Olympia Beauty ~ Lace Skittle Manicure

Hi NaiLovelies!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go along to the 10th anniversary exhibition of Olympia Beauty in London. I created this lace effect soak off gel manicure the day I traveled to London as I really wanted my nails to look their best for the event.

It took me a while to decide upon the right colour combination and design because I had to factor in many different parameters such as cover-up ability (therefore no rhinestones), work appropriateness and of course an element of the wow factor!

After carrying out a couple of repairs on my left hand I set about constructing the manicure. I used Orly Gel FX Luxe gold gel polish on my little fingers, OPI Gelcolor You’re So Vain-illa on my ring and middle fingers then added OPI Gelcolor Warm Me Up to my index fingers and thumbs. Both Luxe and Warm Me Up required two coats for opacity so I applied topcoat to those nails before finishing the lace effect nails.

After curing the third coat of You’re So Vain-illa, I removed the tacky inhibition layer and then stamped those nails with black polish using the MM44 lace plate from Messy Mansion. I allowed the stamping to fully dry for a few minutes before applying two coats of gel topcoat – curing between coats. Two coats of topcoat helps prevent the stamped image wiping off if the topcoat skips in patches on the nail during the first coat. I then removed the inhibition layer with isopropyl alcohol before following that up with a cotton ball soaked in acetone free remover to completely remove the over-stamp.

Once the manicure was finished I painted two coats of OPI Liquid Sand, What Wizardry Is This? over both thumbs to add a little texture to the manicure.

Warm Me Up (thumbs and index fingers) – OPI Gelcolor

You’re So Vain-illa (middle and ring fingers) – OPI Gelcolor

Luxe (little fingers) – Orly Gel FX

What Wizardry Is This? (thumbs) - OPI

Lace stamping image – Messy Mansion MM44 plate

Black Crème polish – Wet ‘n Wild

I am very pleased with how this manicure turned out and I was more than happy to flash my nails at all of the people I met at Nailympia. I will be writing more about my experience of attending the event in an upcoming blog post!

I must say, this lace manicure, my recent henna inspired manicure and this blue and white stamped mani have really reignited my love of stamping. I can’t wait to try out more nail art in coming weeks and get a little adventurous with my stamped manis now that the colder months with darker evenings are almost upon us!

Ciao 4 Now