Sparkly Stained Glass Nails Tutorial - with DIY Sheer Tints

Hellooo again! As promised, here is the other version of the sheer tint sparkly stained glass mani I posted earlier, along with a full tutorial.  This is my first design tutorial, so I'd love to know what you guys think of it :)  *Warning - pic heavy post

This version was done with 2true - Christy as a base, with the red, blue, and dark purple tints from today's review. So, let's get into it then......... (there's a pictorial at the bottom too, if you'd like a less detailed, or pinnable version)

Start with a light coloured sparkly base, I'm using a textured silver glitter here.  As you can see, it's not fully opaque, and I'm okay with that, but you can use a fully opaque base if you prefer.  It doesn't have to be textured either, although I have a feeling it may help stop the tints from spreading too far.

Using a striping brush and black polish, or acrylic paint (I'm using paint so I can easily wipe off any mistakes :p), start painting in your black lines.  Try to make them as random and oddly shaped as possible.  I found it easiest to start at one corner, and work my way around the edges a bit first.

Then you can start to do some little sections more towards the middle of the nail, trying to make sure they aren't symmetrical.

If you end up with a section that's a bit too large for your liking, just split it in half.  You want them to be different sizes and shapes anyway, so don't sweat it!

Allow your black lines to dry fully, and select a brush to fill in your sections with tint.  You could try and use the brush bottles, but I preferred to use this small, very flat, nail art brush.  It's wide enough to hold a good blob of polish, but also flat enough to help me get into the small corners.  I also dipped this in a tiny bit of acetone to tidy up a black line on my middle finger that went a little too far :)

Grab your first colour, and start filling in 2 or 3 sections on each nail.  Get a fair sized blob of polish on your brush, dump it in the middle of the section and spread it out towards the edges and corners.  If there's too much polish in a section, just wipe your brush on some scrap paper, and go back over that section. The brush will pull off the excess.

 Same for the second colour.

And the third one.   You can leave it at 1 coat, but I decided to go back over with a second one myself.

Since I already had purple on my brush I did that one first this time around.

Then red.  (Although my awkward lighting would have you believe otherwise!)

And finally, the blue. You could go in for a 3rd coat if you wanted, just remember that each extra coat obscures the glitter a little bit more.  After a few minutes drying time, apply a thick layer of topcoat to smooth everything out nicely.

Now all that's left is to clean up those messy cuticles with some acetone.  I found these did clean up really easily too, which is always a plus!

And there you have it - the finished mani :)

I hope you guys have found this tutorial useful, and if you have any questions or issues, feel free to ask me in the comments.

I'd also love to know what you thought of it if you have time to leave a bit of feedback for me.  Was there anything you think I could have done better?  Any bits you didn't understand?  Did I waffle too much?  Be honest with me, I'm a big girl, I can take it! :D

And here's the little pictorial thingy for your pinning pleasure :)