NAIL ART: Gradient Heart Stamping Valentine's Day Nails

by - February 12, 2021


Sometimes when I sit down to do my nails, I have a fully formed idea of exactly what I'm going to do... and then when I'm finished it absolutely is not that. That's definitely what happened with this mani. I had one plan and it wasn't even nebulous - I knew exactly what I was going to do. I pulled out everything I needed for that mani... and then proceeded to use all of those products to do something else. It happens, right? I'm excited about it though because I really don't do gradient stamping enough and I think it really worked for this mani. 

Keep reading for more!


For the base of this mani, I decided to go with a pale, neutral, slightly ashy beige shade with some really subtle shimmer running through it. Essie's High Sewciety from their most recent Gel Couture collection is a stunner. It's super similar to my favorite nude polish of all time, which is Essie's Last Nightie, also from their Gel Couture range, with this one being a little deeper and ashier with a different colour shimmer. Anyway, it really did hit exactly what I was looking for for this mani. 


For the stamping, I was going to do a gradient moving from my first finger to my pinkie with each nail being stamped in a different colour of the gradient, but ultimately I got the idea to do a base to tip stamped gradient on each nail. This can be a little bit tricky because once you've applied the polish to the plate, you need to scrape a few times so that you get a smooth blend, but scraping too many times can effect your pickup of the image. Ultimately, though, I think this managed to pick up pretty well and any gaps in the image can be chalked up to this being a slightly grungey design.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I went in with a water based top coat to seal it in and then followed with a quick dry matte top coat to bring down the shine. And voila!


All Products Used
Essie Gel Couture - High Sewciety
Whats Up Nails - Box Of Whine
Whats Up Nails - Blanc My Mind
Clear Jelly Stamper - 040 Pass The Pinot
Born Pretty Store - Cherry Blossoms
Maniology Smudge Free Top Coat
Quo Flash Dry Matte Top Coat
Pict You PY-J033 Stamping Plate
Whats Up Nails Magnified Clear Stamper


I was a little bit unsure on how I felt about how this mani turned out, but I think I really like it. These stamping polishes all blended quite well (although I do think that the 3 of them blended a little more smoothly than the fourth....) anmd I love how this image looks covering the nails. I've also actually really, really been impressed with the Pict You stamping plates that I've tried thus far - look for more mani's featuring them on the blog in coming weeks, because I just got a big order from AliExpress in.

Thanks so much for reading! Be sure to check out my other Valentine's Day mani's for this year here!

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