It’s been a really long time since I’ve tried a leadlighting manicure and I recently picked up the entire Rica jelly polish collection (Squish the Rainbow), so I figured it was high time to venture back into leadlighting! If you haven’t heard of this style, it’s basically like a color-by-numbers technique using jelly polishes over a stamp.

I really just wanted to play around practicing leadlighting with different stamps. The intention was not to create a wearable manicure, but I think it actually looks pretty good!

Not bad right? It’s flowery but geometric, and the colors kind of bring it all together.

What I used for this mani:

Base color: OPI Alpine Snow

Stamps: MoYou London Explorer 03… such a perfect plate for this technique! All the images are detailed and have lots of areas to color in.

Stamping polish: Rica Blackout

Leadlighting colors: Rica Squishy Blueberry, Squishy Lime, Squishy Lemon, and Squishy Grape… These are all great jelly polishes! They worked so perfectly for leadlighting, and they look so pretty over white. LOVE!

I applied the leadlighting colors with a tiny dotting tool to help fill in smaller areas.

This kind of manicure makes me feel like I’m a kid with a coloring book! It’s so fun and relaxing, but it does take quite awhile if the stamping images are detailed. The end game makes it totally worth it though – the manicures come out so great!

What do you think? Have you done leadlighting before? What other images do you like to use?