Hello and welcome! I have yet another collaboration mani this week. I went from zero to three in such a short time; there has to be a record being set.
This design started when @dragonsnails decided to do the impossible, and get over a hundred people together for a collaboration. And the theme for this huge collab? Unite the World! Which meant that each person chose a different country to represent. And I went with Sao Tome & Principe. I hadn’t heard of the country before so this was a fun way to learn a little bit about this beautiful island off the coast of Africa. Unfortunately, some personal things came up for her, so the group collage is delayed until everything gets better. Obviously I’ll share it when it’s available.
What I Used:
- Base Coat: Glisten & Glow – Base Coat
- 1st Color: Glisten & Glow – Today is Your Day
- 2nd Color: Painted Polish – Stamped in Greenery 2.0
- 3rd Color: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri – ASAP Apple
- 4th Color: Twinkled T – Vibin’
- 5th Color: Maniology – Hibiscus
- 6th Color: Painted Polish – Stamped in Blush
- 7th Color: Painted Polish – Stamped in Cinderelly
- 1st Top Coat: Maniology – Smudge Free Top Coat
- 2nd Top Coat: Essie – Speed Setter
- Maniology Mini Lotus mat
- Maniology Poli-Peel cuticle protector
- Maniology MXM005 stamping plate
- Maniology MXM006 stamping plate
- Twinkled T holo stamper & scraper
- lint roller sheet
- striping tape
- Twinkled T clean up brush, size #2
- acetone nail polish remover
I started with the usual base coat, and then two coats of Glisten & Glow – Today is Your Day. The only “rule” to this collab was to incorporate the country’s flag in to the design, and I noticed this was the perfect basic yellow to match.
Since the country seems to have tropical weather with lots of birds and lush greenery, I decided this was the perfect time to use my tropical stamping plates from the March Mani x Me box. And to make things easier on me, I made decals of the flower & bird designs. I started with a few random red and orange flowers over top a square of top coat. Then I filled them all in with pink.
At first the bird decals were going to have a blue bird outline, but I didn’t end up liking it. So the birds had a black outline, with a blue filling. I finished off the decals by adding green leaves to the backgrounds of all of them. I was adding the leaves individually until I realized there was a whole leafy stamp design I could’ve been using the whole time.
For the flag on my middle finger, I used striping tape to make the three vertical stripes. I filled the sides in with green, and while that dried, I stuck on the decals to my other nails. Next, using more striping tape, I made a small triangle along my cuticle. And that had to be filled in with white and then red. The last step was probably the hardest because it required using a dotting tool to make stars in the middle stripe. Luckily I didn’t screw them up badly because trying to fix black over yellow sounds like an absolute nightmare.
Even though the group is not done yet, I’ve seen a few other designs and I know it will be awesome when it’s done. Not only was this a great way for me to learn something new, but I absolutely love this design. It’s so perfectly tropical. And I just hope it makes the people of Sao Tome & Principe proud.
Hope everyone enjoys their week!
Update:
There ended up being just barely a chip on my right hand. I don’t know how I did it, but these nails survived the week. The weirdest thing happened though. My top coat peeled off. Or at least, one layer of my top coat peeled off. So I’m thinking Maniology and Essie top coats do not play well together.
Weekly Nail 