I have to admit that I've gotten onto a little bit of a kick at the moment. Generally, I'm someone who really, really loves stamping when it comes to nail art and while that will probably always be my favorite technique, at the moment I feel pretty deep in a desire to play with other techniques and leave the stamping plates out. Honestly, I think it's a little bit of fatigue left over from the holidays, but it really is a great time to play with some other things. For this week's #CBBxManiMonday, I decided to grab a polish that just came in from December's Polish Pickup, pair it with an old favorite, and just keep it really, really simple.

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I have to say that choosing the polishes for this mani was a bit of a no brainer - though there were some moments of doubting myself because I'm a weird perfectionist. I knew I wanted to start with Cuticula's Unwind, from December's Cozy PPU, and it occurred to me that it could pair really beautifully with Cirque Colors' Izola. Both of these purple shades have really similar undertones and it makes them work really well together - good contrast through depth, but the same vibe overall. They also both have metallic flakes in them, though Unwind has rose gold flakes while Izola has yellow gold flakes - this is what had me doubting, but I think they ended up working really beautiully together. I still definitely need to get my hands on all of the polishes in Cirque's collection with this formula - I think there are three I don't have? - and in the future I'll definitely be inclined to grab Cuticula polishes in this finish as well. 

For this mani, I started by applying 2 coats of Unwind to all of my nails for an opaque base and letting them dry down entirely. Next, I went in with Izola and, using the brush straight from the bottle, just applied little sort of swooping blobs to each of my nails. I really do think the trick to this style of mani is to not be too precious about this part. Be mindful of not overwhelming the nail and not having any sharp lines, but otherwise just sort of go in and let what happens happens. Next, once those were dry, I went in with a nail art brush and some rose gold stamping polish to paint a line following that blob to add some definition and a little bit of shine between the two colors. Again, don't be too precious about it. It's supposed to look a little loosey goosey.

Finally, once I was happy with the design, I sealed it in with a layer of nail art top coat and then finished with a generous layer of quick dry glossy top coat and voila!

One thing that I love about doing nail art that doesn't include stamping is that it's so much easier for more people to try out for themselves. This mani, for example, just requires 3 polishes and some sort of fine brush - while certainly I recommend a nail art brush, you could easily use a fine liner brush from Michaels as well. You could try it with just about any color combination and it doesn't require a steady hand or experience. Highly recommend trying it out!

Also, don't forget to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK today to check out their #CBBxManiMonday blue and purple themed nails!

askfha