisp image. I peeled the stencil up as soon as I was finished smooshing and then applied a thin layer of glossy top coat to make the decal.

Once the decal was dry, I first applied a coat of sticky base coat and let that dry for about a minute until it was tacky, and then I used a pair of tweezers to peel up the decal for transfer to my nail. I actually used two methods to apply the decals for this mani - a stamper which is what you'll see in my tutorial video, as well as just laying it on the nail and using a makeup sponge to gently press it down. For me, the latter is the way to go and what I would recommend. It just gives a smoother result. Anyway, once it was fully adhered to the nail, I used my cuticle tool to trim the excess and some tweezers to pull it away and then cleaned and crisped up the edges with a clean up brush and some acetone.

I finished with 2 coats of Essie Speed Setter an voila!