So I have gone entirely down a rabbit hole of cat eye gel polishes at this point, I've gotta be honest. I decided on a bit of a whim to pick up two of the Born Pretty Sea Blue Cat Magnetic Gel Polishes recently and pretty much as soon as I tried one of them out I went and ordered 5 more. Like, honestly, it was love at first cure, pretty much. I actually did do nail art with that look, but I didn't film it so I didn't both photographing it, especially since I knew there was likely going to be a LOT of nail art coming up featuring these polishes.

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The shade I used as the base for this mani actually looks much more purple in the bottle and online than it ends up being on the nails, but the much more neutral silvery grey look that it gives on the nails is just... out of this world. The cool thing to me about this line of polishes is just how impactful the shift in them ends up being. I can't even really explain it and though I did manage to get some beautiful pictures and video I still feel like it doesn't do it justice. Gonna stop gushing now...

So for this mani, as with all of my gel mani's on my tutorial hand, I started with a generous coat of Unt Ready For Takeoff Peel Off Base*, which is an absolutely necessary step for me. Next, I went in with one layer of a sheer milky white polish to just add a hint of camouflage to my natural nail since the cat eye gel is see through at some angles. I think the difference this layer of polish made was quite subtle, but I do definitely think that it did what I was hoping it would.

Okay now for the fun part! I actually had to watch a couple of videos on how to use the magnetic to get this cat eye look, but it's actually pretty easy and I'll do my best to explain it - though if you want to see it in action, be sure to head over and check out my video tutorial for this mani over on Instagram. Okay, so after applying a thin layer of the cat eye polish, I first moved my magnet to one side of my nail, keeping it level with my finger nail until I saw some of the pigment move. Next, I moved to the other side of the nail and did the same thing, but this time with the tip end of the magnet pointing to the nail. Finally, I moved to the tip of the nail and repeated the process again with the same side of the magnet that I used for the first side. These three moves of the magnet, I think, create the best cat eye look. After curing, I repeated the exact same process again for the second coat and cured that as well.

Now I've gotta say that this is my second ever pop art nail design and the first that I've done using gel polish and I very, very sincerely never want to try this technique with regular polish again. This, for me, will be a gel only type of design because it's just so much easier and yields such smoother and more flawless results this way. I started by applying the outline using a black gel liner polish in a fairly thick line around the perimeter of my nail. Next, I went in with an almost white gel liner polish and applied the highlight at the base of the nail in the form of a tapered line following the curve of my nail and a small dot at the bottom. I also applied a shadow line on the opposite side at the tip of the nail with my black liner polish.

Once the nail art was all done and cured, I finished with a generous layer of no wipe gel top coat for shine and to really bring everything together. And voila!

Am I wildly, madly, absolutely crazy in love with how this mani turned out? Absolutely I am. I think this is one of the most exciting mani's I've done in a white and it immediately has me wanting to try out both more pop art nail designs as well as more nail art using the Born Pretty Sea Blue Cat Magnetic gel polishes, so I really, really can't wait for my order to arrive with more shades to play with.

Be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK for more #CBBxManiMonday nail art!

Thanks for reading!