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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I've been having so much fun playing with inspiration from Whats Up Nails Water Decals that I couldn't resist trying out this one for today's mani. This one is definitely a much more on the nose recreation and the things that are different between my mani and the inspiration design are much smaller than others I've done recently. Still, it's actually a gradient configuration that I've never done before and I just think it's really beautiful, so let's get into it!

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 THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

I have to tell you, when I sat down to to today's mani I didn't feel entirely confident that it was going to work out, but I had a picture in my head and the products to create it so I figured it was worth a try and I have to tell you.. it went above and beyond what I could have hoped for. One of my favorite types of gradients is a thee color rainbow gradient because if you use the right polishes for the gradient you really do end up getting nearly a full spectrum of rainbow colors. Though this isn't technically a Pride mani, I think the pairing of the rainbow with the hearts works pretty well for the entire vibe of June. 

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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 say that after how much I fell in love with last week's Whats Up Nails Water Decals inspired nail design, it was pretty much a given that I was going to find inspiration in another one of their decal designs. Much like the first mani, I definitely took the inspiration for this one and then really made it my own with a different color scheme and ultimately a pretty different overall design, but the bones of the mani definitely came from the decal design.

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Hey guys! I think most nail artists that I've seen have some sort of classic mani's that they do and I have to say that today's mani is probably a version of that for me. Three years ago, when I was still quite new at doing nail art, I did a mani that I called my Nude & Gold Rose Nail Art and I think it was a bit of a turning point for me as far as moving into my own and finding my own style, so every so often I recreate a version of that design. As I was looking through some gorgeous stamping plates that Pueen sent over to me to try out, I saw this rose sort of tucked into a full cover image and immediately my brain wanted to isolate it and put together this design - so I did!

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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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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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For today's post I've partnered up with Pueen Cosmetics and I got to play with some seriously gorgeous stamping products to create today's mani. Recently I've definitely been drawn to really graphic, abstract designs with layered stamping, so it's really no surprise that that's the first place my mind went when I was looking through the products that they sent over for me to try out. 

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Last year for our June #CBBxManiMonday theme, we decided to go with allyship in stand in support of both Pride Month and Indigenous History Month, and this year we've decided to go with that theme again. Since this past weekend the Pride parade and celebrations were held here in Winnipeg, I knew I wanted to start with a rainbow mani and after reading some of the comments on a news post about those celebrations it has been made very, very clear how necessary Pride celebrations and support for the LGBTQ+ community still really are.

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