For a very, very long time now I've been trying to figure out how to get rose quartz nails that I love using traditional nail polish. Last year I did this rose quartz mani using gel polish and it was okay but... not quite what I wanted it to be? I've tried some different techniques a few times since and they just never ended up being what I wanted them to be so I always just took them off and went about my business. Over the weekend, however, I had an idea of how I might be able to get the really organic, see through feel of rose quartz using a tried and true method - the smoosh!
Keep reading for more!
For me, there have always been two things that I wanted to figure out when it came to doing rose quartz nails. First, it had to have that correct level of sheerness, where it almost feels opaque and sheer at the same time. And second, the marbling or veining in it had to feel soft and almost sort of random. I think that the biggest problem I've had with rose quartz nails I've tried in the past is that they didn't get that softness and they always felt a little too stiff and uniform to really evoke rose quartz for me - they always felt a little more like a pink marble, you know? What occurred to me this weekend was that if I used sheer polishes along with the tiniest bit of white and applied them using a smoosh technique, I could possibly get the look I wanted.
So for this mani, I started by applying the most pink of the three sheer polishes I used for this smoosh to all of my nails as a base. Once that was dry, I applied a cuticle barrier to prepare for my smoosh. For the smoosh, I used a very pink sheer polish, a sort of beigey white sheer with a hint of soft shimmer in it, and a milky white sheer. Even though the differences are subtle and you absolutely couldn't pick those three shades out of this the way you could probably pick out shades in other smoosh manis, it's that subtlety that I think is necessary to get the look of rose quartz. I also added two TINY dots of white créme polish to the smoosh to give me that veining. It's super important that you added the tiniest ratio of white polish because if you add even a tiny bit too much, it's going to take over the sheer and ruin the mani. Yes, I did do that and have to start over. Twice.
Once I had finished my smoosh, I sandwiched it with another coat of the pink sheer polish to add some depth and also to further soften that white and make the overall look more subtle. To finish, I added a generous layer of quick dry glossy top coat and voila!
All Products Used
OPI - Baby, Take A Vow
Essie - Sheer Luck
Prim + Proper - Snow Angels
Color Club - French Tip
Quo Flash Dry Top Coat
NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper**
** Stamper was gifted to me by NailStuff.ca - use affiliate code TRYSH for 10% off your order.
I am OBSESSED with how this mani turned out - it's exactly what I've been trying to accomplish for well over a year now and I'm kind of blown away that I was able to do it with regular polish. The thing that I love about a smoosh is that it's going to be different everytime, which I think definitely lends to the organic feel of this mani, but it also has a softness that I just don't think you can replicate with a nail art brush. You know?
Don't forget to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK to check out their nails this week for #CBBxManiMonday!
Thanks for reading!
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