With today's mani, something pretty rare happened to bring it all together. Most often, I sit down with a simple mani in mind and then my goblin brain is like "MORE MORE MORE", but with this one I actually had a much more involved idea in mind but once I got to the point just before I ended up top coating this one, I realized that it was exactly where I wanted to leave it. There was just... something about it that I loved immediately - and I wanted to share it here on the blog because I feel like this type of mani could very easily be recreated regardless of your experience with nail art and since it was those types of manis that drew me into nail art because I felt confident I could do them, I like to share ideas and maybe inspire others to believe they can as well. 

Keep reading for more!

I went into this mani knowing that I wanted it to be monochrome with two different versions of a fairly soft shade and I ended up deciding that I wanted to do purple. I started with Sinful Colors' Low-Key Lavender as my base. It's a sort of ashy lavender shade with a really pretty pink shimmer running through it, though that obviously doesn't really come through in this mani. If you're a purple lover, I feel like this super affordable drugstore polish is a must have - as long as you can handle the fact that it's scented, that is. 

For this mani, I applied two coats of Low-Key Lavender to all of my nails and let them dry down. 

Like I said, my initial plan was a little bit more involved that what I ended up sticking with for this mani, so I did bring in stamping for the tips. If you're going to recreate this, it's just as easy (if not easier for people who don't have a knack for stamping) to hand paint it. What I love about this type of modified French is that you don't have to be too precious about your tip. It's intended to be a little loosey goosey with each nail looking a little bit different. I decided to use a soft purple stamping polish that felt like it really vibed with the base polish, living in the same family but bringing just the right amount of contrast. I used three different images from the Nicole Diary L36 Stamping Plate for the tips, applying right at the edge of the nail and placing the image so that it created a bit of a slope.

Next, I knew I wanted to add a flakie topper and I had a feeling that the shift in the Holo Taco Solar Unicorn Skin would look really stunning over this purple base. It was only once I had applied this to all of my nails that I decided I didn't want to keep going. There was just so much interest already, though it was still simple and minimal. Rather than adding more stamping, I just went in with a matte top coat to bring down the shine and do the cool thing that a matte top coat does to a flakie topper - and voila!

Like I said, this could easily be a hand painted look, it could easily be recreated with any color or pair of colors, in a skittle of all different colors and with or without the flakie topper (though I do think a flakie topper and a matte top coat are a gorgeous, gorgeous combination.) Also, you could do something like my original plan, which in my mind was going to feature some delicate, line drawn flowers and leaves. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks for reading!