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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Is it a coincidence that my inspiration and motivation for nail art returned just in time for a theme? Probably not. If there is one thing that is true about me when it comes to nail art... I really, really love a theme. I'm admittedly not a huge Valentine's Day person but I do love playing with the really cute designs that lean into the lovey dovey cutesy whatnots. Anyway, for my first Valentine's Day themed look of the year, I decided to grab for a new polish in my collection and layer some stamping on top for a design that feels both simple and intricate at the same time. 

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The intensity of the summer nail art can be a little bit much after a while - and doing three mani's a week for the blog can be a little bit overwhelming when they're all bright and very much themed - so eventually you just need a bit of a palette cleanser. I recently got this absolutely beautiful, soft pink base that I knew would be the perfect shade to just... exhale with, and when the inspiration for this mani came I knew I had to try it out. Sometimes that's just how it works in my brain, I will admit.

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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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Have I wanted to do today's mani for an obscenely long time? Yes. Have I been holding off and waiting for the perfect deep blue pond-y base polish to get the under the sea look I wanted? Also yes. Did I finally accidentally get the perfect polish for what this looked like in my mind? I sure did! I'm certainly not the first person to use this design in this way, but it's such a fun and easy and playful mani that I would happily do it every summer. I mean... Who doesn't love octopus nails?

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As soon as my May PPU order arrived and I got my hands on Jen & Berries' He Forced Me To Ruin My Dress, which is clearly inspired by Cher's Alaia dress in Clueless, this mani started percolating. I knew that I wanted to pair it with some reverse stamping and I knew exactly what red shade I wanted to pair with it... but I didn't know what I wanted the vibe to be until I was thumbing through stamping plates looking for inspiration and it hit like a truck.

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When I was a kid, I was really lucky to have the opportunity to learn and experience pieces of Indigenous culture thanks to the school I attended as well as a couple of specific people close to me in my life. Though it was only small pieces of that culture that I got to experience and learn, it did make a big impression on me. One thing that I have really clear memories of are learning how to make a dream catcher from a lovely Anishinaabe woman who taught us about the meaning attached to it by her and her community. Having the opportunity to experience and learn about different cultures as children is, I think, incredibly important to driving empathy and respect for different cultures and beliefs as we grow up. 

There are incredibly deep scars here in Canada when it comes to the treatment of Indigenous people, both historically and currently, and it absolutely kills me to see so much surprise at what was discovered recently in Kamloops, because.. it's not a surprise. Not really. We knew. We know. The history of residential schools is absolutely horrifying, but even moreso when you consider that the intention that led to so much abuse and horror was to erase and destroy this beautiful, rich culture through absolute trauma to young children. 

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I don't know if this is true for other people, but I very much have a thing in my brain that decides certain things go a certain way and it's pretty rigid. (Just ask my partner about my thoughts on loading the dishwasher, specifically the direction that the forks are supposed to face...) But anyway, that definitely extends to nail art and I tend to feel like certain themes very much belong in certain seasons. For me, oceany or beachy or watery type of designs definitely belong firmly in the summer (unless they're rain themed, which belongs in the spring.) Luckily, my brain has switched into summer nail art mode pretty firmly over here, so this one sort of flowed - pun sort of intended.

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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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I really, really want to start doing more nail art challenges because I'm having such a good time with the prompts from the Whats Up Nails March Nail Art Challenge. The second prompt for the month is Ombré Stamping and since that's actually not something I do all that often, I'm having a good time digging down into my stamping polishes to get some really pretty gradients. I'm kind of obsessed with this mani, you guys. Like literally, I keep pausing typing just to look down at it in person....

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