As I was looking through my stamping plates to come up with Halloween nail art ideas, I found myself particularly drawn to the Manitude x Pretty Creepy Stamping Plate. There's just something particularly enjoyable about the images on this plate and I feel like the possibilities for what you could create with it are sort of endless. I think, in the end, the inspiration for this came from the little bows with skulls at the center - it felt sort of playful, like a teenage goth romance, so that's the direction I took it in. Leaning into my early to mid 2000s emo girl hard.

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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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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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As I continue on with my Harry Potter Marathon - I'm nearly done at this point - I clearly had to do another Hogwarts themed mani to continue with the back to school theme. This one came together with a few stumbles - by which I mean this is actually my second attempt at this design, with a few important alterations, but I love the way it turned out in the end. The thing that I sometimes forget - and I fully blame my neurodivergence for this - is that designs and techniques don't have to be complicated to be impactful and beautiful. I need to remember that!

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When I conceived of the idea of doing a week of wildnerness themed nails, I knew that I would be reaching for some Uberchic Beauty stamping plates from my collection that I don't reach for enough. I have both of the Uberchic Woodland Chic stamping plates and they're so, so good but I just don't remotely reach for them enough and now seemed like the time. You can check out the Muted Minimalist Mountain Smoosh Mani from the other day, which features the original Woodland Chic plate, if you haven't already. Initially, I had a racoon mani in mind and it really would have been completely different from this one, but when I sat down and started looking at the plates, my whole plan changed, I grabbed for another Uberchic plate, and I went to town... as you do.

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Happy June, everyone! For our #CBBxManiMonday theme this month, we've decided to focus on Allyship in celebration of Pride Month as well as Indigenous History Month. My whole life it has really felt important for me to stand beside marginalized communities and support them as an ally in ongoing fights for respect, safety and equality. As time has gone by and my own privilege as a white, cis Canadian woman has really become apparent to me, that has felt even more important in my life. 

Keep reading to the end of this post for links to some reputable organizations that support LGBTQ+ issues here in Canada and, if you're able, please do consider donating to help support their programs!

Almost exactly two years ago (give or take a couple of weeks), I came up with one of my all time favorite nail art designs and it turns out that it's one that I tend to always come back to. For this week's floral themed #CBBxManiMonday, I very distinctly had that design in my head while I was putting this one together. Creativity has been... a little bit here and then gone recently - I've been hearing the word "languishing" to describe where we're at at this point in the pandemic, and I have to say I really, really identify with it and the mojo is definitely suffering. Of course, the nice thing about nail art is that when the creativity runs low, you can always revisit your more... inspired moments from the past. 

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Not too long ago, I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate from Whats Up Nails and you can bet that I was quick like a cat to use it and pick up some of the stuff I'd had my eye on. If you follow the blog here, you'll know that Whats Up Nails stamping products are absolutely some of my favorites and I'm slowly but surely building my collection of their polishes and plates. For today's mani, almost everything I used is from that haul I did and I'm so, so excited about all of the products. 

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I've always loved the butterfly nail designs that I watch much more talented nail artists than myself do every spring and summer with the beautiful backgrounds and the hand painted butterfly wings, but... just never had the confidence. HOWEVER, that was solved for me in the way a lot of nail art dilemmas were solved - with stamping. I've been keeping this mani in the back of my head ever since I got the Whats Up Nails B025 stamping plate last fall, waiting for the warmer months when my very specific brain would decide it was time. And... it's time!

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In case it wasn't super, super obvious, I'm having a distinct moment with sheer polish recently. I don't know it is, but ever since this past holiday season I've just really been drawn to sheer bases for nail art. This is pretty new for me since I've always been more of a fully opaque base kind of girl, but I guess there's all kinds of seasons. For today's nail art, I used one of my favorite milky bases along with a new-to-me stamping plate that I picked up recently from Aliexpress.

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As someone who loves to do nail art with really beautiful bases, indie polish can be a bit hit and miss for me. Some of the most beautiful polishes are just so intricate and bold that it can be hard to pair them with nail art that feels seamless and cohesive. Why am I telling you this? Because the base for today's mani is one such polish - it's absolutely out of this world stunningly gorgeous, but I really, really struggled with how to utilize it as a base for nail art.

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More and more this year, when I sit down to put together ideas for holiday themed nail art, I'm finding that I've settled a lot more into my own personal style and I think today's 12 Nails Of Christmas offering is very much that. As soon as I looked at this stamping image, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it and I went through several different colour pairings in my head before I settled on green. Because... me? I love green polish and the holidays are usually the perfect time to reach for them. 

Anyway, keep reading to take a closer look and see how I put this mani together!