UberChic Beauty Mandala Love Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  It's Wednesday night and this is the first chance I've gotten to sit down and blog today.  I feel like I've been so busy that I've been neglecting my little space on the internet but hopefully I can start making more time soon.  With summer here, it means ultimate season and lake time so I don't get much free time but I promise that all my time has been going to my nails.  Now I just need to make time to crop some photos!  Okay now that my apology is out of the way, I have a review of UberChic Beauty's pretty new plate, Mandala Love for you today.  Lately, mandalas are all the rage - whether its in coloring books or in other forms of art so isn't it nice that we can stamp them on our nails too?  For my review I did two very different manis and I loved them both.  Keep reading for all the details.

Illyrian Polish Eerie Woodlands Part 3 and Color4Nails Exclusives

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Hey there!  Today I have a review of a new-to-me brand, Illyrian Polish.  Illyrian Polish is an indie 5-free, cruelty-free brand based in Houston, Texas.  Color4Nails sent me a package with 8 of their polishes to try out, including 2 Color4Nails exlclusives and I have to say I'm definitely a fan!  They applied easily and have such a fun mix of finishes.  It's nice to see collections that have a bit of everything and this one definitely does.  There's a mix of shimmers and flakies and holographics and more.  Keep reading to find out all the details.

HPB Presents Cherry Nail Art

Hey there!  For those of you that don't know, Hobby Polish Bloggers is a group of folks on Facebook who share the same hobby of nail blogging.  Every month we do a link up centered around a certain theme and this month the theme is Fruit.  Well I'm a full-fledged fruit junkie.  Just ask anyone I know.  During the summer I go to the farmer's market at least once or twice a week to buy tons of fresh fruit.  I'm currently on a blueberry binge (over 10 lbs in the last week, no joke) - so much so that I think I'm going to turn into one like Violet in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.  Strangely I chose to do cherry nails since it was Father's Day and my dad loves cherries.  I bought him a giant bag from the market but stole a couple for my photo.  I'm personally allergic to them so they're a fruit that I miss out on but I can still wear them on my nails.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Coral and White

Hey there!  This week's color prompts for 40 Great Nail Art Ideas is one that just screams summer - coral and white.  I had the personal prompt of "stamped' which made it a pretty easy one for me since stamping is my first love.  I decided to keep it super simple and just stamp white over a coral creme.  A lot of the time the simplest manis are my favourite, as was the case with this one.  I don't often use tribal stamping images but I'm going to start to more after liking this one so much.

Delush Polish Nautical By Nature Collection

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Hey there!  Delush Polish's Nautical By Nature collection totally encompasses what I love about summer polish collections.  It is full of bright colors with a twist - they all have added shimmer and flakies to give them a really unique finish.  There are 7 polishes in the collection, all with Delush Polish's 5-free, cruelty-free formula and fun names.    

Celestial Cosmetics Valyrio Collection

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Hey there!  I'm so late with this post.  The Valyrio Collection from Celestial Cosmetics was released in April.  Celestial Cosmetics is a 3-free, cruelty-free brand out of Australia but all the polishes in this collection were designed by another Aussie, the lovely Christine from one of my favourite blogs, Serenity Nails.  Game of Thrones was the inspiration for this collection, an obsession that Christine and I share.  I'll leave it to her swatch post to describe the inspirations polish-by-polish.  Needless to say they came up with some great polishes to go with their namesakes.

KBShimmer Summer 2016 (Partial)

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Hey there!  Today's post is a review of one of my all-time favourite brands, KBShimmer.  A couple weeks ago I purchased a few KBShimmer products and polishes from the Summer 2016 collection from an awesome international stockist, Harlow & Co., which just happens to be based in my home of Canada.  I've been ordering from Harlow for years and with this purchase, the lovely Katie included a few extras for me to swatch and review.  I decided to write a bigger post with both my purchases This is a pretty picture heavy post so I hope you stick around to see all these pretties!

UberChic Beauty Nautical Mini Plate Review

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Hey there!  Wow this post is long overdue.  I just received UberChic Beauty's Collection 10 and Mandala mini plate (which are lovely, by the way) and realized I had never posted this mani that I did with the Nautical mini plate.  This plate is full of fun and trendy nautical and oceanic images that I adore.  I decided the stray away from my instinct to do a blue mani to use this plate and decided that purple was the way to go with the octopus images I used here.  Isn't that octopus cute?!  Keep reading to find the details as well as to see the whole plate which is definitely worth having a look at.

Unofficial Day 6 of Rainbows

Hey there!  As promised, I have one more rainbow mani to post.  I had done these ones before the Orlando tragedy and skipped posting them last week in order to share something I wore to honour the victims and their loved ones.  I used the same polishes in that one as in this one so here's another sparkly rainbow.  I hope you're not sick of them yet!

The Digit-al Dozen does Rainbows/40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Summer

Hey there!  Today's post is a double theme which are always fun to figure out.  If you've been following this week, you'll know we've come to the final day of The Digit-al Dozen's week of rainbows.  In addition to those rainbows, 40 Great Nail Art Idea's theme is Summer, presumably since summer officially begins on Monday.  And what says summer more than sunglasses...other than a stamping image that directly says "Hello Summer".  Not exactly subtle, eh?

The Digit-al Dozen does Rainbows - Alcohol Ink Rainbow

Hey there!  Today's rainbow is brought to you with the help of alcohol inks.  And, because I wasn't covering my whole nail with ink, I didn't super stain my skin like I usually do when I play with these...hooray!  These were highly inspired by @madamluck's musical mani from a couple months ago.  Hers really stuck in my head and I thought this was a perfect time to do something similar.  

The Digit-al Dozen does Rainbows - Holo Rainbow Stamping Decals

Hey there!  Happy hump day!  Now normally I wouldn't use the term hump day but when I asked my sis which mani I should post today, she picked these "because it's hump day and these are humps".  I personally see them as rainbows, not humps, but I see where she's coming from.  These holographic rainbows were inspired by the first example I ever saw of someone making stamping decals.  I don't have an exact link but I know they came from Fab Ur Nails and they blew my mind!  They were also holographic rainbows and I'm forever in debt to them for showing me this awesome technique.  Since they were made with all holographic polishes I took all my pics in direct light so they look a bit different than usual.

The Digit-al Dozen does Rainbows - Swarovski Crystal Rainbow

Hey there!  Today I have easily the most expensive mani I've ever done so I have tons of pictures.  As soon as I knew The Digit-al Dozen were doing a rainbow week, I went and bought up a whole rainbow of Swarovski crystals because I immediately knew I wanted a blingy rainbow (in the spirit of our bling queen Vic).  Of course it looked WAY cooler in real life.  I've found Swarovski crystals photograph really dull but are actually really sparkly.  So trust me, these were awesome!

The Digit-al Dozen does Rainbows - Rainbows for Orlando

Hey there!  Following the horrific news out of Orlando yesterday, it seems very fitting that this month's Digit-al Dozen theme is Rainbows.  I honestly don't have the words to express how heartbroken I am over the tragedy.  I generally try to keep most of my political or social views off my blog but I will state wholeheartedly that every person is equal.  This attack has really shaken me, maybe because it made me think of my friends in the LGBTQ community.  I already had all my manis for this week done and ready to go but when I got home from the cabin last night and heard the news, I wanted to do a new design to honour all those affected by this senseless act of violence.  My heart goes out to them.  I know that what I'm wearing on my nails doesn't make one iota of difference but it's my way to be reminded when I look down at my hands today.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Mint Green

Hey there!  This week our 40 Great Nail Art Ideas group has a color theme going on and it's one of my favourite colors - mint green.  I couldn't pick just one mint green so I picked a selection of mints with different finishes for these.  My personal prompts was "squares".  I don't know how many types of nail art can be done with a squares theme but luckily I had these Snail Vinyls which went perfect with the prompt.  These vinyls actually have a full grid of squares but I just wanted a smattering so that's what I did here.

Emily de Molly Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  I feel like I've had no time for nail art lately so I'm so happy to bring you a post full of stamping.  Awhile ago Hayley from Emily de Molly contacted me asking if I'd like to review a few of her stamping plates.  I'm a long time Emily de Molly fan, both of her polishes and her plates, so of course I jumped at the chance.  I was sent four plates to try out and, not surprisingly (since I already knew her plate quality is fabulous), they were all great.  I played with them each a bit and came up with the 5 manis you see below.  I even got to use a few of the Emily de Molly polishes I have in my stash which served to remind me how much I like them too.

Contrary Polish Spring It On Collection and Color4Nails Exclusives

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Hey there!  Today I have some swatches of Contrary Polish's spring collection, Spring It On and two shades exclusively available at Color4Nails.  Contrary Polish is an American 5-free and cruelty-free indie brand.  Before this I had a few Contrary Polishes in my stash and I really feel this brand doesn't get enough attention, especially after trying these latest releases.  The formula and application are great, as are the colors.  The Spring It On collection is a refreshing collection of five dusky cremes and one fine holo topper and the Color4Nails exclusives are couple of fun glitter/shimmer cremes.  Keep reading to see individual swatches of each color.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Weddings

Hey there!  Sorry I've been absent a few days.  I've been crazy busy so I have a bunch of photos just sitting there waiting to be cropped and watermarked.  I promise I'll do that this weekend so I have something to post next week.  Luckily I had already cropped my photos for this week's 40 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt.  Today, we're doing weddings!  Having never had to do my nails (or anyone else's) for such a special day, I hit the internet and was inspired by a very popular Pinterest photo for my wedding-themed nails.