I'm not gonna lie - my brain is absolutely LOVING having a theme again. As soon as I transitioned into thinking about doing Valentine's Day nails, my brain immediately had about a million ideas and a lot of energy and desire to get them done. I just love a theme - it gives my brain something to latch onto. For this mani I also used a new-to-me stamping plate from Hit The Bottle that I've been dying to use since I got it months ago and a super pretty new gel polish from Born Pretty. All in all, I'm super excited about this mani!

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I must say, I'm still pretty neck deep in a bit of a January fog and definitely lacking in both energy and inspiration just in general, not just with my nails. That being said, I got some new PR goodies from Born Pretty last week and there were definitely some items that I was really excited to play around with. For today's mani, I used two of those new products to create a really quick and easy gel mani that is incredibly beginner friendly - and cute, to boot!

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With everything 90s having such a moment right now - seriously, the fashion makes it feel like I've gone in a time machine back to junior high! - I've been really enjoying leaning into the nostalgia. One of the prints that was sort of ubiquitous back then was the classic white and yellow daisies on a black background print. I feel like we all had something in this print back then - most likely a dress with a circle skirt that fell to or just above the knee. Just me? Anyway, I was feeling inspired by this particular slice of nostalgia for this week's #CBBxManiMonday nails, so I leaned in!

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I had the idea for today's mani when I was almost asleep one night last week, which should have ensured that there was no way I was going to end up trying it... and then it just stuck in my head and I had to figure out if it was even possible to get the look that I had in mind. This can always be an issue when it comes to actually getting a design from my imagination onto my nails, since my imagination has zero constraints. Anyway, it turned out that it actually came together really smoothly and easily and I got to, once again, utilize the new Whats Up Nails Bloominosity Collection* for something other than its intended use. 

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A few weeks ago, there was a group on Instagram doing a nail art collab and they decided to use one of my designs as inspiration. I honestly didn't think that this mani was going to be as popular as it ended up being, but I'm so thrilled about it. It occurred to me when I was looking at all of those recreations using those winter shades that this mani could very, very easily be translated to pretty much any season or occasion, so I decided to recreate it myself using pastel polishes rather than those richly saturated shades I used for the original.

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When I tell you I was excited about the new Whats Up Nails Bloominosity Collection*, I was REALLY excited. I love Whats Up Nails Stamping Polishes, so I'm always excited about a new launch, but I was particularly excited that they were doing a collection of pastels. Pastel stamping polishes aren't as common as one might hope and I pretty frequently do find myself wishing that I had a full rainbow of them in my collection - and now I do! As soon as I had them in hand, I wanted to use them and I was 100% ready to go fully kitchen sink with them... so I did! Minimalist, this mani is definitely not. 

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I've gotten to the point in my collection where I will sometimes buy things I'm really excited about, but then it's either not the time or for some other reason I put it into my collection and forget about it. Over the weekend, I was reorganizing some stamping plates when I came upon the Hit The Bottle To Boldly Go Stamping Plate, which I was like... basically obsessed with getting my hands on when it was first released but didn't get a chance to use right away because of the holidays and... Well, you get it. It still had the blue plastic on it, so it was time to peel it off and put it to work.

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So, straight out of the gate, I must admit that today's mani is literally the direct result of just slapping two new-to-me polishes on my nails and then just turning it into nail art. Honestly, that might be one of the best things about these sort of blobby type designs - and yes, I realize that I'm probably the only person who calls these designs blobby, but it makes sense in my brain so I just roll with it. Anyway, I picked up two new polishes on my lunchbreak and brought them back to my office and just decided to slap them onto a bare nail and immediately this idea for this mani came together and I put the whole thing together officially pretty much as soon as I got home. 

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Last week when I posted my Abstract Watermelon Gradient Nails, I promised that there would be more fruit to come - and here is the fruit! I've actually had this mani in mind all summer as well, or some version of it at least, but I tend to talk myself out of doing reverse stamping because it tends to feel like a lot so it took me a while to get here. In all honesty reverse stamping isn't actually as much work as I convince myself that it is and the result always seems to be worth the work you put in to get to it. 

So... let's get to the fruits, shall we?

I have a confession to make - this week's #CBBxManiMonday is actually one that I did a while back and never posted. After a pretty big DIY project for the house this weekend, I just did not have it in me to put together any nail art so I decided to finally give this mani its time to shine. As we're getting to the end of the summer, I will admit that I'm also finding myself already shifting gears into fall mode so putting together Summer themed mani's is definitely becoming trickier as my mind says it's cozy time.

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Recently I've been really, really drawn to a lot of stamping designs I've seen that include a sort of scattered layering of different images in different colors and I always, always want to do that on my nails... and then it intimidates the crap out of me and I don't. For this week's #CBBxManiMonday though, I was in a bit of a mood and I decided it was worth a try. I had a sort of loose idea of what I was going to do and the stamping plate I wanted to use to do it, so I just went for it and I am immediately obsessed. Like... I literally wanted to take it off immediately and try another version of it, that's how obsessed. 

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Hey, everyone! I have to admit that I had something else entirely planned for this week's Allyship themed Mani Monday that was focusing on Indigenous History Month and the importance of standing up alongside the indigenous community here in Canada as we grapple with both our history and the current issues affecting indigenous communities all over the country. These things are profoundly important. But this week specifically... I'm tired. And I'm sad. And I'm angry. Alongside some personal life struggles that have been sitting on my shoulders, the overturning of Roe v. Wade last week in the US and the very vocal minority of people with too much power over policy who clearly don't think women are whole people who should have autonomy has my brain really twisted up and I couldn't focus on much else at the moment. So I want to tell you a story before I tell you about these nails - and it's short, but fairly devastating.

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For this week's Allyship inspired #CBBxManiMonday, I knew that I wanted to lean in to supporting all of the different wings and facets of the LGBTQ+ community by featuring nail art inspired by several different Pride flags, but initially I struggled pretty hard with how to actually do that in a way that maintained cohesion and.. you know, looked nice. Ultimately, I decided to go with this swoopy abstract dotticure featuring the color patterns of several different Pride flags that live under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.

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I have to admit that this week's #CBBxManiMonday is really intensely personal for me in a way that generally I don't delve into here on the blog. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of my brother's passing and I'm having a hard time separating the theme of allyship from that. I don't want to go too much into details about my brother and my family as those things are deeply personal and not suitable for a nail art post, but I will say that he was a member of the LGBTQ+ community and his struggles with his identity undoubtedly contributed to his passing, which is absolutely devastating. This is one of the reasons that, for me, allyship with the LGBTQ+ community is so important and why I believe so wholeheartedly in being a part of creating a safer world for people in all marginalized communities. 

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Our march theme for #CBBxManiMonday is Floral and I have to admit that I was a little stumped on what I was going to do since I went so hard earlier in the season with floral nails. In the end, though, I decided to lean into where my mind is sort of stuck at this point - abstract nails - and add in a floral element. It's a bit of a fudge, but... that's what you do when you have free reign with a theme, right? I mean.. right??? Anyway, I grabbed for my current favorite stamping plate and some must have indie polishes and I just... sort of went for it. 

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I'm deviating a little bit away from my plan to find inspiration in old favorite stamping images for today's #CBBxManiMonday because I had a bit of a lightbulb moment for some St. Patrick's Day themed nails using a couple of different stamping images from Whats Up Nails that I hadn't actually used before. I knew I wanted to do some St Patrick's Day nails this year - I don't think I actually did any last year - but I wasn't sure entirely what I was going to do until I considered pairing two different full coverage stamping images on the same nail like I did for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and then it all came together pretty quickly in my head. 

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I'm not generally someone who will tell anyone that they HAVE TO have something - especially that they have to buy something. In all of the years that I've had this blog, I've stuck to that and have really only wanted to encourage people to buy things that are right for their needs or just exciting to them. All of this to say... If you're into nail stamping and you don't own the Whats Up Nails A020 Floralize Your Texture Stamping Plate, you probably pretty much need to get it. It's just one of those plates that you can do so much with and it's a really great supplementary plate if you're looking to add interest and detail to other mani's. As I'm continuing with my focus on my most loved stamping images this month, I knew that this plate was one I was going to be reaching for - though I definitely used more than just one image on this one. 

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Lately I've definitely felt really inspired to create layered stamping designs, using combinations of small images to fill the nail and create various abstract and graphic designs. It occurred to me over the weekend, though, that it could be cool to try doing something like that using full coverage images in a sort of patchwork style design. I'll definitely admit that I sort of winged it on this one using a new-to-me stamping plate as well as a stunning polish that I recently picked up from PPU, but I'm actually really thrilled with how it turned out. 

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It has really been no secret that I've been struggling with motivation and inspiration lately, but as soon as I saw the stamping plate that I used for today's mani I absolutely couldn't wait to get it on my nails. It arrived last week and I finally got to sit down and use it over the weekend. I have to say... I feel like this might have been just the mani to pull me out of my slump and now I'm brimming with ideas of things I want to try - so February should be a fun nail art month. 

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