Clearly, I've been having a bit of an obsession this past month with natural stone nail art. I've been looking at pictures of jade nails for several weeks now and really, really wanted to figure out how to do them myself. Because I've been so rooted in gel polish for the past month or so, I also wanted to try and do it with regular polish using shades that I had in my collection. Fitting this into our #CBBxManiMonday January theme of "Experimentation" was pretty easy even though I used a technique that I'm really familiar with. Getting these nails just the way I wanted them definitely took some trial and error, but ultimately I'm pretty happy with the final results... though I do have every intention of trying jade nails again using gel for a softer look that's more like what I did last week with my rose quartz nails. 

But for now, let's get onto how I did these nails, shall we?

For this look, I wanted to use a marble smoosh technique, but because I wanted really clear veining all moving in the same direction, I did it a little bit differently than I usually do. That said, check out my Five Ways To Use A Stamper Without Plates post to check out the basics of the technique! I started with one coat of Sinful Colors Works Like A Charm, which is a pale warm mint green with a really subtle gold flake running through it. Once that dried and I applied a cuticle barrier, I set about building my smoosh. 

Using Works Like A Charm, Cadillacquer Summer Rain*, DimensionNails Amazonian Manatee*, and Born Pretty Store White Stamping Polish, I just sort of started brushing lines of each polish onto my nail art mat, overlapping them a little bit. I used only a very little bit of the stamping polish and Amazonian Manatee, just using them more like accents, because they're both really pigmented and could easily have swallowed the more sheer base colours. I used a sort of dry brushing technique with Works Like A Charm to give a bit of a blend to the colours and then picked it up on my stamper. 

I would recommend letting the polish dry for about a minute on your stamper head before you transfer to the nail because it allows you to get a little bit more custom and get cleaner lines on the nail. I ended up pressing the image onto the nail and then applying parts of the leftovers onto the nail as well to get the texture that I wanted. 

While the polish is still tacky, I went in with my NailStuff.ca Gold Flake* and a nail art brush to apply some gold flakes to the nail. I was careful not to apply too many of the flakes and also to strategically place them over any areas that I wasn't entirely happy with the design.

I finished with first of a coat of Seche Vive Quick Dry Top Coat to get everything nice and smooth and then with Essie Matte About You Top Coat to take away the shine and give more of an unpolished stone kind of look to the nail. 

All Products Used

Sinful Colors - Works Like A Charm

Cadillacquer - Summer Rain* (available at NailStuff.ca)

DimensionNails - Amazonian Manatee* (available at NailStuff.ca)

Born Pretty Store White Stamping Polish

Seche Vive Quick Dry Top Coat

Essie Matte About  You Top Coat

NailStuff.ca Gold Flakes* (available at NailStuff.ca)

NailStuff.ca Mermaid Nail Art Brush* (available at NailStuff.ca)

NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper* (available at NailStuff.ca)

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. It isn't exactly what I had in my mind and, like I said above I do really want to try out jade nails with gel polish for a completely different look, but I love the dimension of the texture and the depth of the marbling. 

So many of the products I used for this are available from NailStuff.ca and if you want to make a purchase over there, be sure to use affiliate code TRYSH for 10% your purchase!

Also, as always, be sure to check out Cosmetic Proof, See The World In PINK, and Tea & Nail Polish to see what they experimented with for this week's #CBBxManiMonday!

Thanks for reading!