THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

I have to admit, this is one of those mani's that just sort of happened on the fly. I didn't actually go in with a plan, I just sat down at my nail desk and randomly picked a stamping image and sort of went from there, making decisions on the final look as I went, and I'm honestly... sort of madly in love with what came out of it. It's actually a really, really simple design that I think would be perfect for stamping beginners, but it also has enough interest and impact that it gets me excited as well. 

Keep reading for more!

When it came to the color story for this mani, it 100% came from the stamping image that I chose. When I picked this stars image, immediately I knew I wanted a deep blue base paired with silver stamping. I actually don't do a lot of silver stamping generally, but it just felt like the right fit for this design. For the base, I ended up going with a really deep classic navy blue but once I had applied it, it felt like it needed a little something. I ended up grabbing for a blue to violet iridescent flakie topper and I think it added just the right amount of texture and depth to that base polish.

For the stamping, I was initially going to apply the full image to all of my nails and just alternate the direction of placement, but ultimately at the last minute I decided to do something a little bit different. On my first and ring fingers, I did apply the full image and I did alternate the direction of placement. For my pinkie and thumb, I removed about half of the image at a diagonal and applied that partial image to the tip of my nails. And finally, for my ring finger I chose the largest star in the image along with three stars surrounding it and applied that towards the tip of my nail. 

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

* = PR Sample

I think that one of the lessons I keep learning when it comes to nail art - and honestly, just any sort of creative endeavor, really, which is what I tend to think of nail art as - is that sometimes you have to trust in simplicity. I am definitely someone who tends to default to asking myself if I have done enough and I think sometimes that is what leads me to doing too much. Simplicity really is sometimes the best option.

If you're interested in trying out any of the Pueen products I used for this mani, they definitely have my stamp of approval and I'm pretty sure they're all available from Amazon!

Thanks for reading!