Pretty much from the moment I saw the Nicole Diary stamping plate that I used for today's mani, I knew that I was going to do some version of this. It went through a few different iterations in my mind before I settled on this one, but I think it was pretty much always going to look something like this. That's definitely one thing I'm really loving as I've settled more and more into my own style when it comes to nail art - ideas like this come together pretty fully formed in my head without having to do as much trial and error as I did when I was first starting out. 

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I absolutely knew that I wanted a purple base for this mani, but choosing which purple definitely posed more of a struggle than I might have guessed. In the end, I went with Low-Key Lavender from Sinful Colors, which is this really pretty ashy lavender shade with a subtle pink glow in it. I knew that I was going to use a matte top coat in the end with this mani - it's basically required with this kind of grungy design - and I had a strong feeling that the pink glow was going to show up really pretty when I took the shine down.

For this mani, I applied 2 coats of Low-Key Lavender to all of my nails and let them dry down before moving onto my stamping.

As I said, this mani was definitely inspired entirely by the plate that I used to make it, so obviously I was going to do a combination of images from this one plate. I decided that I wanted to add some interest and definition for this look, so I went with a layered stamping technique. To do this, you just first apply the image in a lighter color, in this case white, and then go in with the same image just very slightly offset in your main color, in this case black. I decided to alternate two smaller images with this one full coverage image to break up the mani and give some design interest and I went with all images featuring bats in order to have a cohesive overall design.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I went in with a nail art top coat to seal in the design and then followed with a layer of matte top coat to take down the shine. And voila!

Like I said, this mani basically came to my brain fully formed and I didn't need to do too much thinking about how I was going to do it. One tip I have, though, based on this mani is that if you're struggling with getting definition and oomph from single layer stamping, consider doing this layering technique because I feel like it really sort of elevates the whole design.

Be sure to check back here on the blog every day in October for more Halloween themed nail art and head over to @pblnails on Instagram for all of my designs along with video tutorials!

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