Is it a coincidence that my inspiration and motivation for nail art returned just in time for a theme? Probably not. If there is one thing that is true about me when it comes to nail art... I really, really love a theme. I'm admittedly not a huge Valentine's Day person but I do love playing with the really cute designs that lean into the lovey dovey cutesy whatnots. Anyway, for my first Valentine's Day themed look of the year, I decided to grab for a new polish in my collection and layer some stamping on top for a design that feels both simple and intricate at the same time. 

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Described as a dove grey crelly based polish with pink to gold to green color shifting aurora shimmers and holographic microflakes, Different Dimension's Cold Hands, Warm Heart was inspired by cozy blankets and featured in December's Polish Pickup. And like... I very much had to have it, right? If you're unfamiliar with Polish Pickup, it's a monthly indie polish collaboration with a ton of different brands bringing exclusive limited edition polishes each month to fit whatever the theme is. For example, the theme for December when this was featured was Warm & Cozy. Anyway, I love this type of shade as a base for nail art because it's light enough that you can basically build anything on top of it, but it has some color and interest that keeps it interesting.

For this mani, I applied two coats of Cold Hands, Warm Heart to all of my nails as my base. 

I knew that I really wanted to do some layered stamping for this mani so I grabbed for a crisp white stamping polish along with with a rich burgundy. I started by applying this sort of swirly image with subtle hearts in it to all of my nails using the white stamping polish. On this really soft base, this ended up giving a really subtle, sort of lacy effect to the nails. Next, I decided that I would only layer the stamping on my middle two nails and leave the rest with only that white image. I chose a full coverage textured hearts image for my middle finger and a really simple small image spelling out LOVE for my ring finger. It's interesting because I feel like that red stamping really highlights that aurora glow coming from the base polish in a way that's really pretty.

Once I was happy with the design, I sealed it in with a nail art top coat and followed with a quick dry glossy top coat and voila!

Clearly I am very excited to be able to play in a theme again, so be sure to keep an eye out here on the blog and over on Instagram at @pblnails for more Valentine's Day themed nail art designs for the next couple of weeks! Also, if you're not already following me over there, I do post video tutorials for all of my nail art designs over on Instagram so drop a follow for all of my tutorials.

Thanks for reading!