OPI Sheer Tinted Stamping

As soon as I saw the press release for the OPI Sheer Tints line, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with these unique polishes. I've seen people execute all kinds of creative looks with them, but what I really wanted to try was painting them over some white-on-black stamping—i.e., the same technique I used for my Painting the Roses Red Valentine's Day manicure.

Much to my delight, it worked fabulously!

To get this look, I followed the exact same steps I used in my roses manicure—you can check out the tutorial here, if you missed it. The only difference this time around is that I actually used two coats of the Sheer Tints on each nail to achieve a more vibrant color. The contrast with the black is so strong that the colors almost look illuminated from within, which is pretty cool!

Overall, I'm super pleased with how well the Sheer Tints worked for this technique. I do wish the pink and purple shades were a little less similar to each other, and I'd have also liked to have a natural green in this collection (I suspect you could get a green by layering the blue and yellow, but I haven't tried yet), but those are really minor complaints. I really like the yellow a lot, which was a surprise—I usually can't stand yellow polishes!

I experienced a little smearing with my black base (Rimmel London 60 Seconds Nail Polish Hot Black to Go) because I wasn't as careful with my topcoat as I could have been, but that was really the only application problem. Well, that and accidentally dropping one of the open bottles of polish onto my carpet mid-mani, but we won't talk about that...

The stamp I used comes from the new Pueen Stamping Buffet collection, which I'm really loving so far—lots of large images that flow from one to the next like MoYou London plates, but easier to pick out full nail images from the different elements, in my opinion.

What do you think—are you considering picking up any of the OPI Sheer Tints? What's your favorite creative use for this collection that you've seen so far?

Thanks for looking!