NAIL ART: Pink & Red Negative Space Heart Smoosh Nails
If there's one thing that's just straight up true about me when it comes to my nails (but also really sort of us just in general, actually) it's that I love a theme. I think that's why January and November are generally the months I struggle with the most when it comes to nails, because I've just come off pretty intensely specific themes and I've sort of got nothing until the next theme comes around. Just me? Anyway, that's why I'm SUPER excited to get into February and do some cute Valentine's Day/Love themed nail art. It's not generally my thing, but it's a theme and if it's a theme I'm going to theme it. (It's Monday and I had a really weird weekend, so I apologize now for the fact that my brain is... particularly in the weirder me parts at the moment.)
Anyway, keep reading to for more of this mani - and my madness!
I feel like I'm definitely someone who goes through phases with the types of nail art I do but there are a few techniques that I always circle back to. One of those techniques is, of course, the smoosh, which I forever love for how easy and completely versatile it is. For this mani, I definitely had it in my head that I wanted to go hard with the Valentine's vibe and just have straight up pink, pink, pink. (In general, I am not a huge pink kind of a girl, but at this time of year it just makes sense.)
To start, I applied a coat of white créme polish to all of my nails and let it dry down before applying a generous amount of cuticle barrier to make for easier clean up. For the smoosh, I decided to go with three shades - a white, a soft pink, and a red with a strong cherry tone to it. I applied dots of each polish to the head of my smoosh stamper (yes, I have a stamper that I use specifically for smooshes) and then pounced the stamper onto my nails until I got the desired marbley blend. I cleaned up the edges and the excess polish with a cleanup brush dipped in acetone after each smoosh because I find this tidies up best when you clean up while the polish is completely wet.
For the stamping, I decided to go with one of my favorite stamping images in my collection. This negative space heart image from the Pueen Fairytale Lover 02 Stamping Plate is the one I always seem to reach for when I want to do some love themed nails and I knew it would be perfect to pop this base. I went with a white stamping polish for this (I thought about sticking with pink, but I felt like it needed the contrast) and just applied it to all of my nails without any fussing about direction or anything like that - just a straight up transfer.
Once I was finished my stamping and had cleaned up my edges, I first applied a water based top coat to seal in the stamping and then followed with a quick dry glossy top coat for strength and shine. And voila!
All Products Used
OPI - Alpine Snow
Color Club - Regatta Red
Color Club - Totally Worth It
What's Up Nails - Blanc My Mind
Maniology - Smudge Free Top Coat
Quo Flash Dry Top Coat
Pueen Fairytale Lover 02 Stamping Plate
Whats Up Nails Magnified Clear Stamper
It's funny because these nails are so absolutely not my usual taste, but I also absolutely love them and could not wait to share them with you guys. I really do love the way that the smoosh turned out and I think that negative space stamping really pops the design.
Keep checking back over the next two weeks for more Valentine's Day themed nails - I really, really do love a theme, so there'll be at least 4-5 mani's coming up - and head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK for more red & pink themed nail art for #CBBxManiMonday!
Thanks for reading!
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