Nail Crazies Unite - Blue and White Nautical

Hey there!  3 vacation days in a row I've been blogging.  I really did miss it, thought I enjoyed my almost 2 week mini blog break.  It was kinda nice to not be nails OBSESSED.  I kept my nail painted...mostly with a different polish from the brand I'm showing today, KBShimmer.  Today's polish is Low and Be Bold but if you need a sparkly blue, Better Lake Than Never is amazing.  It held up almost perfectly forever here.  But I digress....

Today's prompt for Nail Crazies Unite was Blue & White Nautical.  Hope you like what I came up with!

The Digit-al Dozen does White - Opals

Hey there!  Okay, let me start by saying that my fourth Digit-al Dozen does White design did not turn out how they did in my head.  Opals are my favourite stone and they're white (with flecks of awesomeness) so I thought that would make a good "white" mani.  I don't know what these turned into but they weren't very opalescent.  I think they were too sparkly.  But I'm using them anyway because the idea was still fun even if the execution was poor.  Plus it took awhile with all the gel polish curing so I'm sticking with them!

Lina Nail Art Supplies Summer 03 and Dress Your Nails 02 Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  I hope everyone has had a lovely day so far!  I have to admit that my mood has been rather sour since spraining my ankle last week.  It's been a swollen, black and blue mess and  I'm pretty tired of the pain and the limping.  On the plus side, it's given me lots of couch time to play with some stamping plates I've been sent recently, starting with these two from Lina Nail Art Supplies.  I've been a fan of this brand since she started.  I use her Make Your Mark plates A LOT but today I'm branching out with a couple of the other series.  First up we'll have her 4 Seasons - Summer 03 plate and then Dress Your Nails 02.  The looks of these plates are so different which tells me she has a pretty diverse imagination when coming up with her plates.  In other words, she has something for everyone.

Whats Up Nails Stencils Review

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Hey there!  Today I have some manis I've done lately using stencils from Whats Up Nails.  They sell such a wide variety of stencils patterns.  The entire stencil store can be found here if you're interested.      I've genuinely always enjoyed working with their stencils.  Even with all the tiny little pieces in them, the quality of their cutting makes it easy to separate them and they have just the right amount of stickiness to them to allow them to stick to your nail without pulling up your base when you remove them.  And I absolutely love that the individual stencils come in different sizes since I don't have big nail beds.  Here I used the Hot Air Balloon Stencils, the Tree of Love Stencils, American Football Stencils and the Unicorn Head Stencils.  Keep reading to see what products I paired them up with.

The Digit-al Dozen does In My Garden - Succulent Rock Garden

Hey there!  Since I don't actually have a garden, it was a bit challenging to come out with "In My Garden" ideas.  But I had just bought Cirque Colors Pebbles and thought it would make a good rock garden.  However, when I googled "rock gardens" I learned that they're not literally just piles of rocks.  There's usually lots of succulent plants in there as well...who knew?!  Luckily succulents are very popular these days so I had a stamping plate that was just perfect for it and I came up with my favourite mani of the week.  I hope you like it too!

Whats Up Nails Canadian Flag Stencils Giveaway from Nail Polish Canada

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Hey there!  I have such a fun post today!  Nail Polish Canada (the first online nail polish stockist I ever discovered and still one of my faves) has decided to celebrate the upcoming Canada Day by giving away a set of these Whats Up Nails Canadian Flag stencils to 10 of my readers.  The first ten people to follow this link to the NPC site and use the code BC5H85E1S will get their very own set for free.  And, if you've read any of my previous reviews of Whats Up Nails stencils you'll know that these stencils are always incredible.  You'd probably expect a red and white mani with these (and I have indeed used these stencils before with just that) but since Canada is more than red or white, I decided to use the entire rainbow of colors since that is what Canada is to me.  We won't be kept to use two colors...we need them all!

The Digit-al Dozen does In My Garden - Tulips

Hey there!  It's the second day of The Digit-al Dozen's In My Garden week and I'm again drawing inspiration from my mom's garden.  For as long as I remember, my mom has planted tulip bulbs in the fall.  Sometimes just a few, sometimes lots.  But around our yard they were always the first sign of spring which probably explains why they're one of my favourite flowers.

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Drag or Dry Marble

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Hey there!  It's the middle of Friday night and the first time I've had time to actually blog.  But I couldn't not post his week's 26 Great Nail Art Ideas mani.  The prompt was dry/drag marble.  I think it turned out pretty cute...but then to make it even cuter I put some Whats Up Nails Cupcake Stencils on.

The Digit-al Dozen does Inspired By Each Other - Polish and Paws

Hey there!  Since it is The Digit-al Dozen's theme this week of Inspired By Each Other, I had the perfect excuse to copycat an incredible mani from Polish And Paws.  She did this glitter placement over stamping as one of her manis for All That Glitters week and I was floored.  I loved it so much!  So when I was doing my manis for this week's theme, I remembered it AND knew that I had some of Whats Up Nails Confetti Glitter with different sizes of circle glitter.  My glitter is different colors though.  I do like hers more (I'm drawn to blues more than pinks) but I did love this mani.  I even tried cutting the glitter to make it fit better.  That's a frustrating task!

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Rainbow With A Technique Starting With "S"

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Hey there!  Today's 26 Great Nail Art Ideas theme was such a fun one - Rainbow With A Technique Starting With "S".  It's so specific but actually very open.  I was shocked at how many techniques I could think of starting with S: stamping, sponging, stencils, smooshy marble...and I'm sure there's more!  I decided to use the Spinner Stencils from What's Up Nails and sponged on a rainbow gradient.  That's 3 S's in one mani!  And I used Sally Hansen polishes so that's almost another S, just not in the technique name.

Whats Up Nails Fleur de Heart Stencils with Girly Bits April 2018 CoTM

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Hey there!  Today I have a mani that I wore last week to share with you using Whats Up Nails Fleur de Heart stencils.  I used the April Colors of the Month from Girly Bits (purchased by me) and I loved them so much that I thought I better get this posted ASAP in case any of you are interested in them.  Girly Bits will have these polishes available until May 1st but I also just saw that Harlow & Co. will be stocking them on Friday (April 27th) so that's an option as well.

Whats Up Nails Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  It's the weekend and finally one that isn't from the depths of winter so I'm thrilled!  To start my weekend, I'm writing a blog post with so many manis in it.  I recently received the newest stamping plates from Whats Up Nails and I absolutely fell in love with them so I hope you like them too.  Honestly, Whats Up makes some of my favourite stamping plates these days.  They don't have a ton of images but the ones they have are unique and beautiful AND the plates aren't expensive...so you can buy more, haha!  Here I've used four of them: Nature's Beauty Garden (full of florals and other foliage patterns), Texture Me Nature (with some incredibly cool and unique nature patterns), Sin City Life (with lots of Vegas themed images and even a bit of New York) and Fashion Prints (with images that would make some beautiful textiles).  And it just so happens that the Nail Crazies Unite prompt this week is neon floral so I did my first Nature's Beauty Garden mani with that theme in mind.

Whats Up Nails Black Chrome Powder and Stencil Review

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Hey there!  I recently received the Black Chrome Powder from Whats Up Nails and I clearly thought it was a lot of fun because I ended up using it in a bunch of manis in conjunction with some of their stencils.  This powder is different than some of the other powders because it's less opaque so it doesn't change the color of the base so much as it gives it a chrome/pewter hue to it.  Follow the jump to see all the stencils I used it with and read more about the powder itself.

Whats Up Nails B017 Spring Elation Stamping Plate

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Hey there!  Since I'm chilling enjoying this Easter weekend, I thought today would be a good day to show you a spring-themed plate from Whats Up Nails.  The B017 plate (aptly named Spring Elation) has a bit of everything for this time of year.  There's some Easter and St. Patrick's Day images and a whole lot of images all about nature.  Those are my favourites so I used two of them here.  I didn't even realize until just now that I did double stamping for both of them.

Nail Crazies Unite - Sweet Fruit

Hey there!  Today's Nail Crazies Unite prompt is one of my all time favourite things - sweet fruit.  I'm an absolute fruit junkie.  I think that's why the winter months are so sad to me.  I don't have access to delicious fruit.  Sure, I can still get it at the grocery store but it's not nearly as good as the farmers market fruit of the summer.  But since it's still very winter-y here, I wasn't fully feeling the fruit theme.  I ended up going with a fruit I'm not even particularly fond of.  Does anyone truly like bananas or are they just handy?

Whats Up Nails St. Patrick's Day Stencils

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Hey there!  I'm popping in for a quick Saturday post before any St. Patrick's Day festivities.  A few days ago I got an envelope from Whats Up Nails with lots of stencils and plates including some St. Paddy's Day stencils.  I had time to use some of them this week so I thought I should share them before the big day is over!  As always, I had really good luck with their stencils.  I would recommend almost all of their stencils.

Moonflower Polish Spring Holos and Vampy Cremes Collections

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Hey there!  A couple weeks ago I posted about Sunset, the Moonflower Polish shade created to celebrate her shop's first anniversary.   Today I have swatches of the upcoming Spring Holos collection AND the recent Vampy Cremes collection.  These two collections really show how talented Nadia is.  She's come up with two great sets of stamping polish that both work so easily but that are so different in their finish.  I really like them both but there's something particularly stunning about the spring set.  They're holo and kind of shifty and metallic.  That being said, there will never be anything better than cremes for nail art so I'm so happy to have both collections.  Stick around to read all about them all.

The Digit-al Dozen Does Stamping - Powder Stamping

Hey there!  As much as I love stamping, sometimes I forget about some of the cool techniques we do to get fun images on our nails.  So for the Digit-al Dozen's stamping week, I decided each day was going to show a different technique.  Here I have a relatively new one - stamping with powders with just a side of a gradient.  I find the Magic Shifting Powders from Whats Up Nails to be the best on the markets so that's what I used here.

The Digit-al Dozen does Mythical Creatures - Unicorns

Hey there!  It's a new Digit-al Dozen week...woohoo!  This month we're tackling Mythical Creatures. At first I didn't really love the prompt mostly because I couldn't really think 5 unique mythical creatures but I ended up really liking some of the designs I have for you this week.  Today's mani is one that I loved.  I have a feeling we'll see lots of unicorns this week and I can't wait.  I think these turned out really pretty.  I actually liked the base so much that I didn't want to cover it up but it had to be done.  I did take a photo before I stamped though so you can see it.

My Recent Valentine's Day Nail Stamping

Hey there!  Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovely folks out there!  I'm a single lady so I'm not celebrating, except to go out for beer and wings with one of my friends right away.  But I wanted to stop in and quickly post the Valentine's Day nail art I've been wearing over the last week or so, including my current mani (the first one I'm posting here).  It also happens to be the Nail Challenge Collaborative's Love month so there should be lots of love-themed mani in the links at the end of this for you to browse.  If you're curious about any of the products I used for mine, it's all down below.