For pretty much as long as I've been doing Christmas nail art, I've wanted to put together a Grinch mani. Every year there's a short list of Christmas movies that I always make sure to curl up and watch and the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is definitely on that list, so I have a soft spot for the Grinchiness of it all. This year I thought ahead and ordered myself a Dr. Seuss themed stamping plate so that I would have what I needed to put together this design and I decided to keep it really simple with bold, bright colors and straightforward stamping. As a resident of the kitchen sink squad, I will go ahead and applaud my own restraint on this one. 

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One of the things I did while I was putting together ideas for this year's Halloween nail art was to go back and look at designs I'd done previously. I didn't want to do a straight up recreation of any of them, but I did like the idea of doing some twists on some of my favorites. One of my absolute favorites from last year was my Spooky Grunge Voodoo Doll mani that I did and I definitely felt like I could easily take the spirit of that one and do something a little darker and more gritty with it this year. In the end... I feel pretty confident that I was able to do just that. 

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So today, the day I'm posting this, is my birthday. And it's one of those big, scary birthdays with a 0 at the end of the number, which is admittedly a little bit more stressful than I was anticipating. Anyway, I kept my birthday in mind when I sat down to do this mani and decided that I would lean into what I do this time every year, which is Harry Potter themed nails. Honestly, there is a fairly good chance that I will be curling up with some Harry Potter movies this weekend and trying to enjoy my big bad birthday. 

I want to acknowledge that I understand a lot of people don't have the affection for the Harry Potter series that they might have once because of the author, and I think that's perfectly valid and I support that. However, for me I have so much affection and warmth and love for this series that I will continue to enjoy it and find comfort and joy in it while actively disagreeing with the opinions and behavior of the author. 

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