NAIL ART: Black & Olive Graphic Grunge Nails

by - January 25, 2021


I have to admit that I'm cultivating a little bit of an obsession with Cirque Colors. The more different finishes I try from the brand, the more I fall in love with their formulas. If you're unfamiliar with Cirque, they're an indie polish brand out of Brooklyn, NY. I first became aware of them because of the really unique and modern créme shades that they release, but they also have some other really, really stunning finishes in their range. Lately, I've become a little bit obsessed with one particular finish and that's what I've got to show you today, continuing with this month's #CBBxManiMonday non-theme-theme of untrieds!

Keep reading for more!


Cirque has five shades in their range in this sort of finish - and so far I've gotten my hands on three of them, because I'm kind of in love. Mosaic is describes as "a slate green nail polish with gold metallic flakes" and it's just... I mean, c'mon. It's gorgeous! The flakes in this polish are irregular gold metallic flakes, which give it a really beautiful look of texture and reminds me, particularly in this shade, of a speckled stone. The formula on it is really, really beautiful and easy to work with. It applies really evenly and I find that I don't have to fuss around too much to get a really even distribution of the flakes in even coat. It's pretty sheer on that first coat, but I find that it builds really quickly on that second coat for full opacity. I'm just in love with this formula - and you can get that as soon as I can, I'll be getting my hands on the two shades in this finish that I don't have yet.


One issue that I do have with these polishes is that they need a lot of contrast to really work well as a base for nail art (which tends to be the case with a lot of flakie polishes, I find.) So for this mani, I just went all in with high contrast black and a really strong, grunge stamping image. In my mind, I felt like there was a sort of meeting of grunge and opulence in the base shade, bringing in this image really worked for me. As I tend to do, I did alternate the direction that I applied the image on my nails to add some visual interest and I really, really feel like it worked perfectly for this design.

To finish, of course, I sealed in my stamping with a water based top coat and then finished with a generous layer of glossy top coat and voila!


All Products Used
Cirque Colors - Mosaic
Whats Up Nails - Neither Noir
Maniology Smudge Free Top Coat
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Clearly Quick
Nicole Diary 146 Stamping Plate
Whats Up Nails Magnified Clear Stamper


Seriously, you guys, if you're in the market for some beautiful indie polishes and you haven't check out Cirque yet, I highly, highly recommend. They have some seriously beautiful polishes and I have really, really loved working with their formulas. I actually haven't tried out their créme polishes yet, but they're on my list!

Don't forget to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK for more #CBBxManiMonday nails!

Thanks for reading!

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