Happy Canada Day, everyone! 

I took last year off from Canada Day nails because the reality of the brutal and horrifying history of residential schools in this country had really come to light in an absolutely devastating way and I just couldn't bring myself to celebrate. I just want to make clear, this year I'm not in any way ignoring that reality, but my perspective is that it's only with all of the truth being out there that we can move forward and I do think that the good things about this country are worth fighting for and there is reconciliation and a bright future for everyone that is possible if we're all willing to do the work and listen to the voices that have for so long been silenced. I still believe this is a beautiful place to call home, not perfect but beautiful, and it's worth celebrating what it could be so that hopefully that becomes a reality. I couldn't do Canada Day nails without acknowledging that. 

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Obviously I had to stick with red and white maple leaf nails, right? Though I will say... did consider doing some beaver nails, but ultimately decided to just stick with some classic Canadian flag inspired nails for this one. Because matching reds can be hard (and trust me, I did try) I ended up using my Whats Up Nails Box Of Whine Stamping Polish both for stamping and as the base for my outer fingers and thumb. I ended up applying two coats for some added volume, though I did have full opacity with a very easy one.

For the white, I considered going with a white créme, but decided that I wasn't in the mood to be annoyed so I went with my personal favorite white polish in all of my collection - Jen & Berries' Snowfall In Sunnydale. It's perfection and if you hate white créme polishes, this is a really, really solid alternative. For this mani, I applied two coats of Snowfall In Sunnydale to my middle and ring fingers as a base.

For my stamping, I reached for my Mundo De Unas Canada Stamping Plate, which is a sort of random selection of Canadian things like beavers (again with the beavers) and maple syrup and a lot, a lot of maple leaves. I had initially planned to only stamp on the middle two fingers, but ultimately added small white maple leaves to all of my outer fingers at the end because it just felt a little sparse otherwise. For my middle finger, I decided to alter this full cover image, which has a larger outline of a maple leaf in the center of the image. I used a dotting tool to remove that from my stamper head before applying the image, and then picked up the image again and isolated enough maple leaves to fill in the center of the design. For my ring finger, my star finger if you will, I really wanted to use the LOVE image with the maple leaf for the O, so I first picked up the LVE image in black and applied that to the center of the nail and then picked up the maple leaf in red and applied it where the O would go at an angle.

Once I was happy with the design, I sealed everything in with a nail art top coat and then followed with a genergous layer of quick dry glossy top coat for shine and volume. And voila!

As I said above, I fully understand that there are a lot of people who are wearing orange this Canada Day or not really acknowledging it at all and I fully and completely respect that decision. For me, I wouldn't necessarily say that what I'm going is celebrating, but I do think that this is a beautiful country full of diversely beautiful human beings and for me personally it's that along with the hope for a brighter future where we all get the same opportunities to live full, free, safe lives in this beautiful country. 

Happy Canada Day, all! I hope you stay safe and healthy however you decide to spend today!

Thanks for reading!