Today's mani is sort of an amusing one for me because when I sat down to try out the technique I used for it, I actually felt pretty confident it wasn't going to work, at least not the way I was hoping. In the end, though, not only did it do pretty much exactly what I hoped it would, but I fell completely in love with it and now I want to do twenty-six different versions of it in a hyper focus sort of fashion. As I do. Admittedly, I am pushing the #CBBxManiMonday floral theme a little bit this week, since it's definitely more leafy and botanical than floral, but we're going with it because I'm obsessed.

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One of the cool things about stamping for nail art is that a little bit of creativity in the way that you use different stamping images can go a really, really long way. There are a few artists whose work always blows my mind in the way that they use stamping in ways that hadn't even occurred to me. When I sat down to do today's mani, I went in with the idea that I wanted to keep it fairly simple, perhaps even minimalist, and I wanted to reach for one of the new plates in my collection that I hadn't gotten the chance to use yet. I wasn't until I was sitting there staring at three plates that still had their blue film on them that inspiration struck and I decided to use two really simple stamping images in a way I'd never thought of to create a mani that I think turned out pretty great. 

Happy Earth Day, all! 

I honestly feel like the importance of Earth Day and the surrounding initiatives are becoming more and more important as the years go by and the state of our environment becomes more dire. For me, I think it's really important that we stop and think about the big picture and, while I certainly think that we as individuals have personal responsibility to make the best choices we can in regards to the environment, it's also profoundly important that we start acknowledging the larger implications of industry on the environment and stop allowing profit to be prioritized over the future of the planet and the wellbeing of all living creatures on it. For me, that's where my attention will be focused this earth day and I hope that moving forward more and more focus is put where it needs to be put to make real change. 

But for now... Earth Day Nail Art!

I will fully admit that I'm diving headfirst into the Easter theme at the moment. What can I say, I just absolutely love a theme. Also, as soon as I saw the Whats Up Nails B074 A Flower A Day Stamping Plate*, I knew that I was going to do some version of today's mani - though I will admit that the details and specifics were a little bit hazy in my mind until I actually sat down to do them. Sometimes the vision is super clear and other times you just sort of have to wing it, but I really do think you can end up with amazing results either way. 

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I am definitely having a moment with floral nails right now - partially because my mind and body are just fully and completely ready for spring (and maybe bracing in hopes that we don't end up with the kind of late season blizzard that isn't all that uncommon here in the beginning of April) and partially because I'm sort of in love with the new Whats Up Nails B074 A Flower A Day Stamping Plate*. It's such a great combination of Easter images (which will definitely pop up soon in Easter themed mani's) and really gorgeous floral images that I just love. Obviously I had to put together a spring mani featuring this really gorgeous daffodil image, right??

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When I first saw product photos of the new stamping plate releases from Whats Up Nails, immediately I couldn't wait to put together a mani using the stamping image I used to create this design. It almost has the vibe of a children's drawing, in the very best way possible and I knew that I could create a really pretty design with it. This mani actually ended up being really simple and straight forward and came together quite quickly with, I think, a pretty solid ratio of effort to impact. 

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For the last Green themed #CBBxManiMonday for this month, I feel like I'm cheating a wee bit since I would personally categorize this more as a purple mani... but I am so ready for spring and I was so excited to try out the new stamping plate that was kindly sent to me from Whats Up Nails that I just couldn't help myself. Also, I personally think that green and purple is one of the best colour pairings ever, so it just felt right. 

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A couple of days ago I decided that I'm going to lean into an idea I had to create new manis using some of my favorite stamping images that I've used before. Not only does this whip me into some much needed excitement at getting to use these images that I love again, but it challenges me to do something different than what I did before. And honestly, it has pretty much immediately bumped me back into being excited to create new nail art. For today's mani, I grabbed for a collaboration plate from Maniology that has several really great images on it and some of my favorite holo polishes for a fun and playful design that has me wanting to constantly stand underneath that light in my hallway that is magic for holo.

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If you follow the blog, you'll know by now that I've really been struggling with inspiration these past couple of months and it's been a persistent and pretty annoying thing for me since I try to put together 3 nail art designs per week to post here on the blog and on my social media. Luckily, last night I had a bit of a lightbulb moment and decided that for the month of March I'm going to lean into favorites. Favorite colors, favorite techniques, and most importantly favorite stamping images. I tend to try not to use the same images multiple times just because I like to try and make all of my mani's unique, but there are so many images that I just love and that I know I could happily use over and over again for a lot of different overall mani designs - so that's what I'm going to do!

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I'm really having a whole moment of layered stamping at the moment, I must say. And not necessarily in the way that a lot of people think of layered stamping, with images that are intended to be layered to create a specific design. I'm much more interested in sort of creating my own design and filling my nails with a bunch of different images and I've found that I've had really good luck with stamping plates from KADS, which tend to have a lot of smaller images that you can use to create different designs. For today's mani, I used one of those KADS Stamping Plates along with a few of their stamping polishes and I'm kind of obsessed with how it turned out. 

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Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season. I have to admit that after so much firmly themed nail art over the past few months, my brain feels firmly in the no more theme zone, so over the course of this month you'll probably be seeing a fair bit of abstract or graphic nail art while I recalibrate my brain a little bit. For our first #CBBxManiMonday theme of the year we decided to lean into the Pantone Color Of The Year, but also keep it a little loosey goosey with a theme of Blue & Purple. Lucky for me, I had some beautiful new polishes from NailStuff.ca** that fit perfectly in that theme just waiting to be used. 

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Winter finally hit here in Winnipeg over the winter - which probably sounds crazy to a lot of people not used to this particular climate, but trust me... The years that the first snow of the year isn't in October are fewer than one might hope. But over the course of 4 days, we've basically gone from a nice, warm, comfy fall into full on winter, so it's officially time for cozy. (I mean, I've been fully into my cozy since the beginning of September, but now it's justified. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that it leads into the design of this mani - this smoky blue base with tonal stamping and some graphic hygge vibes. I dunno... feels cozy and wintery to me!

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I'm super excited for today's mani because it uses the second polish from Black Dahlia Lacquer's NailStuff.ca Exclusive Duo, which was so kindly gifted to me from NailStuff. If you want to check out the other polish from the duo, head over to my last post to see it. It's such a gorgeous duo. This polish is honestly... so very much right up my alley, but I will admit that I initially didn't really know what to do with it. However, I just kind of went with my gut, applied it, and grabbed for a stamping plate and a couple of polishes that I thought would be cool... and it kind of worked out!

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For a while now, I've been eyeing up my bottle of Winter Dusk** from Black Dahlia Lacquer's NailStuff.ca Exclusive Duo and absolutely loving it, but unsure what I wanted to do with it as far as nail art. It's such a unique and DISTINCTLY fall shade that I knew I wanted to use it for some nail art this month, but it needed to be the right nail art. And thennnnn I just happened to have the KADS Fashion 083 plate out from my last mani and it lightning bolted me right in the head. 

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I have no idea why, but weeks ago I decided that I was going to do some mauve leopard print nails this fall and it just sort of became a given. Of course, I didn't know what polishes I was going to use or how the design was going to look, just that there were mauve leopard print nails in my future. Because I've previously - twice, in fact - done mauve leopard print nails in a glossy, holo finish, I decided this time to keep it créme and matte. Also, I decided to do some reverse stamping rather than hand painting... since I pretty much hate hand painting and feel like I'm generally not very good at it. ANYWAY....

Keep reading to take a closer look at today's nail art design!

Sometimes when I'm stuck for nail art ideas - or just not in the mood to do the things that I already have ideas for - I just sort of wing it, as you do. Honestly, a lot of the time that ends up being a disaster that leaves my going to bed with naked nails, but there have also been times that I've done some of my all time favorite designs during those sessions, so it's worth it. This mani definitely started with frustration and a lack of inspiration, but ended with a result that I'm pretty in love with and I'm really excited to share it.

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I'm sorry to admit that this is another one of those mani's that I know was inspired by another artist's mani, but I can't remember whose it was. If it was you - someone who had a naked nail and then added this sort of swooping black and white galaxy tip - then I thank you for the inspiration! It's been a long time since I've particularly liked French tips - probably since back in the day when I used to get really brutal acrylics done for special occasions like my high school graduation, and they air brushed on some French tips - but in the past couple of years I've really developed a liking for different types of non-traditional tips like this one. They're fun and there's the added benefit of the flowy design having a lot of wiggle room if you don't have the steadiest hand. 

It's that time of year again! Every year at this time, I do pretty much the same thing. I hammer through a Harry Potter movie marathon - a soul comfort that is needed a little bit more intensely this year for me than years past - and I do some HP themed nail art. This year, I picked up the Maniology M152 Wizards Welcome Stamping Plate specifically for this occasion and I put it to use within hours of it arriving in the mail for this surprisingly easy Hogwarts House Crest Skittle. I only just finished Goblet Of Fire on my marathon, so there may be more Harry Potter themed nails to come!

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Every since I was a little kid summer meant spending time at the lake. For various reasons, from personal circumstances to the whole pandemic thing, I haven't been able to go out to the lake at all this year and I'm definitely craving some fresh air and being on a boat and all of those good things. So, of course, I decided that I wanted to spend a week doing wilderness themed nail art - if I can't be out there myself, at least my nails can pretend. I started with a mani that I've had in my head for a while and I'm preeeeeeetty sure that it was inspired by another artist, but for the life of me I can't remember who it was - if you know, let me know so I can credit!

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