Author: Shannon Rae

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A Peek Into My Stash — video edition

Hello lovelies.

Today is a spur of the moment post, but I did a quick(ish) Instagram tour of my nail polish stash via Insta-stories. I thought it would be neat to save all my videos together, so those not on Instagram can see how I organize my polishes!

Check out my video below to get a look into how I keep all my nail polishes organized.

How do you organize your nail polishes? What do you think about my stash? Would you like to see more videos like this? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below!

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Matte St. Patrick’s Day Dotticure 🍀

Hello lovelies! Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 although this feels like a very strange thing to say considering the state of the world right now. I hope wherever you are, you’re safe & healthy & stocked up on all the essentials you need. Like coffee.

For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t feeling the St. Patrick’s Day nails this year, but decided at the last minute (yesterday) to do something, anything. & what is more fun & festive than a green themed dotticure!

For the manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Matte Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Matte Top Coat
  • My Beauty Spot pistachio green (no name)
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • L’Oréal Feeling Kilty
  • Quo by ORLY Diva
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio  (COFFEE10 to save 10%)

This look makes me happy, not only because it’s relatively quick & so easy to do! A dotting tool was the very first nail art tool I ever purchased, & by far they are the ones I’ve used the most over the last decade of me obsessively painting my nails! The great thing about a dotticure is that you grab a few festive colours & you can create a manicure for any holiday! Orange & black = Halloween. Green, red & White = Christmas. Pastels = Easter.

Easy peasy.

What do you usually do for St. Patrick’s Day? Back in my bit crazier days, I would take the day off from work & go party at a friends house literally all day. Those were crazier times for sure. Now I pretty much stick to kombucha & maybe Irish Cream flavoured coffee!

This year, like I said, with all the fear about Covid-19, we’ve stocked up on goods for the next little while. But I am set when it comes to coffee — we made sure to hit up Selby’s for some at home coffee! ☕️

Stay safe (& healthy!) loves

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essence You Belong To Me

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday.

I’m finally starting to feel a little better from my awful, awful cold last week, so I’m hoping to get some good blog content done this week! Especially since we’re going to keep as close to home this week with March Break & the fear of Covid-19 looming. I hope everyone is staying healthy — both physically & mentally!

But in the meantime, let me distract you with some pretty nail polish… because that’s what I’m doing to distract myself!

Today’s Swatch Sunday pick is over 8 years old–this is Essence You Belong to Me. I picked up this Essence shade from their Colour & Go line back in 2012, when they were still in these cute little round mini bottles. I do believe this was one of the first Essence nail polishes I ever bought, this & Wake Up! & yep… it’s another blue-ish shade because that is just what I’m loving right now!

For these swatches, you’re looking at 2 coats of polish plus top coat (Essie Gel Setter). & I’m not going to lie: application was not easy. First coat on each nail went on really easily, & I thought I was in the clear, but as soon as I attempted my second coat everything went lumpy & thick. & it took FOREVER to dry, even with my quick dry top coat. But given the age of this polish & the size of the bottle, I feel like that isn’t really it’s fault. & while it did take a bit of work to get on, the end result it a beautiful shade. I’m obsessed with a good robins egg blue, & this shade is no exception. Hello Spring!

There is also a really pretty shimmer you can see in the bottle, (& if you look closely at your nails), but was pretty much impossible to pick up on camera. It’s very very subtle. But this doesn’t stop this shade from still being absolutely beautiful & very perfect for Spring!

Sadly, this shade is way way way discontinued, & I doubt you’d likely to be able to find it online, but I did see some posts online saying it was a dupe for China Glaze For Audrey, so if you absolutely need this blue in your life, there is an easily found alternative! I didn’t paint them side by side on the nail, but I did hold the two bottles up beside each other & the only difference seems to be that For Audrey doesn’t have the subtle shimmer that You Belong To Me does.

 

What do you think about this shade? Have you started breaking out some lighter shades to rock on your nails (& maybe cheer yourself up during the hectic scary time?) Let me know what you think, & what colour family you’d like me to grab from next! Also for anyone who might be struggling with high anxiety during this scary time, here is a picture of our floofy boy sticking out his tongue to distract you, even for a minute. ♥

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Matte Pastel Ombre

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday! Hope everyone is having a lovely week. I’m still recovering from that awful cold (so. over. it) but that’s not going to stop me from painting my nails! I’ve really really really been longing for Spring which, in case you weren’t already aware, is 8 days away! I’m not excited or anything.

First up, how about a pretty matte pastel ombré look? Probably the easiest way to show off Spring on your nails!

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Matte Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Matte Top Coat
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Mint
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Blue
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Purple
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Pink
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Coral

For this manicure, I actually grabbed my mini set of Claire’s pastel polishes because they’ve been sitting in my drawers way too long, & they remind me of Spring in the best way. The blue especially is just like Spring in a bottle! I also thought about adding some floral on my nails–because you can never go wrong with floral–but I was loving this look all in it’s own I decided to leave it be. & I got a ton of compliments on this look too!

Ombré looks are so easy to do, & look so fancy on the nails. I tried my best pair colours together so it looked like a true gradient. I’m glad that these ombre/skittlette looks are still popular & going strong, because they’re so easy to do.

Also I’m rocking nubby nails again, thanks to a couple bad breaks, so this makes me feel not so bad about how short my nails are right now. I feel like this happens at this time every year — my nails just get tired with winter & cannot handle being long anymore so I have to give them a break. Although it is always fun coming up with short nail designs!

What do you think about this pretty pastel ombré? Is this a look that you would try? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below!

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Rosy Floral 🌹

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday.

I hope everyone is having a lovely start to the week — my whole house has been struck down with the cold from hell which had NOT been fun. Thankfully, I have a pretty floral manicure to distract me the fact I feel like I’ve been struck by a truck.

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Candy Coat 907
  • Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Pink Cardamom
  • Sally Hansen GPK Eco-Rose
  • Sally Hansen GKP Beet It
  • Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Bubblegum
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essence The Green & The Grunge
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio 

I hope you’re not getting sick of the floral, because I’m certainly not sick of creating them. I need something to distract me from what feelings like the most never ending Winter (even if we haven’t really had an overwhelming amount of snow this year — definitely not complaining!)

Also I have to shout out this Candy Coat polish because I wore these floral nails for a good 5 days before they started to chip, which gives me a lot of hope for when I go back to work. Got to love a Polish you can wear for an extended amount of time without worrying about the dreaded chips. I’m interested to see how these will survive an 8 hour shift in retail!

So what do you think about these rosy floral nails? Would you like to see some more floral soon? Let me know what you think & what your favourite flower is down in the comments below!