Author: Shannon Rae

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

Hello lovelies! Today I’m sharing a fun polish for my Swatch Sunday pick! Today’s polish is cult favourite China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy. Sadly I don’t have the original version of this shade which was a bit pinker, but I do have the new formulation & it’s one of my summer favourites. Who doesn’t love a blinding neon coral? The perfect shade for emphasizing that summer tan (or giving you the illusion of a tan when you spend 40 hours a week inside the mall).

Like most neons, Flip Flop Fantasy dries matte which means it dries quickly & can make application tricky. For my swatches below, I did Base Coat, & then two coats of Flip Flop Fantasy. When I started trying to photograph my swatches I realized how crazy the neon-ness was making my camera so I tried three different lighting situations to see if I could accurately capture the colour.

Normal light box lighting (daylight bulb):

Light box no lighting:

Natural lighting:

As you can see from above, my pictures outside my light box with natural lighting were the most colour accurate. The light box with daylight bulb made it look almost yellow-ish & without lighting it looked kind of peachy. #3 really shows off the neon colour true to that shade you see in the bottle. This is just one of those shades which is beautiful on the Nails, but hates to be photographed.

Down below I have my swatches, this time with glossy top coat (Seche Vive) added. I almost managed to capture the polish true to colour in my second photo!

Do you have China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy in your stash… original formula or new? Share your thoughts on this shade down in the comments below!

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Holo Claws!

Happy Friday lovelies. I, for one, am very excited for the impending weekend–even though I work tomorrow, I can’t wait for this week to be over. After getting over some sickness at the beginning of the week, I ended up with some eye issues which has kept me from doing nail art. I hate when that happens! Thankfully I managed to finally repaint my (very) chipped nails last night & will hopefully be able to create some new nail art tonight.

So for today’s post, I went back into my phones camera roll & found a design from a while back (the last time my nails were rounded).

For this design the polishes I used were:

Oooooh I’m LOVING the combination. The pink compliments the blue really well, & even blends into it… until it hits that light & BAM! holo amazing-ness. & talk about distracting… I wore these nails to work & spent a large chunk of my day trying not to get distracted by the beautiful holo on my nails. I don’t wear Wrenn Polish Enchanted nearly enough. It’s just such an absolutely stunning polish.

Also you can never go wrong with chevron claws, especially when they’re holo. ✨

what do you think of this colour combination & style? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Pastel Dry Brush & Polka Dots

Happy Tuesday lovelies! If it’s possible for the Tuesday after a long weekend to be happy. I mean, I worked 2/3 days of this long weekend so I’m not even sure what a long weekend is anymore! But that’s okay… I’m feeling minuscule-ly better & I have a fun new manicure to share with you.

Today’s design is actually inspired by a design from a very long time ago! Okay maybe it was only 3 years ago, but it feels like forever since my nails were that kind of amazingly long. Last time, my polish picks were more in the neon family, so I decided this time to stick to more pastels. & oh yes, do I love how the colours went together!

For this design, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by Orly Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Wet n Wild Clear Polish
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Let’s Snow
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Ocean Daze
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Bourbon Babe
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in black

Dry brush is such a fun technique to create on the nails, because depending on the look you’re going for you can use a clear polish or smudgy top coat to blend your colours together & let dry for a few minutes & use a non-smudging top coat to keep the look of your dry brushing more in tact. I wanted to create a more blended look, so I applied a coat of Wet n Wild’s clear polish over top, & brushed it a few times so the shades would blend together better. In this case, it’s good to smear your design. I also tend to do this with other nail art like gradients or Saran Wrap marbles, but I want to colours to blend together as much as possible.

I’m loving the vibrancy of these shades. They remind me of Summer & I love Summer. Suddenly wishing I could find a bikini with a similar dry brush & polka dot pattern on it. Or maybe a dress… something fun & Summery I could wear on more than just my nails.

what do you think of these pastel dry brush & polka dot nails? Is this a look that you would wear for summer? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Butter London Saucy Jack

Happy Sunday lovelies! Sorry for such a delayed post! I’ve been curled up on the couch all afternoon fighting off sickness so it’s taken a minute to get this post together!

Today I’m sharing swatches of a brand new (to me) polish that I picked up at Winners! After doing some internet research, it looks like this shade was released somewhere around Fall 2008… or at least that was the earliest post about it I could find through Google! However, unlike some Winners finds, you can still pick up this shade in a variety of places including NailPolishCanada & the Butter London website.

What you see above is 2 coats + top coat. Like a lot of reds I own, it does require a few coats for total opacity. Thankfully, as you can see above, no need to worry about visible nail line. The formula is smooth & applies effortlessly & thankfully doesn’t bleed into the cuticles which can be SUCH a pain when it comes to red nail polish.

I love a good red nail polish & Saucy Jack will definitely be one I pull out to use a lot from now on. The blood red cream colour is a nice pop of colour & a classic red for sure. I really love the fact that shopping at Winners (& Marshall’s!) gives you the opportunity to discover new to you polish shades.

Do you have Butter London Saucy Jack in your nail polish stash? What’s you favourite red nail polish? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below!

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Floral & Gold Nails inspired by @thelittlecanvas

Happy Saturday! & Happy Royal wedding day! Who else was up early watching all the Royal wedding coverage? The Bubs had me up at 5:30am, but I was already planning on getting up to watch coverage of the event.

I don’t have royal themed nails to share with you today, although personally I think this floral design would be perfect for any wedding! Today’s design was inspired by a manicure @thelittlecanvas posted back in March. I loved everything about it (Alaina always does the prettiest accent nail designs!), so naturally I had to recreate. Plus it was an opportunity to pull out one of my favourite vibrant blues that I haven’t worn in a while.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • ACO by Ardene Whacky
  • OPI My Favourite Ornament
  • OPI Chiffon My Mind
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Piggy
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Super Charge
  • Essence The Green & The Grunge
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art Pen in Black
  • Bundle Monster detail brush
  • Bundle Monster large & small dotting tools

I love that event though this is a relatively easy design to create, the combination of everything just makes your nails look so fancy. Plus they look way more complicated than they actually are. I’m still trying to find more floral designs to do that aren’t just my typical roses that I can pull out when I’m feeling floral on my nails. Which, lets be honest, is 95% of the time.

What do you think of this floral? Do you think I stayed true to my inspiration? & if you’re on the hunt for new nail art inspiration & haven’t already discovered Alaina, definitely check out her Instagram & blog because she always come out with the most amazing patterns & designs!