One thing that I definitely think tends to be true for me is that after a lot of bold, bright, intense nail art designs, my brain needs a little bit of a palette cleanser. So, of course, since I'm moving from all of the madness that is summer nail art into the more muted vibe of fall nail art, I decided to do something really neutral and subtle to fill that sort of palette cleanse need. Of course, I'm someone who is pretty much always going to do some sort of nail art, even when I want the most minimal, so for this mani I decided to add some really soft graphic stamping to a sheer, soft base. Honestly, it did exactly what I was hoping it would do!

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So one of my personal favorite ways to do a sheer base that adds a little bit of coverage and camouflage to my nails is to do a sort of jelly sandwich with a sheer nude and a flakie topper. I feel like this does a really interesting thing in that it really keeps everything super soft and sheer, but it adds that subtle texture and twinkle that not only adds interest but helps to hide any imperfections in the nail bed. Currently I'm growing out an injury to one of my nail beds and I have a white spot there, so I like to find ways to cover it that don't necessarily include actually opaque polishes. 

For this mani, I started by applying one coat of my favorite pale milky pink shade to all of my nails. Next, I applied one layer of a favorite rainbow flakie topper that has a fairly small flake size and good even coverage. I like using this type of rainbow flakie for this because I feel like you get different levels of impact with different colors of flake. And finally, I finish the base with another coat of the pale pink shade to encapsulate the flakes and add a little bit more coverage. 

For the stamping, I knew I wanted to use this wiggly line design from the Pueen French 01 Stamping Plate*, because I knew I could create a soft, graphic design while still keeping everything soft. For my stamping polishes, I decided to go for a sort of mauvey rose gold metallic, a classic silver, and a white créme. These three shades actually, I think, worked really well to create visual interest while still being quite soft overall. As far as placement of the lines goes, I tried to make each nail different with the white line either at the base or tip going in one direction and then the metallic lines going in the opposite direction at the base and tip. I actually really, really loved the design vibe this created.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I sealed it in with a layer of nail art top coat and followed with a generous layer of glossy top coat for shine and volume - and voila!

I really do think that this mani did exactly what I was hoping it would do in giving me that palette cleanse softness and delicacy while still bringing a solid amount of impact with the design. I also am honestly so impressed with the Pueen stamping polishes. This silver one actually really, really impressed me because I generally really don't like silver stamping polishes and find their texture weird and sort of unattractive, but this one really behaved differently than others in my collection and I love it.

This post is in partnership with Pueen Cosmetics and if you're interested in picking up any of the Pueen products I used to create this mani, they're all available from Amazon at pretty affordable prices. Check them out!

Thanks for reading!