The Digit-al Dozen does Birthdays - April 2017

Hey there! In April a couple of my Digit-al Dozen ladies celebrated birthdays -  Katherine of Procrastinails and Uma of Uma's Nail Art.  As is our new-ish tradition, we had the birthday girls pick some inspiration for us to turn into nail art.  These ladies did not do us wrong this month!  They picked out a super cool bubble picture that intimidated me at first but then I found a blog post with a corresponding video tutorial from the amazing Narmai/Piggie Luv which was perfect!

UberChic Beauty Unicorn Love, Texture-Licious 2 and a brand new Uber Mat

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Hey there!  To finish off the work week I thought I'd share some of the latest releases from my stamping crush, UberChic Beauty.  2 weeks ago they released a two new collections, a Unicorn Love single plate, a new Texture-Licious mini plate and a brand new Uber Mat!  That's a massive release!  Unfortunately, I received them the same weekend as my veggie slicing incident so my review has been a bit delayed.  But I will tell you that I was so excited to play with them though that these were, in fact, the first manis I did after trying to cut my thumb in half.  So, finally, I'm sharing my thoughts on everything except for the collections.  I currently wearing my first collection 16 mani so hopefully my review of the collection will be coming soon.

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Work Appropriate Nail Art

Hey there!  For this week's theme of Work Appropriate Nail Art, the first thing I had to think of was what colors are generally work appropriate.  Luckily for me, I can wear pretty much anything to my job in the lab.  I recognize others can be more limited.  But, in my mind, rose gold should be work appropriate for most places so that's what I went with.  I paired it with an off-white for a simple striped look.

KBShimmer Nauti by Nature Collection Swatches and Review

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Hey there!  I don't know about you but some brands will always have my heart.  These are the ones whose new collections always get my heart racing a little.  Well KBShimmer is high up there on that list for me.  They're always amongst the first I reach for anytime I'm doing nail art.  Seriously, I have to actively try to use other brands sometimes.  The Spring 2017 collection is called Nauti by Nature collection which is meant to transport us to a tropical island through our fingertips.  There are 4  glitter jelly/crellies, 2 shimmers and an entire rainbow of holographics in the collection and I was lucky enough to be sent them all to review by Color4Nails.  If you don't know who Color4Nails are, you're in for a treat!  They're an American stockist who distributes a massive variety of brands, mostly indies, including KBShimmer.  And they have great customer service which has kept me coming back as a customer for years.  Now onto the swatches!

Nail Crazies Unite - Pastel Floral

Hey there!  This week's Nail Crazies Unite theme of "Pastel Floral" fits right in with the Nail Challenge Collaborative theme of "Spring" so today is a 2-for-1 post.  I love it when it works out that way!  I've been really digging floral nails lately and I absolutely love this stamping image so I quite like these.  They were inspired by this gorgeous water decal mani from Polish My Nail.  I think I came across it on Pinterest and had to do some serious reverse image searching to find the original post.  I'm glad I did though because I got to scroll through her other pretty nail art.

Whats Up Nails Mermaid Flakies

Nothing to Disclose

Hey there!  It's been almost a week since my last post but I swear I have good reason!  On Sunday I was slicing up carrots with one of those evil mandoline slicers and I bet you can imagine what I did....yup, put my thumb right through it!  It was my whole fault since I wasn't using the guard (seriously, how can you use the guard with carrots?) and I was joking about it happening right before it did.  Anyway, off I went to the ER and now have 4 pretty blue stitches in my right thumb.  Honestly, my first thought was "at least it's not my picture hand"...I'm a true nail polish addict!  But I haven't been wanting to crop pictures and type too much since doing it so I've been lazy.  I have managed to do my other nails a couple of times but I still have last weekend's polish on my thumb.  I say it's being punished for not behaving itself so it doesn't get to match its sisters.  Can you imagine how much acetone is going to hurt in that wound?  But now onto better thoughts.  To get back into the blog this week I decided to post some nails that I literally stuck in everyone's face when I was wearing them.  Whats Up Nails was nice enough to send me their Mermaid Flakies to review and I fell in love.  This was my first time trying out the loose flakies and they were easy peasy.  And gorgeous.  Seriously, just look at these!

Delush Polish No Vacancy Trio

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Hey there!  Today I have an upcoming trio from Delush Polish, the No Vacancy Trio.  These gorgeous polishes are based on the TV show Bates Motel.  In this trio, there's even Delush Polish's debut with thermal polishes (and it just happens to be one of the easiest thermals I've ever tried).  There's also a shifty holographic and a metallic shimmer.  I hadn’t personally watched it but if there’s one thing I’ve learned to trust, it’s other polish addicts TV show obsessions.  So I turned it on on Netflix and started swatching.  It’s always better to really understand where a polish maker’s inspiration is coming from right?  It’s not just a TV addiction…it’s research!  

The Digit-al Dozen does Get To Know Me - Genetics

Hey there!  My final Digit-al Dozen Get To Know Me design is combined with this week's 26 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt of pastel-to-bold gradient with something on top.  I love that prompt but wow it's a mouthful!  I usually stamp something on top my gradients anyways so this wasn't too hard for me.  I also knew I wanted to include a Get To Know Me mani that has something to do with my job.  I do my job as my nails pretty often actually since I'm lucky in what I do.  I play with DNA for a living and, since DNA's double helix makes a pretty cool pattern, it's been included on many stamping plates.  But this is the first time I'm also included the cute part of my job.  The mice bite me but I like them anyway.

Lina Nail Art Supplies Make Your Mark 04 and Feeling Shapely 09

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Hey there!  I'm so concerned with you all getting all the stamping plates that I have a last minute review of two of the new Lina Nail Art Supplies plates that are being released this Saturday, Make Your Mark 04 and Feeling Shapely! 09.  Lina's plates can be very popular so I wouldn't want you to miss out on these because they are incredibly interesting.  That sounds like a weird way to describe a plate but I think if you check them out you'll agree.  The Make Your Mark series always has really unique and popular images (so much so that I just used one of the previous plates in my earlier post today) but this Feeling Shapely plate is super clever.  I've tried to show a few of the interesting things you can do with it and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of the possibilities.  I think if you look at the images on this plate you'll have to agree.

The Digit-al Dozen does Get To Know Me - Zumba Nails

Hey there!  When I was coming up with Get To Know Me ideas for our Digit-al Dozen theme this month, I wanted to do something to do with the activities I enjoy.  If you've been following me for awhile you might know that my main form of activity for the last 14 years is ultimate frisbee.  Ultimate is my true love thanks to the amazing community involved with it.  BUT ultimate is damn near impossible to translate into nail art so instead I did some nails inspired by the main activity I did the past couple of winters (when ultimate dies down) - Zumba!  I was in dance classes until I was about 14 but never really thought I enjoyed dancing until I started going to Zumba dances.  The music and the movements are so much fun!  I probably look ridiculous doing it but I don't care....it's a blast!

Whats Up Nails Sunset Powder and Stencils

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Hey there!  I couldn't wait to share this nail art that I wore last week courtesy of Whats Up Nails, a nail art store based in the US.  They sent me quite a few goodies to review including the Magic Shifting Powder in Sunset and some swallow and branch vinyls.  As with the Easter stencils that I showed you last week, these stencils are fool proof.  Keep reading to see how I used these products and to hear me gush over how great they are.

The Digit-al Dozen does Get To Know Me - Bath Bombs

Hey there!  Today we've reached the halfway point in the Digit-al Dozen Get To Know Me week.  I've already covered the two places that mean the most to me.  In this point I'm going to share how I spend my weekends - having wonderfully colorful scented baths.  Lately I've been really splurging on awesome bath products (mostly from an awesome Canadian indie company called SoGa).  One of my favourite things is an old favourite, Lush bath bombs.  I've had good bath bombs from indies as well but so far none have been as colourful as Lush.

The Digit-al Dozen does Get To Know Me - Lake Time

Hey there!  It's Day 2 of our Get To Know Me week.  Yesterday I had some nail art celebrating where I live.  Today I did where my heart lives.  My family has a cabin about 3 hours north of Edmonton and I try to spend as many of my summer weekends there as possible.  I don't know what it is about the place but I'm so much happier there.  I think it's because when I'm there I have no worries, no responsibilities.  There's never something else I should be doing instead.  So I just hang out, read books and eat chips...way too many chips.  Oh and I take way too many sunset photos...

The Digit-al Dozen does Get To Know Me - Canada

Hey there!  It's time for this month's Digit-al Dozen theme and it's a good one!  Our theme is "Get To Know Me" so we all get to find out more about all of our Digit-al Dozen ladies.  What this theme taught me is that I'm so incredibly boring!  I tried to think of interesting things about me but there really isn't all that much to me.  But I did come up with 5 manis that tell you a bit about who I am and how I spend my time.  Really, I should've just done 5 separate "I like nail polish" designs but, since I figured that fact might be a bit obvious since I'm sitting here writing a nail polish blog, I tried to come up with other things.  The first thing is something that I'm sure everyone knows.  I'm Canadian!  I spent a lot of time defending this mani to my friend in London who always asks about my nail stuff.  He says that where I'm from doesn't tell anyone anything about me but I argue that it does.  Especially when I think about all the stereotypical Canadian qualities I have.  I say "sorry" A LOT, I drink beer, I watch hockey (or at least I will now that the Oilers are in the playoffs for the first time in 11 years!) and I like to think I'm pretty nice.  And I definitely end quite a few of my sentences with "eh?"...

Nail Crazies Unite - Hippy/Boho

Hey there!  Today's post is going to be a short one since I feel like actual garbage.  Apparently my morning cough syrup has worn off and now my lungs are trying to escape my body....ugh!  But, despite me feeling ugly on the inside, today's Nail Crazies Unite theme is a pretty one.  The theme is Hippy/Boho.  Now I'm not nearly cool enough to really know what of nail art goes with this theme so I quickly googled "Bohemian" and saw some pretty patterns with this color scheme so I used the Bundle Monster Festival collection and make nails that are way more hip than I am!

UberChic Beauty Mother's Day Stamping Plate

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Hey there!  Today I have a plate celebrating the busiest phone day of the year - Mother's Day.  UberChic Beauty has come out with a Mother's Day mini plate with images celebrating all the moms of all the lands.  There's also a few lovely images to go alone with all the script.  Since I'm not a mom personally, I used a few of the images that show off how I feel about my mom.  She's the best!

What's Up Nails Holographic Powder and Easter Nail Stencils

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Hey there!  A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by What's Up Nails asking if I wanted to check out some of their products.  Since I've been drooling over their stuff for awhile, I jumped at the opportunity.  So last week when I got a package of goodies, I started playing with them right away and I definitely wasn't disappointed.  Because Easter is approaching, I thought the Easter nail stencils would be a good first product to show.  I paired one of the stencils with the holographic powder available from What's Up Nails so I'll show you that first.

Nail Challenge Collaborative - Spring #1

Hey there!  April's Nail Challenge Collaborative theme is Spring.  At least to me, there's nothing more spring-like than floral patterns.  There's certainly no flowers blooming around me yet but since I'm craving spring and warmer weather so much lately, I've been wearing a lot of flowers on my nails.    It seriously seems like I've just been switching from one floral to the next.  I did these last week when I was playing with the latest UberChic Beauty collection and thought they'd fit in perfectly with the spring theme.  They even use two of the China Glaze Spring Fling polishes that I just bought.  I received them last Monday and did these the same day.  I'm so happy with how these turned out!