For this week's Mani Monday, I'm collaborating with Jayne (Cosmetic Proof) and Renee (See The World In PINK) again with a theme of BRIGHT. I feel like there's about a million ways that you could go with that theme, which is probably why when I sat down to do my nails I had a few false starts before settling on what I ended up with here. Honestly, I had a burst of inspiration from two different things to ultimately lead to this mani and I'm super happy with it.

Ever since I was a teenager and I learned how to make my own dream catcher from a local Ojibwe woman, I've loved them both for the way they look but also for what they represented. I have a soft spot for symbols of protection, though I wouldn't really call myself a believer. From the Vegvisir (which I have every intention of having tattooed on my body some day soon as a  nod to my Scandinavian roots) to the Dream Catcher, I just love the idea of these beautiful things intended to provide protection. I think it's less for the mystical idea of it and more for the emotional idea of it. Either way, I really love dream catchers and I felt like they fit well with this base.

The other thing that inspired me were these Celosia that I picked up at a local nursery over the weekend to plant in pots to brighten up my back yard. I'm kind of in love with them and as I sat and looked at them in the sun I knew that when I was putting together a bright nail art look for today I really wanted to take those flowers as inspiration... and I suspect they'll continue to provide inspiration over the rest of the summer.

Though I called these tie die because of the vibe they give me, this is actually a smoosh marble mani. Unlike some other smoosh mani's I've done where I've applied polish straight to my stamper and then dabbed it onto the nails, I used a different technique for these. Using my new nail art mat, I did a layer of Sinful Colors Snow Me White (which I also applied a base of to my nails) and then added this stripes of Julie G Canary Islands, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Dreamsicle, Julie G Bikini, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Cherry Fast. I used a tiny ditting tool to swirl the shades together and then firmly pressed my stamper into the polish and gave a 45º twist to swirl the color even more. 

I let the polish dry on the stamper for about 15 minutes and then transfered it to another stamper before transfering it to my nails. The reason for this is because I wanted the more abstract side to transfer to my nails, so I needed to reverse the image. You could also do this by letting the polish dry and lifting it up off the stamper to make a decal. It basically works the same way, I just feel like I have better control if I use the stamper to transfer to the nail. Using a stainless steel cuticle tool (which I never actually use for my cuticles), I work around the cuticle to break up the decal and then remove it with tweezers. Finally, I melt the edges and clean them up with acetone and a clean up brush.

Once I finished the base, I went in with two solid favorites from Bundle Monster. I used the Stamping Polish in Straight Up Black and paired it with three different patters from the BM-S301 Stamping Plate. I started by applying the half dream catcher image to my first and third fingers and then used the feathers image on my middle finger and thumb, and finally I used the smaller full dream catcher image to fill up my pinkie. I liked how all of these images paired and gave variation without being disparate. Once my stamping had dried a little, I finished with Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat and voila!

I feel like this mani really couldn't get any summerier. The way that the base coloured tranferred really did, I think, give it a tie dye kind of look and the black stamping is actually really busy but somehow feels delicate and not too over the top to me. I'm kind of in love with this one, I must say! 

As with every collab I do with Jayne and Renee, don't forget to head over to their blogs to check out what they have for their CBBxManiMonday this week! And if f you're interested in more nail related content, please be sure to head over to my nail specific Instagram @pblnails for all nails all the time!

Thanks for reading!