So... I was having a rough day as far as nails were concerned and I was feeling pretty defeated. I had tried twice to get the mani that I wanted done and... it just wasn't working out on my nails the way it had worked in my head, so I was ready to throw up my hands and call it a day. However, then my brain started going in a completely different direction and this mani came together really, really quickly and easily without having to mess with it too much. Also, I was rewatching Pitch Perfect for the millionth time as I did this mani and I'm convinced that it helped. 

Anyway, keep reading for more!

When it came to the colors I wanted to use for this mani, it was pretty straight forward. I wanted a soft cool toned pink base and Essence's Lilac Vibes was already out on my desk so it seemed like a pretty solid choice. For the stamping polishes, I wanted to keep it bright and sort of in that same color family so I grabbed a bright sky blue, a fuscia, a bright purple, and finally a rich teal. I knew I wanted the leaves to be sort of the central focus of the mani, but I stuck with the teal for them because a true green just wouldn't have fit the vibe I was going for. I swear, thinking about the colors I'm going to use in a mani and the executing takes way, way more time than it should for me, but I'm a perfectionist and color theory is super important to me when it comes to putting together nail art.

Anyway, for this mani, I applied two coats of my base color and let them dry down completely before moving on to my stamping.

I think the biggest thing when it comes to creating satisfying abstract or layered grunge type of nail art is that there has to be a method to the madness or it can end up looking messy and... just bad. For me, that means choosing images for the mani that will keep things cohesive. For this mani, even though each nail is different, I used the same 4 stamping polishes and the same three images to create the base design and then added one of two different leaves alternately to the center of each nail to finish. Placement of your stamping is pretty important to getting the overall look that you want as well, so I recommend thinking about balance and cohesion when you're placing your images.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I went in with a water based top coat to seal in the design and then finished with a matte top coat to take down the shine and voila!

I'm so completely in love with how this mani turned out and how easy it really was to accomplish. That's one of my favorite things about stamping, honestly. It takes a bit of work to get the hang of stamping and definitely requires some specific tools and products to do it well, but once you do there are just so many things you can do and designs you can accomplish. Can you tell this mani has me super excited? 

Be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK to check out more #CBBxManiMonday nails today!

Thanks for reading!