When I got it in my head that I wanted to dedicate a summer week to wilderness inspired nails, I knew that I wanted to do something with mountains and specifically with the image that I used for today's mani from the Uberchic Woodland Chic stamping plate. I've seen so many nail artists do really beautiful designs with this image, which obviously gives inspiration, but I wanted to take my own spin on it. Some of my favorite designs with this image have been simple, high contrast designs on a dark base... so clearly I had to go in entirely the opposite direction, because why not?

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Like I said, I knew that I didn't want to go with a dark base and that I wanted something that had much less contrast than what I've seen other artists do with this design, so I decided to not only go with a really soft contrast for the stamping but also with the shades I used for the background smoosh. I decided to use three polishes from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri line, which are some of my favorites in the drugstore to use for nail art, and apply them in a smoosh. The shades I chose are an almost-white cool toned pale pink, a super soft dove grey, and a super soft pale lavender. Honestly, this was a bit of an experiment because I didn't know if there would even be enough contrast with these really pale, similar shades, but it actually really worked out.

I started by applying one coat of the light pink to all of my nails and let that dry down before applying a latex cuticle barrier to make clean up a little easier. Next, I applied dots of each polish to the head of a stamper sort of randomly and then just pounced it onto my nail a couple of times until I got the blend I was looking for. (If these instructions are confusing, head over to @pblnails on Instagram to check out the video tutorial!)

Once I was finished with the smooshing, I cleaned up some of the excess polish around my cuticles using clean up brush dipped in acetone. Trust me, you don't wanna let that dry or cleanup will be a nightmare later. I don't like to take off the latex at this point unless I have to, so I tend to leave it while the polish dries. 

For my stamping, I kept it really simple. I picked up the same image for each nail using a white stamping polish and just adjusted my placement so that each nail is different and the overall look very much evokes a sort of minimalist mountain range vibe. Once I was happy with my stamping, I cleaned up completely and then sealed it in with a water based top coat. I finished with a layer of matte top coat to all of my nails to really drive home the soft, minimalist feel.

And voila!

Not even gonna pretend that I'm not obsessed with how this turned out. I love a smoosh mani, it's probably the technique that I'm most known for at this point, and I think it worked beautifully as a base for this design. In the end I think this is the kind of nail art that doesn't necessarily look like nail art until you really get a good look at it, and then when you really see all of the details, it sings. I love it. 

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