Year of the Rat | Lunar New Year Mani

Hey everyone! Happy Lunar New Year! I grew up always celebrating Chinese New Year, going to China town, perusing the fun gift shops and watching the dragon dance. This year is year of the Rat so I decided to do a pink and grey cherry blossom and rat mani. Feminine and festive! Rats can be cute too! In fact, I had an albino, red-eyed rat growing up as a pet! His name was Buddy.

1. For this manicure, I started by applying my favourite base coat, Orly Bonder, to all of my nails.
2. For my base shades I painted my thumb, pointer and pinky a grey creme (KL Polish Cancer) and my middle and pointer fingers a light pink (Sally Hansen Pink a Card).
3. I then reverse stamped some cherry blossoms from the Maniology Lunar New Year Occasions: Prosperity M043 Stamping Plate that were filled in with different shades of pink polish on the grey nails (Sally Hansen Pink a Card, China Glaze Spring in My Step, China Glaze Moment in the Sunset). My favourite stamper is the What’s Up Nails Jumbo Clear Jelly Stamper. To fill in the designs I used the UberChic Beauty Detail Nail Art brush.
4. After this I also reverse stamped two adorable rat designs from the Maniology Year of the Rat M113 stamping plate that were filled in with grey, pink and gold polishes onto the pink nails (KL Polish Cancer, China Glaze Moment in the Sun, Sally Hansen Pink a Card, Maniology It’s Lit Stamping Polish).
5. I finished off the mani by applying the Maniology No Smudge Nail Polish Top Coat (Use code SUPERNOVA10 to save 10% off Maniology purchases (affiliate)), followed by my regular glossy top coat (Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat). To mattify the look I also added the Orly Matte Top.

I’m definitely enjoying this more feminine version of a Lunar New Year mani! Are you a year of the Rat? I’m year of the Rooster.

Watch my video tutorial below to see how it was done!