Cherry Blossoms and Lanterns | Chinese New Year Mani

Holiday Manicures, Nails, Spring Manicures, , , , , , , , , , 21 Comments

Hey everyone! Happy Chinese New Year! Even though I am not of asian descent, Chinese New Year has always held a special place in my heart. My mother was always very interested in different cultures and their respective cultural events, so I was raised going to potlatches and pow wows of local First Nations bands, Estonian Independence Day events (I am actually of Estonian descent), and Chinese New Year celebrations every year in our local Chinatown.

I always enjoyed going through all the Chinese shops, buying White Rabbits (candy), toys and other keepsakes, and watching the Dragon Dance while firecrackers went off. If you don’t know what the Dragon Dance is, “the dance is performed by a team of experienced dancers who manipulate a long flexible figure of a dragon using poles positioned at regular intervals along the length of the dragon. The dance team simulates the imagined movements of this river spirit in a sinuous, undulating manner. The dragon dance is performed during Chinese New Year because dragons are a symbol of China’s culture, and they are believed to bring good luck to people.” Wikipedia says it best, lol.

I haven’t been to a Chinese New Year event in a long time, but this year I wanted to honour this special time of the year with a mani, of course! Although this year is the Year of the Pig, I decided to go with a classic cherry blossoms and lanterns design.

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  1. For this manicure, I started by applying my favourite base coat, Orly Bonder, to all of my nails.
  2. For the base colour of this mani, I painted all of my nails a deep sparkly red (China Glaze Ruby Pumps, a long time favourite of mine!). Red is a beloved colour in Chinese culture and represents fortune and joy!
  3. To minimize clean up from stamping, I applied a liquid latex around my cuticles. Right now I’m really enjoying the Edge Perfection Easy Peel Polish Barrier.
  4. For the blossom and lanterns pattern, I used the reverse stamping technique with the Maniology Chinese New Year Occasions: Prosperity (m043) stamping plate. What this means is that you transfer the pattern from the plate onto your stamper with a polish shade that you want to be your outline, and then you fill in the design with different polish colours directly on the stamper. After that has dried, you can then stamp the whole pattern onto your nail.
  5. I first applied a gold stamping polish (Born Pretty Store #1) to the plate, scraped off the excess, and transferred the design onto a XL clear jelly stamper. I then filled in the cherry blossoms with white and pink creme polishes (China Glaze White on White and Sally Hansen Pink a Card), and the lanterns with a red creme (KL Polish Ace). After allowing the design to dry, I applied it to my nail. 
  6. After repeating this process for each nail and cleaning up the edges, I applied the Maniology No Smudge Nail Polish Top Coat, followed by my regular glossy top coat (Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat).

Will you be celebrating Chinese New Year this year? What is your Chinese Zodiac? I am year of the Rooster!

sign off 2019

21 thoughts on “Cherry Blossoms and Lanterns | Chinese New Year Mani”

    1. Thank you! I love doing cherry blossoms at this time of year! I used to do the cherry blossom design on the Arizona green tea cans a couple years ago (if you know those), and I might bring it back again this year!

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  5. I know I already saw a sneak peek of these when you showed how you stamp, but this looks incredible! Love the red and the gold, and of course the cherry blossoms!

    I have a question for you about your nail art. After seeing all of the beautiful things you do with your nails, it’s gotten me curious about nail art (pretty sure I’m going to be absolutely awful at it, though). Where do you prefer to buy your supplies, like stamps or stamping tools?

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    1. Thank you so much! I think the combination worked out really well!

      Yay! Haha. There’s no reason why you should be bad at it! I like getting supplies from What’s Up Nails, Uber Chic Beauty and Harlow & Co. has some stuff too! What’s Up Nails actually sells some Uber Chic Beauty products too, so they are a good all-in-one source. I’ve had good experiences with both companies, but have been ordering from What’s Up Nails for years now, and only just discovered Uber Chic. The only unfortunate thing is you can’t buy polishes from WUN; they won’t ship them to Canada. Another company that just opened up shipping to Canada, including their stamping polishes, is Maniology. That’s the company that offers the subscription box I just featured last week! That actually could be a good way for you to get into stamping? Just order one box and see how it goes? They send you a free stamper with it.

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      1. Thanks for sharing, Nova, that was super helpful! I’ve been casually looking at the plates on Nail Polish Canada and Harlow & Co since I shop at both of those places and noticed they carry stamping supplies, but I was curious to see where someone who does it regularly gets their supplies from. Definitely checking your recommendations out! Hmm, the subscription box might be a good idea…

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Yeah the only reason I didn’t recommend Nail Polish Canada is because they just don’t have a lot, although I have recently ordered some Color Club plates from them.

        Liked by 1 person

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