The intensity of the summer nail art can be a little bit much after a while - and doing three mani's a week for the blog can be a little bit overwhelming when they're all bright and very much themed - so eventually you just need a bit of a palette cleanser. I recently got this absolutely beautiful, soft pink base that I knew would be the perfect shade to just... exhale with, and when the inspiration for this mani came I knew I had to try it out. Sometimes that's just how it works in my brain, I will admit.

Keep reading for more!

I fell completely in love with Candy Floss Fantasy from Saki Cosmetics as soon as I saw swatches on the PPU Facebook group and I knew that it was going to end up in my June order - and, of course, it did. This polish is described as a shimmery pastel pink with iridescent and silver flakies and... yep, that's exactly what it is! This is definitely more of a sheer formula and even on three coats I don't think it gets to full opacity, but that sort of why I bought it - more and more I'm loving these really pale sheers with gorgeous flakes in them.

Also - if you want to pick up this polish, it is available from Girly Bits as a part of PPU Rewind Afterparty until July 31, 2021, so get it before it's gone!

Basically my idea for this mani was to do a really soft French fade and it took a little bit of trial and error but eventually I got there. I started with two coats of Candy Floss Fantasy on all of my nails and let them dry down completely. Next, I did the French fade using the sponging method, with a couple of swipes of white polish at one end of the sponge and then a clear polish over the rest of it to help to get a smooth blend. With the white polish I used, it ended up definitely taking a few passes to get to the blend and opacity that I was looking for, but I got there.

For the stamping, I wanted to keep it white on white and subtle using one of my favorite stamping images of all time, this rose image from the Born Pretty BP-L067 Stamping Plate. It's just a perfect image, always stamps beautifully, and is big enough that I can place it so that each nail really is completely different. 

Once I was happy with my stamping, I sealed it in with a water based top coat and then finished with a generous layer of quick dry glossy top coat - and voila!

I really think this is a fantastic technique if you want to pair use this type of polish but add a gradient to it. The nature of using a cosmetic sponge to create a gradient means that it isn't ideal for polishes with strong shimmer, glitter or flakies - unless you want those to be front and center. Doing it this way - by applying the base polish first and then building the fade on top of it - works really well to get this type of look while still maintaining the look of the base polish. (Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty sure I came up with this one all of my own. Toot!)

If you want to check out video tutorials for all of my nail art, be sure to follow me over at @pblnails on Instagram.

Thanks for reading!