Once upon a time, I was weirdly intimidated by dotticures because something about getting them balanced and perfect seemed impossible and stressed me out. In truth, they're one of the most beginner friendly, forgiving and versatile techniques out there. Of course, I still don't think to do them very often. For this week's #CBBxManiMonday, though, I decided to try something a little bit different using a dotticure and stamping to create a very, very 80s summer look. (Anyone else still deep under the Stranger Things shadow from earlier this summer and all for 80s nostalgia? Can't just be me?)

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So essentially what I wanted to do with this mani was use neon dots to give the look of quite large round glitters suspending in a milky white base. It's almost like... if you were to take a beautiful white crelly with neon glitters in it, scale it way up size wise, and do away with the very annoying texture that you tend to get from large glitters.

I started with one of my favorite sheer milky polishes - Essie's Sheer Luck. I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about the shimmer through it when I first finished this mani, but I actually think the final result is really stunning. For the neon polishes, I used mostly polishes from the BioSculpture Live Life Loudly Collection*, but I knew that I wanted to add a neon blue because something in my head told me that it was necessary for the 80s vibe, so I also grabbed a blue neon from my rather large Color Club collection. 

To start, I applied two coats of Sheer Luck to all of my nails as my base.

I tried not to be too fussy when I was applying the dots because I knew that this would benefit from being mindful of balance but also not being too concerned with perfection - there's a randomness to the design that is actually important. Using the largest dotting tool from my NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio**, a must have set in my collection, I went through each color one by one, applying 3-4 dots of each to all of my nails before moving on to the next color. Because I did want to maintain the larger scale to the dots, I kept most of them quite large, but I did go in with a few smaller ones to help in filling and balancing the design. I then applied a thin layer of smudge free top coat before applying one more coat of a sheer shimmery white polish to the nails to give that sort of milky crelly sort of look.

For the stamping, there really was no question what the exact perfect stamping image for this mani was, so I grabbed for my Hit The Bottle Material World 01 Stamping Plate. This image has the vibe, to me, of the Saved By The Bell opening credits - a staple of my 80s childhood - and the scale of it was just perfect to pair with this dotticure base. I applied it in black to all of my nails and, as usual, alternated the direction of placement to add a little more dimension and interest to the overall design.

Finally, once I was happy with the design, I sealed it in with a nail art top coat. Next, I applied a glitter smoothing top coat to help smooth the uneven surface created by the dots and then followed that with a quick dry glossy top coat and voila!

Honestly, as a child of the 80s, this type of design really brings back so much nostalgia for the maximalism that really embodied the decade and I love how it turned out. Also, I'm really intrigued by the possibilities for using a dotticure as a base for a stamping design - it makes sense, but until now it isn't actually something I've done, so I'm interested to see what I can create.

Be sure to head over to See The World In PINK today to check out more summer themed nail art for this weeks #CBBxManiMonday. Also, if you're not following me over at @pblnails, be sure to head over there and follow to keep up on all of my nail art and to see video tutorials for my designs!

Thanks for reading!