THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS. 

I spent literal years wanting a stamping plate featuring mermaid scales because I loved the look of mermaid scale mani's, but it took me ages to get one. Now, luckily, I have a few different options, but this really basic one from the Pueen Nail Party 03 Stamping Plate* is definitely a favorite and one that I will often reach for when I want a classic mermaid scales mani. For this one, I wanted to go for a really soft, low contrast look, which is opposite of my usual technique, and I think it turned out really beautifully. 

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 THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

As soon as I saw this stamping image on the Pueen 72 Stamping Plate from the 24B Stamping Plate Collection, I immediately wanted it on my nails. It's such an amazing image and the size of it (it fills a whole small round plate) makes it super versatile and easy to use to create a full mani with each nail looking the same. Normally when I think florals, I lean towards pink and purple, but for this one something in my was just screaming for orange and yellow... so I went with it!

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 THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

Did I end up having to do today's mani twice because the first time went great until it went absolutely off the rails? Yep! Was it worth it in the end? Also yep! I've had the neon pigment powders that I used for this mani in my collection for over a year now, but this is the first time I've actually used them and while I think there is probably a bit of a learning curve, I am also super into them and have a lot of ideas of other mani's I might wanna do with them.

But for now, let's get to this mani, shall we?

I was in a bit of a mood when I sat down to do today's mani, but what better way to clear up the gloom than to put together some super bright, fun summer nails? I decided to just go all in with neon base polishes and some layered stamping from a Clear Jelly Stamper plate that I'd had my eye on for quite a while and finally snagged from a friend of mine who was destashing a lot of her plates. 

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This week's #CBBxManiMonday is yet another one of those mani's for which this is my second attempt. It just happens sometimes that I try something and I initially really like it, but then as I think about it, it becomes clear that I actually want to do the same thing but different. And I realize that this probably sounds really neurotic of me... but what can you do? Anyway, without further ado, let's get into the nails, shall we? 

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 THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

After last week's faux watermarble design, I decided that I wanted to do another one this week using completely different techniques to get a totally different look. One thing I love about faux watermarble stamping is that you can do a million different things with the base to give yourself a million different designs. Also, it's been a while since I had done a smoosh, which is one of my favorite base techniques for stamping, so I grabbed for my favorite pastel neons and went for it. 

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I really am having a resurgence of excitement for nail art now that we've transitioned into spring and I feel like I can delve into the designs and styles that I love for this time of year. I particularly, for some reason, love to do gradients in the springtime and I've been fully leaning into that for the past couple of weeks. There are a lot of different ways that you can sponge on gradients, of course, and I have to admit that I pretty much love them all, but this style of vertical rainbow gradient will always hold a special place for me and it seemed like a good time to dive into one.

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 THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

Something really interesting to me that's happening right now is that so much from my childhood and adolescence is starting to be back in style to the point that I feel like I've been transported back to junior high. It's really, really strange, but sort of fun. One thing that seems to be having a moment right now is the sort of psychadelic hippie thing that really got big in the 90s and I am very much here for it, so I decided to keep that in mind when I was putting together this mani. 

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Is it weird that I've wanted to do today's mani for literally months, but I've been saving it for August specifically because there's just something about it that felt like it needed to be done this month? I think this might be one of those "nobody thinks like I do" kinds of moments, but I think I have a lot of those when it comes to when and how I do nail art designs. That said, one of my favorite mani's from last summer was a desert landscape design and I also saved that one for August, so... at least I'm consistent?

Anyway, before I go on any more of a ramble about why the desert is for August, let's get into the nails, shall we?

Looking through all of the nail art I've done this summer, there isn't a lot of respite from the bright and I have to admit that I was feeling a little bit fatigued with all of that color so I decided to go for a design that's a little more muted and soft. Admittedly, a not insignificant portion of this design is inspired by The Golden Girls, which still holds up as one of my favorite TV shows of all time. When it comes to the aesthetic, there's something about that sort of washed out tropical Miami in the 80s vibe that just absolutely calls to me and that's what I sort of leaned into with this mani. 

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It was definitely a hot weekend here in Winnipeg, so I couldn't resist leaning distinctly into the neon of it all. Honestly, there's just something about July that, for me, screams for neon nails and even as I'm typing this post I find myself looking down at my nails and just getting a charge from how much I love how this mani turned out. I really love that these sorts of blobby abstract designs are so much on trend in nail art right now because not only are they really versatile and fun, but I think that they're fairly accessible to do at home regardless of your nail art skill, which is always a plus in my opinion. 

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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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I have to admit, today's mani has a very, very specific inspiration but also looks pretty much nothing like what it was inspired by - unsurprising to me, as I understand my brain, but might seem a little bit weird to others. I was actually inspired by a set of full cover water decals from Whats Up Nails and I would have happily done a straight recreation if I'd had a stamping image that would have worked, but the color story and the overall vibe were enough to really inspire me to create these nails and they're definitely summery and fun.

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After swatching the Bio Sculpture Live Life Loudly Collection* for Summer 2022, I was really excited to try and create some nail art using them. I generally try to hold off on the neons until at least June, but we're almost there and I didn't want to stifle the creativity so I just went for it. This is such a gorgeous neon collection and I suspect that it'll end up popping up here on the blog a lot in the next few months, but for the first mani I did using it, I had a very specific idea that I wasn't entirely sure I was going to love.. BUT I DID. 

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Admittedly, sometimes the inspiration for a design just doesn't come and I just grab for things that are at hand and try different things until something works out. That is definitely what happened with this mani. I had most of the polishes out on my desk already and sort of with a shrug I decided to just play around a bit - and I think it worked out much better than I could have expected when all was said and done. I've been pretty deep in themes recently (as you can probably tell if you've scrolled through my feed) so it was nice to just dip into something fun and graphic and entirely themeless.

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Though it very much wasn't my intention and I didn't even really notice until several hours after finishing doing today's mani, I definitely inadvertently created a nail art that just straight up reminds me of the school picture day background of my youth. Don't get me wrong, I know it isn't a straight up recreation - that would be a bit of a stretch for something so unintended - but way the graphic lines and the shades in the gradient vibe together just completely makes me think of all of the absolutely tragic school pictures my mom has of me from over the years. Ugh. Anyway, I like the mani though!

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So... I was having a rough day as far as nails were concerned and I was feeling pretty defeated. I had tried twice to get the mani that I wanted done and... it just wasn't working out on my nails the way it had worked in my head, so I was ready to throw up my hands and call it a day. However, then my brain started going in a completely different direction and this mani came together really, really quickly and easily without having to mess with it too much. Also, I was rewatching Pitch Perfect for the millionth time as I did this mani and I'm convinced that it helped. 

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Continuing on with an entire week dedicated to cactus themed nails, I kept this one nice and soft and generally pretty simple. This was sort of loosely inspired by this design from Sveta Sanders, though I feel like I made it my own with a different technique and vibe overall. I LOVE that mani though - honestly, who doesn't love pretty much all of her work? ANYWAY. As I said, I wanted to keep this one nice and soft with one of my absolute favorite color pairings - purple and green. 

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Back in the spring, I was explaining to my best friend that I really wanted to do cactus nails, but I didn't feel like it was the right time - and immediately she understood that what I meant was that my brain says that cactus nails are for the summer. This is why she's my best friend, our brains work the same way when it comes to arbitrary things such as this. Anyway, now that we're well into summer, clearly that means it's time to get this show on the road and so a whole week of Cactus themed nails - starting with these! 

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Honestly, I just can't get enough of fruit nails lately and I knew I wanted to do something with strawberries, but I knew that I didn't want to do anything too similar to what I did last year - even though I knew I was going to be using the same stamping image. It wasn't until I was scrolling through my own Instagram feed and was reminded of this mani from a couple of months ago that inspiration struck and I knew exactly what I was going to do. Honestly, I'll take inspiration where I can find it and I love, love, love where this one took me. 

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