THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

I'm having a bit of a moment right now with figuring out how to create dynamic designs using one single full cover stamping image and it's actually a really fun exercise. Honestly, with today's mani I wasn't entirely sure that I was going to be able to make it work, but I actually really, really love the final product and it has me inspired to try out this technique with different vibes and themes. 

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After going so hard on themes the past few months, I'm definitely finding myself drawn to more abstract nail designs at the moment, so I suspect that's a lot of what you'll be seeing here on the blog for the next few weeks. The stamping plate I used for this one has actually been sitting in my collection for months now and I just hadn't gotten a chance to use it, so I was super excited to finally reach for it and put something together with it. I kept it pretty simple stamping-wise, though I will say that the overall design did end up being quite busy. Still, I love how it turned out. 

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As soon as I had Uberchic It's A Season Of Joy Stamping Plate in hand, I knew that I wanted to put together a mani using the layered buffalo plaid images on the plate. Initially, I figured I would end up doing something pretty classic with it - either a red and black or a white and black buffalo plaid - but when I sat down to actually do this mani I started playing around with different ideas for color stories and I ended up settling on this sort of playful teal vibe that sort of ended up giving a really fun sort of... vintage diner decorated for the holidays kind of vibe - or at least that's what it feels like to me!

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I always get excited about new stamping plate releases from Whats Up Nails, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on the 4 new plates that launched earlier this month. Of course, being in Canada it took a minute for them to get to me, but as soon as they did I tore right into using them and the first mani I knew I had to do as soon as I first saw the B075 Somewhere In Bee-tween Stamping Plate* was this one featuring this stunning sunflower image. It just had to happen. 

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I have to say, this year is definitely turning out to be the cutest round of Halloween nails I've ever done, thanks in no small part to a couple of fantastic stamping plates from Manitude, and I am definitely not mad at it. I knew when I started planning this year's raft of Halloween nail art designs that I wanted to do something really adorable with the witch and cat images from the ManitudexTooCuteToSpook stamping plate and I actually wracked my brains for a while on just exactly what I wanted to do... and then the perfect base polish arrived and I knew exactly what I was going to do!

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I have to admit that even though we're knee deep in themes right now - later this week I've got plans to post 420 and Earth Day themed nails - I find myself drawn almost exclusively to doing abstract designs using some super fun stamping plates I've gotten my hands on recently. I mean... the possibilities are just endless when you think of the different color combos and designs you can put together in these sort of abstract themes. All of this to say - definitely keep an eye on the blog here in the coming weeks for more abstract nail designs. I will admit that I'm pushing the #CBBxManiMonday Pastels theme for this month with this one, but I really couldn't resist getting this base polish onto my nails ASAP.. and it's a little pastel. Maybe. 

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I have to admit that pink and red are not generally my jam when it comes to my nails. I mean... it's pretty obvious with a scroll through my Instagram that those are just not colors that I'm big into personally. Speaking of which, please do go over to @pblnails and drop a follow to keep up with all of my nail art designs as well as video tutorials for all of my manis! Anyway, because the whole pink and red thing isn't entirely my thing, I decided that for this Valentine's Day I was going to include a mani that's a little bit more vampy - with a polish that was straight up inspired by vampires, which I sort of love. 

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I feel like I've probably already mentioned it this month, but there's something that happens to me in January where either the inspiration or the energy is just... lacking. This past weekend both of those things were definitely true and after sitting at my desk trying to come up with something - anything - to fit with the #CBBxManiMonday Blue & Purple theme, I finally decided to just grab a polish I love and pair it with a stamping image I love and then go lay down and read. As you do. (In case you're wondering, I'm currently reading It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey, which I avoided for a looooong time despite rave reviews because I don't like cartoon covers. But it is a DELIGHT.)

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When doing a marathon of 24 nail art designs in one theme, I will fully admit that there can be some creative fatigue that comes with it. When that happens, I generally have two options. The first is to push through and just try things until something sticks. Unfortunately, this is a really frustrating option and sees failure much more often than it sees success. The second option is to try something that feels sort of outside of the theme. This is how you end up with pastels at Halloween, I'd say, and in the entirely opposite direction - vampy Christmas nails, which is what I have for you today!

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Is this the third version of what was essentially the same mani? Yes, it is. Is it almost entirely inspired by mid 00s scene kids and Hot Topic? Also, yes. Am I kind of in love with it? 100% yes. This mani is definitely one of those ones that I should have marinated on a little bit more than I initially did, because this was always what it needed to be but I tried a couple of other versions before I got to this one. That said, I'm not sure that I would have gotten here without the trial and error as well as the little whispering emo kid tucked away in my head giving me ye olde Hot Topic inspiration. 

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When I was sitting down to plan how I was going to put together an entire month of Halloween themed nail art, one of the things I did was think about specific polishes from my collection that I wanted to pull out and feature. I feel like this many manis definitely requires some thoughtful choices in shades to really build it out and make it feel worthwhile and interesting. All of this is to say that I don't know what made my brain decide that the base polish for this mani absolutely had to get used and it very specifically had to get used in some sort of zombie mani, but it did so I made it happen. 

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Today's mani was directly inspired by one of my favorite nail artists -  @iv_juli. I try to take more loose inspiration from other artists, generally, but as soon as I saw the mani that inspired this one I got full on grabby hands and I knew I wanted to put my spin on her design. I think sometimes one of the most valuable things about looking at other people's work, especially when it comes to nail stamping, is that they can really inspire you to use a plate in a way you might not have thought of, and that's definitely what happened here. 

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If there's one indie brand that has been giving me grabby hands for year but took forever to get my hands on, it's Painted Polish... and now I'm obsessed. I've wanted to try their polishes for so long, but I have a mental block for shipping things to Canada (it's a whole thing in my brain, I don't try to explain it) so it wasn't until this year when I started purchasing from Polish Pickup that I finally started getting my hands on their polishes, but now I'm fairly certain I'll be buying from them every month. Because of... obviously. Obsessed. 

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As soon as I started seeing social media posts about the Uberchic Beauty Boho Chic Stamping Plate, I got full out grabby hands for it. There are so many stamping plates on my wishlist, but that one just jumped straight to the top and I basically had to have it. There's just something about it that falls right into my wheelhouse. For my first time using it, I decided to try out one of their layered design and... I love it but also the choices I made for polishes to use sort of makes this feel like a children's bedsheets design. Just me? 

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I have to admit that I have... a very strange relationship with dotticures. For the longest time, I was sort of terrified of them, then I tried one and I loved it, but for some reason I still have an aversion to them that is entirely based on being certain I'm going to mess them up. It's a whole thing in my brain. Anyway, because one of the prompts for the Whats Up Nails March Nail Art Challenge is Dotticure, I had to go ahead and do one and as much as my brain tried to resist, I wrestled it into submission. 

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