So, straight out of the gate, I must admit that today's mani is literally the direct result of just slapping two new-to-me polishes on my nails and then just turning it into nail art. Honestly, that might be one of the best things about these sort of blobby type designs - and yes, I realize that I'm probably the only person who calls these designs blobby, but it makes sense in my brain so I just roll with it. Anyway, I picked up two new polishes on my lunchbreak and brought them back to my office and just decided to slap them onto a bare nail and immediately this idea for this mani came together and I put the whole thing together officially pretty much as soon as I got home. 

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One thing that I really, really love is when mainstream brands come out with shades that are a little more uncommon in the drugstore, so when I saw that the new range of Essence polishes included a chocolatey brown and an olive green I just had to pick them up. Essence polishes are a little hit and miss for me, but I've generally had success with their crémes and, like I said, I couldn't resist these quite unique shades, especially with fall coming up. 

As far as the formula of them, and do keep in mind that so far this mani is the only time I've used them, they're pretty solid overall. They're quite pigmented, actually, and have a slightly thicker consistently that I think actually worked really, really well for using them in this way because they really didn't move around on me at all. I have to say I'm really, really impressed with these shades and I hope lots of people scoop them up because it might inspire even more unique shades to be available locally and at a really affordable price point. 

Now, for the nail art, I kept it really, really simple. Normally I would start with some sort of base polish, like a milky or nude sheer, but this time I decided to go straight into onto bare nails for a true negative space type of vibe. Because it's lighter and just a hair thinner in consistency, I started with in a while crocodile and just placed a swipe of it onto the tip of one side of the nail, starting about midway up. The curved tip of the brush on this polish really made it a no brainer and literally just a simple swipe. Next, I repeated the exact same thing with Crazy Cocoa and this time I was a little bit more careful to get a nice smooth line where the two polishes met. Once the first layer was dry, I repeated the exact same thing with the second coat.

For the stamping, I wanted to keep it simple and cohesive while also having each nail be different, so I grabbed the KADS Fashion 091 Stamping Plate, which I think is a seriously solid plate to add to your collection if you like to do this style of abstract design. What I love about this plate for this design is that it has enough images that are distinctly different while being similar in scale and movement so that I can have a cohesive mani. I went with white to get a strong contrast with the two base polishes and chose which image to apply to each nail based on size and scale.

Once I was happy with the design, I sealed everything in with a nail art top coat and then followed with a matte top coat to bring down the shine for a velvety sort of finish. And voila!

I feel like this is a solid way to transition into fall nails - and quite a beginner friendly one. Honestly if this had been the kind of mani that was in style when I was first getting into nail art, I think I would definitely have started with this type of mani. Also, I am definitely impressed with these two Essence polishes and I will definitely be picking up a few more of the new releases to try out soon.

Be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK to check out more fall themed nails for this week's #CBBxManiMonday! And if you're not already following me over at @pblnails on Instagram, be sure to head over there to check out video tutorials for all of my nail designs.

Thanks for reading!