Happy Monday, friends! After the madness that was 12 Nails Of Halloween, I definitely needed a little bit of a palette cleanse for this week's #CBBxManiMonday and I got a picture in my head of exactly what I wanted, with exactly what polishes I wanted to use to create it, so I just kind of went for it... And I'm kinda in love! One of the first nail art attempts I ever shared was a drag marble - and I was pretty proud of it - but I feel like my skills and eye for what I like has really evolved over the past couple of years and I'm kinda swoony about this one. 

Keep reading for more!

When it comes to a palette cleanse, for me there's one polish that always sticks out and always seems to be what I reach for and that's Essie Gel Coutire in Last Nightie, which is sort of the perfect soft nude for my skin tone in a formula that I seriously can't get enough of. So, of course, that's what I ended up reaching for first for this mani. And because I wanted to make it really soft but still have some contrast and impact, I decided to pair Last Nightie with ILNP No Promises, which is a holographic plum berry shade that has this sort of rose gold reflect in it that makes this pair really work for me.

For the drag marble, I decided to do decals instead of doing it directly on the nail to really give a smoky kind of swirl that seems to carry on past the edges of the nail. I grabbed my nail art mat and applied thin coats of Last Nightie in a rectangle larger than my nail and then applied about four varying sized dots of No Promises. To get the swirl, I used the smaller end of my Essence Dotting Tool (it's the smallest option I have in my collection) to lightly swirl the polish until I got the look I wanted. One big tip I have is not to over swirl, because this tends to feel more impactful when you use a light hand. 

Once the decals had dried, I applied a thin coat of my Chen Xi Star Glue to aid in the transfer as well as some cuticle barrier to help with clean up. I like to apply the decals when they've dried enough to lift them from the mat, but not enough to start getting too firm - flexibility is key when applying decals. Once the glue had dried, I used my NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper* to transfer them onto the nail and then used my Born Pretty Store Cuticle Tool to trim the decal and acetone to clean and crisp up the edges. I finished with a generous coat of Seche Vive Quick Dry Top Coat and voila!

All Products Used

Essie Gel Couture - Last Nightie

ILNP - No Promises

Seche Vive Quick Dry Top Coat

ChenXi Star Glue

BornPrettyStore Nail Art Mat

Essence Dotting Tool

BornPrettyStore Cuticle Tool

NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper*

Honestly, I actually did this mani on Saturday and since then I haven't been able to stop staring at it. I feel like it somehow walks that line of simple but still impactful and it's very, very much exactly my style. I think I might have to do some more drag marble mani's in the near future!

Be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof, See The World In PINK, and Tea & Nail Polish for more nail content for today's #CBBxManiMonday!

Thanks for reading!