This is my second (and probably last) Independence Day themed mani for the year. I went with a classic American flag stars and stripes look. I created this look with gel polish and stamping. This simple mani actually took several steps and a few layers of top coat. 
I find that I get the best results when I apply stamps and tape to a layer of top coat that’s been wiped clean of the tackiness, rather than trying to apply them directly onto the gel color. The steps that I took to achieve this mani are listed below. You can see my other 4th of July nail art here.
Steps: (note that I cure after each coat of gel polish or TIO)
- Normal prep & foundation layer application.
- Applied a white base using two coats of Gelish Arctic Freeze.
- Applied a very thin coat of Gelish TIO over the white, cured and wiped the tacky layer.
- Used a piece of packing tape to block off half of the nail and I painted the exposed half blue using Gelish Mali-Blu Me Away (this has been my go-to color this summer!).
- Pulled off the tape, and then applied another thin coat of TIO, wiped and cured.
- Next I applied another piece of tape over the blue section of the nails, leaving the white exposed.
- The red stripes were then stamped onto the white area using Cheeky plate CH10 and Mundo de Unas red stamping polish (#9).
- Applied another thin layer of TIO, cured and wiped.
- I applied another piece of tape, this time covering the red stripes.
- The white stars were stamped onto the blue using Cheeky plate CH4 and Mundo de Unas white stamping polish.
- And finally – a last layer of TIO was applied.
I know it sounds like my nails would be really thick with all of the layers, but I use VERY thin layers so they’re not that thick – but they are strong! :) When I go to remove this mani I will just be sure to use a nail file to break through all of the layers of TIO before soaking.