The Digit-al Dozen does Birthdays - February 2017

Hey there!  Today's title is pretty much a big fat lie.  Usually at the end of the month, any of us from The Digit-al Dozen that have the time try to do a mani inspired by a photo chosen by the birthday girl(s) that month.  However it turns out that nobody has a February birthday so this month Amanda picked an adorable photo...but one that I had no idea how to tackle.  I didn't have much time so I was going to skip this month but then I wore a pink polish and thought maybe I could fake my way through it with some stamping.  Here's what I came up with.

Nail Challenge Collaborative - A New Beginning #2

Hey there!  Just last week I posted my first mani for this month's Nail Challenge Collaborative theme of "A New Beginning".  I already explained that I'm so boring that I haven't had any sort of life change in ages so I thought it'd be nice to do an early spring design to go along with this theme.  Spring is a kind of new beginning that we all get every year.  It feels like it's ages away still here since it got chilly again (-15 C when I got up this morning).  But I wanted to try out Lina Nail Art Supplies Spring plate that I had bought so I'm more than willing to wear spring nails in the snow.  I now have all of Lina's 4 Seasons plates...though I expect more will be added as the seasons keep rotating.

Nail Crazies Unite - Red & Black

Hey there!  Today's Nail Crazies Unite theme is one of my top two favourite color combinations, red & black (the other being blue & white which we just did a couple of prompts ago).  When thinking red & black, you can go sexy or daring or even a bit dangerous but in the end, I played it pretty safe with some matted rose stamping.  I did these a few weeks ago so Valentine's Day was coming up and I guess I was in a romantic mood.

Creative Shop Stamping Plate 42 Review

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Hey there!  Today I'm sharing one of the newer plates from Creative Shop Stamping, Creative Shop 42.  I've reviewed Oksana's stamping plates before and really liked them so I obviously agreed to try out one of her new ones too.  As you can see, I must have liked this plate because I used it in four separate designs.  I never do that many manis with a single plate!  Keep reading to see all the images from the plate and get the low down on what I used here, as well as my review of the plate quality.

Nail Challenge Collaborative - A New Beginning #1

Hey there!  Holy, it's three weeks into February and I'm just now getting around to posting my first Nail Challenge Collaborative mani for this month.  Luckily this group is pretty forgiving with it's posting schedule so as long as I can post two this month, I've kept up!  February's theme is "A New Beginning" which spun my head a little bit.  I'm honestly the most boring person you'll ever meet.  My life has been pretty consistent for years so I don't remember the last "new beginning" I had (at least not any that didn't end pretty soon afterward).  But one of the suggestions was wedding nails so that's what I did.  So I was the single girl with very wedding-ish nails, all for a nail art challenge.  The things I do for nail groups...

The Digit-al Dozen does Black/26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Blue Floral

Hey there!  For the first 4 days of The Digit-al Dozen's Black week, I managed to keep color out of the mix (unless you count white and grey).  But today is also 26 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt of Blue Floral - there's literally a different color in the theme!  I tried to compromise for these and used a black base for my blue flowers.  I cannot master floral freehand for the life of me but I'm gonna keep trying!

The Digit-al Dozen does Black - Black French Tip

Hey there!  When I was trying to think of black nail art ideas for The Digit-al Dozen's Black week, I came across an awesome Instagram account, @only_black_nails.  It's a ton of sophisticated and edgy nail art posted on the page, some simple and some with plenty of embellishment.  I was inspired by this page to do a french manicure with some Swarovski crystals.  I thought it was a classy way to use my all time favourite black polish, A England Camelot.

The Digit-al Dozen does Black - Black Magnetic Polish with Stamping

Hey there!  We're in the middle of The Digit-al Dozen's Black week.  I have to say I'm impressed how cool the nail art the ladies have created is, especially the ones with very little color.  I mostly tried to play with finishes in the black range for my manis this week.  Today I used a black magnetic polish (which is really more pewter than black) and did some shadow-y stamping on it.  Hilariously, when I did my other hand, I did the stamping backwards (with most of the stamping at the cuticle) without even noticing.  Seriously, I need to stop doing my nails when I'm super tired!

Moonflower Polish Rainbow Cremes Stamping Polish Review

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Hey there!  Today's post should be a really exciting one for any of you who are into stamping.  I'm personally always on the lookout for the latest and greatest stamping polish.  Well today is all about one of the new kids on the nail polish block.  Moonflower Polish is an upcoming 5-free indie brand based in the US started by Nadia (of the blog Mama Hearts Polish).  She gave me a bit of background about herself including the fact that she has a degree in Fine Arts which shows through with these polishes she has created.  This lady definitely knows her colors.  She started making her own stamping polish which she has decided to share with the public.  Her first collection is the Rainbow Cremes, which consists of 10 coloured polish and a day/night (black and white) duo all with Spanish names to honour her Puerto Rican roots.  My favorite thing about these is the fact that they are cremes.  There's a few metallic or shimmer-y indie stampers out there but very few cremes.  Keep reading to hear all about them.

The Digit-al Dozen does Black - Black Valentine's Day Nails

Hey there!  Happy Valentine's Day to all your lovely folks out there!  Since Valentine's Day falls in the middle of the Digit-al Dozen week, most of us have seemed to find some way to combine our Black theme with the holiday.  I did some heart nail vinyls for my Black V-Day mani.  I actually tried the same vinyls with a matte/shiny look first but that failed so instead I tried it with a couple different finishes.

The Digit-al Dozen does Black - Blobbicure

Hey there!  I mentioned earlier today that it's the start of a new Digit-al Dozen week.  This month our theme is Black.  Sounds nice and open, right?  Turns out, a color theme is pretty tough.  I wanted to stick as much with black as possible but I can't have a week of just painting my nails black, right?  I did manage to keep color out of it (except on Friday when I combined themes with the 26 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge) unless you count today's white and greys as colors (I don't...I like my colors splashy!).  This blobbicure was inspired by one of the coolest nail art techniques I've seen in ages which I will link to shortly.

Guest Post at Be Happy & Buy Polish

Hey there!  Just stopping in quickly to direct you to my guest post today over at Be Happy & Buy Polish.  Jessica recently had a brand new bundle of joy and was looking for some guest bloggers to fill in a bit and I jumped at the chance.  Jessica is an incredibly supportive member of the nail polish community so I was happy to help!

Head over to her blog to see this nail art look in full color... and trust me, there's A LOT of color!

Nail Crazies Unite - Anti Valentine's Day

Hey there!  Around this time of year, we all start putting lots of love-filled images on our nails.  Love is everywhere around Valentine's Day, right?  But some of us are single and want to tell February 14th to just go away.  I just try to ignore Valentine's Day (except on my nails) but I was pretty thrilled to see "Anti Valentine's" as one of our themes in the Nail Crazies Unite group.  I actually did a couple manis for this theme but the first one was pretty illegible so I'll just share the one I really liked.

Bundle Monster Kawaii Emoji Stamping Plate Set

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Hey there!  Last week I received the upcoming Bundle Monster stamping plate collection, Kawaii Emoji, and it was so darn adorable that I started playing with it right away.  I recognized the images as kawaii right away but didn't actually know what kawaii meant.  So, for the uneducated like me, kawaii is associated with Japanese culture and generally means cute.  Sounds about right!  There are 5 plates in this collection, each with a different theme and each absolutely dripping in cuteness.  Stick around to see how I used each plate.

Madam Glam Gel Polish Review

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Hey there!  How is everyone's Monday treating them?  I started my week with a dead car battery this morning so it can only go up from here right (*knock on wood*)?  On the plus side, I get to share something that I've never shared before - a Madam Glam gel polish review!  As a full blown nail polish addict, I like changing my polish a lot so I don't use gel often but I have been using gel more and more often to use powders or alcohol inks or just to keep the same base color on and change what I put on top.  I've tried a few brands and had just accepted that gel polish wasn't very opaque but these Madam Glam polishes proved that theory wrong.  All of these applied easily and were fully opaque in just two coats.  Here I have two of the Cat Eye magnetic polishes and two cremes.  Keep reading to hear all about them and to get my code for 30% off anything you buy!

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Black and White Valentine's

Hey there!  So I usually try to have my nails done for nail art challenges WAY ahead of time.  Seriously, sometimes I'm doing my nails for a theme two months down the road.  I really don't like feeling rushed.  This week's prompt for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 26 Great Nail Art Ideas was no different.  I did a black and white valentine's design ages ago.  But I recently bought the Lina Nail Art Supplies All About Love stamping plate and I was looking at it yesterday and decided I needed to use this image ASAP so I did a new mani last night and quickly cropped my photos (that's usually my limiting factor when blogging...I detest going through my pictures).  So this is what I'm currently rocking today...at least on my left hand.  I tried a different image on the black nails on my right hand but I liked these hearts too much so I went matchy-matchy.  

KBShimmer Office Space Collection Review

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Hey there!  It's not secret that I'm a giant fan of KBShimmer.  Really, just look at how many posts I have tagged with KBShimmer.  But I make no apologies.  Christy is a genius with polish.  So when Color4Nails asked if I wanted to review the latest collection, Office Space, I pretty much jumped for joy and swatched them all within a couple days of receiving them.  I'm pretty notorious for wearing bright-colored manis but lately I've been really wanting to start toning them down a little so this collection came at the perfect time.  The colors are muted so they're perfect for the office but, with KBShimmer's ability make interesting finishes, they're far from boring.  Keep reading to see more photos, including a couple nail art looks I did with them.