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.

Keep reading for more!

I have to admit that this mani was born from my wanting to do something I haven't done already and sort of struggling for inspiration. Since this is the 5th year I've done nail art to celebrate Pride, I've found myself running out of ideas for new things a little bit. I knew that I wanted to do a classic rainbow, but make it a little bit different, and I knew pretty early on in my planning that I wanted to use Jen & Berries' My Pot O Gold as my base as I was hoping the deep, dark base would really pop the rainow.

My Pot O' Gold is described as a charcoal crelly with a touch of white shimmer along with a mix of opaque and iridescent gold flakes and it is a stunner. It's that perfect almost black with a really neutral undertone - sometimes I find dark greys can lean too brown or too purple, but this one is a really true charcoal - and, as with every Jen & Berries shade I've tried, it has a gorgeous formula.

For this mani, I applied two coats of My Pot O' Gold to all of my nails as my base.

It was actually this mani that inspired the stamping for this mani, since I used the same image in much the same way for that mani as I did for this one. It's a round image with a very scribbled sort of vibe to it and I've found that it works really beautifully to create a curved line at the corner of the nail and it's really easy to double up (since you can use both sides of the circle) to get a little bit more weight. With this in mind, I started with red at the edge of the nail and went through each color of the rainbow, stamping twice to get the weight I was looking for. As is typical for me, I alternated the placement and direction of my stamping to add more visual interest and make every nail feel unique.

Once I was happy with my rainbow, I sealed everything in with a nail art top coat and then finished with a generous layer of glossy top coat. And voila!

The reasons that I think it's important to support Pride and practice allyship with the LGBTQ+ community are numerous, but above and beyond all else is the fact that I think the world is better with open hearted diversity. Supporting the freedom and safety for every single person to be exactly who they are is incredibly important. I think it can be easy to forget that members of the LGBTQ+ community are still under attack on multiple fronts. From blatantly homophobic legislation targeting them to disgusting campaigns that weaponize children's safety to cause harm and stigma to people just trying to live their lives authentically and happily, there is a very real threat of things moving backwards. And then of course there are the disingenuous people who say things like "I support freedom, I just don't want people rubbing their sex lives in my face" trying to shove people back into the closet and reduce the identity of LGBTQ+ people to what they do in the bedroom, like the ones I saw in the comments earlier today. A strong LGBTQ+ community with committed allies at its side is what I believe will not only help to protect people right now, but will also help to push things forward and resist the people who want to drag them backwards.

Sorry for the huge chunk of text, but I do feel really strongly about this and I think it's important. If you're looking for resources as an LGBTQ+ person or someone looking to practice better allyship, I highly recommend checking out this comprehensive list from YouthLine.ca, which has the widest range of different resources that I've seen.

For more allyship themed nails, be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK. And if you're looking to see how I did this mani, you can check out the video tutorial over at @pblnails on Instagram.

Thanks for reading!