A few weeks ago, there was a group on Instagram doing a nail art collab and they decided to use one of my designs as inspiration. I honestly didn't think that this mani was going to be as popular as it ended up being, but I'm so thrilled about it. It occurred to me when I was looking at all of those recreations using those winter shades that this mani could very, very easily be translated to pretty much any season or occasion, so I decided to recreate it myself using pastel polishes rather than those richly saturated shades I used for the original.

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Around the time that I was looking at all of those recreations of this design, I received the new Whats Up Nails Bloominosity Collection in PR and even though they are stamping polishes, the formula also works really beautifully just as a really pigmented regular polish, so it seemed like a perfect option to create this very springy skittle. Like the original, I specifically decided not to go in rainbow order because that wasn't the look I was going for.

On my pinkie, I went with Sky Glider*, which is a very neutral pastel blue. On my ring finger, I used Cherished Blossoms*, which is a gorgeous cool leaning pink. On my middle finger, I went with Commit Mint Problems*, which is that classic sort of minty pastel green shade. On my pointer finger, I went with Egg Crasher*, which is a really gorgeous pastel yellow that is shockingly non-streaky. And finally, on my thumb (not pictured), I went Apricot Horizon*, which is a super pretty pastel peach shade. All in all, I really, really love this entire collection both as stamping polish (which you can see in action here) and as regular polish.  

I also went in and added a linear holo top coat to all of my nails at this point. Because these are stamping polishes, they don't necessarily self level quite as smoothly as regular polish, so that topper just really gives a smooth, even finish to the base. 

For the stamping I kept it exactly the same as the original using the KADS Fashion 096 Stamping Plate, which was originally inspired by this mani from @paintedbypinky on Instagram. I started by applying the spider gel-look white line stamping at a diagonal towards the center of the nail using a while stamping polish. Next, I went in with the larger line of dots using a black stamping polish and placed that at a diagonal as well about halfway between the lines at the center and my nail edge. And finally, I went in with this much smaller line of dots at the nail tip just to add some visual interest there as well.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I sealed everything in with a nail art top coat and then followed with a layer of glossy top coat for shine and volume. And voila!

I'm not gonna lie, I very much suspect that this mani is going to end up getting both summer and fall iterations this year and I have no shame. Like I said, I think this mani really is completely versatile for any occasion or no occasion at all and I love the idea of playing with that. 

Be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK today to check out their pastel themed nail art designs for this week's #CBBxManiMonday! And if you want to see a video tutorial for this design, head over to my Instagram @pblnails and check it out!

Thanks for reading!