Happy Monday! I have to admit, I was a little bit uninspired to do this week's #CBBxManiMonday until I had a kind of weird idea that I wasn't sure was going to work. In the end, it absolutely did... but I feel like capturing it in photos was really, really difficult. You'll have to take my word that in person... this look turned out so super cool that I can't really get over it. Of course, for the month of September our Mani Monday theme is Color Combinations... and for this one I sort of blended golden fall shades with a grounding black. It counts, right?

Keep reading to see how I got this look!

Literally the only way I could figure out to capture the dimension of this mani in a photo was to take it outside... 

For the base of this mani, I started with one coat of Starrily Vantablack*, which is pretty much the most incredible one coat black polish I've ever tried and makes for a much quicker start to nail art. Next, I applied a gradient of China Glaze Buffalo Bills, Bills, Bills and Color Club All Charged Up. The reason I chose these two polishes is because I felt fairly certain that the tones and shift of the shimmers in them were the same, shifting from a warm, almost berry tone through coppery gold to olive even though they have completely different bases. I wasn't sure that this was going to work, but in the end I was completely thrilled with the look. It almost ended up looking like I had used a magnetic polish and pulled all of the brightness to the tip and left the base dark. 

I considered leaving it as just the gradient, but ultimately wanted to both pop and ground it with some black stamping. I decided to go with this image from the Hehe 027 Slitherin Stamping Plate, which ends up feeling a little bit like a combination of stained glass and animal print on the nails at a glance. I applied the image using my NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper along with Maniology Straight Up Black Stamping Polish. 

To finish, I added a generous coat of OPI Plumping Top Coat (which ultimately ended up shrinking on me because it's getting old CRIES.) And voila!

The macro really drives home just how intensely the same the tones of the shifty shimmer are and how the two shades in the gradient really kind of meld together. 

All Products Used

Starrily Vantablack* from NailStuff.ca

Color Club All Charged Up

China Glaze Buffalo Bills, Bills, Bills

Maniology Straight Up Black Stamping Polish

OPI Plumping Top Coat

Hehe 027 Slitherin Stamping Plate

NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper & Scraper*

e.l.f. Concealer Brush for Clean Up

Superbond Hair Bond Glue as Cuticle Barrier

Like I said, this is almost impossible to capture in photos and I can't even tell you how cool it looks in person. The natural light managed to grab it as good as it could, but I really feel like these kinds of shifty shimmers are rarely going to show up on camera with the depth and dimension that they have in real life. Trust me when I tell you, though, I can't stop looking down at this mani and grinning like a fool because IT ACTUALLY WORKED.