Happy Earth Day, all! 

I honestly feel like the importance of Earth Day and the surrounding initiatives are becoming more and more important as the years go by and the state of our environment becomes more dire. For me, I think it's really important that we stop and think about the big picture and, while I certainly think that we as individuals have personal responsibility to make the best choices we can in regards to the environment, it's also profoundly important that we start acknowledging the larger implications of industry on the environment and stop allowing profit to be prioritized over the future of the planet and the wellbeing of all living creatures on it. For me, that's where my attention will be focused this earth day and I hope that moving forward more and more focus is put where it needs to be put to make real change. 

But for now... Earth Day Nail Art!

Going into this mani, I knew two things. The first was that I wanted to do an earth inspired mani with a smoosh for the water and stamping from the Whats Up Nails B068 Totally Spaced Out Stamping Plate for the land masses. And the second was that I wanted to use as mani Dimension Nails products as I could for this mani, since they have such a focus on activism related to animal welfare and the environment, which makes them the perfect brand to focus on for Earth Day. Also... they have some of the most stunning blue polishes in my collection, which is wildly convenient. 

I decided to go with four different blue polishes for this smoosh because I wanted to get a good amount of dimension without having to add any other colors to the mix. I went with a sort of ashy teal leaning blue, a rich azure, a deep cobalt, and finally a shimmery neutral medium blue for some added texture and shine. I started by applying one coat of the teal shade to all of my nails as my base and then applied a latex cuticle barrier to make cleanup easier. Next, I applied dots of all four shades to a stamper head and then pounced it onto my nail until I got the marbling that I was looking for. 

As I said, I knew that I was going to do this sort of globe style design using this new plate from Whats Up Nails, but I also knew that I could really only fill three nails with the world map design, so I had to do a little bit of on the fly planning - and I will admit that it didn't go exactly the way I was planning and I did have to redo my pointer finger. I decided to apply the map design to my middle, ring and pinkie fingers to start. It just made the most sense to me and I felt like those three fingers would carry the design best. Initially, I applied a text image from the same stamping plate to my pointer finger and the sort of swirly stars image to my thumb, but in the end I didn't like the text for this design so I ended up redoing that finger with the swirly design as well.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I took my time cleaning up the excess and crisping up my edges. Even with the cuticle barrier, there is definitely some clean up from a smoosh. Next, I sealed in the design with a nail art top coat before finishing with a generous layer of quick dry glossy top coat. And voila!

If you, like me, have been looking for a stamping plate with a world map on it, I definitely recommend checking out the Whats Up Nails B068 Totally Spaced Out Stamping Plate*. On top of the world map image, it has some great space themed designs perfect for galaxy designs. Also, if you're looking for some beautiful - and I mean absolutely stunningly beautiful - polishes from a brand that focuses on and prioritizes the well being of animals and the environment, I also highly recommend checking out Dimension Nails because they are just an absolutely phenomenal indie polish brand. 

All of the polishes I used in this smoosh were gifted to me from NailStuff.ca and if you're interested in trying them or any other polishes that they stock, you can use my affiliate code TRYSH for 10% off your first order. Seriously, even if you don't use my code, I highly recommend checking them out.

Thanks for reading and Happy Earth Day!