Author: Shannon Rae

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SWATCH SUNDAY—Essence Out Of Space Stories in Beam Me Up!

Happy Swatch Sunday! Hope you’re having an exciting weekend. I’m excited because I was at my local Shoppers Drug Mart & found they’ve recently put out the Essence Out Of Space Stories collection. I actually squealed when I saw them, which lead to awkward stares from those around me. Haha. 

I first saw these shades when Mani Geek posted about them, but was disappointed they were only available on the website. Well surprise… not anymore! I decided to only pick one (for now) which turned out to be a hard decision. I must have picked up each shade & put it down again about 3 times before I finally decided on Beam Me Up! 

Beam Me Up! is a vibrant pink with golden shimmer with a slight scattered holo. This was two coats, plus top coat. I’ve been a fan of Essence shades for a long, long time & I always get so excited when new collections are released & this shade definitely lives in to the inner excitement I had brewing for these shades! This pink is just perfect & it manages to stand out from the other pink scattered holos in my stash. 

This pink is seriously everything. That little bit of scattered holo takes a pretty polish & makes it a gimme gimme gimme polish. Also I have to mention how much I love the Star Trek inspired names! I grew up in a totally Trekky house so it’s a nice bit of added geekiness. 

Have you found any of the Essence Out Space Stories shades in stores yet? These polishes had definitely only been recently added at this location (I usually go there every couple days) so if you haven’t found them yet, keep checking. I plan on checking my local Superstore (Loblaws) to see if they’ve added them to that display as well. 

Have a great Sunday everyone! 💅🏻

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My Very First V-Gap Design

Over the years, I’ve expiremented with lots of different nail art designs. One I haven’t tried though is the v-gap! This design has been around a long time & according to Google the creation of the design is credited to a nail artist by the name of Sophy Robson. Yes, I know. I’m always so behind on these trends! But you know how much I love chevron moons, & I thought this would be a nice change up for my favourite look. 

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Diamond Flash
  • OPI My Favourite Ornament
  • OPI Lincoln Park After Dark 
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls skinny Straight Vinyls
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls X-stencil (inner pieces) 

There are lots of different tutorials for creating this look you can find online, but I chose to use nail vinyls to make it easiest. I applied my chevron vinyls first then added the straight vinyls down the middle—this was the easiest way to make sure everything was straight. For those who want to make this design even easier, I know What’s Up Nails has stiletto nail vinyls that would work perfectly for this design! 

I just love how these turned out—they feel super classy with the dark over the gold! This would be a great design to wear to any kind of fancy event… I know Fall is just beginning but it’s almost time for holiday parties, & these would look beautiful with a cocktail dress. 

What’s the last new design you tried? Let me know in the comments below! 

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Happy National Coffee Day Nails! ☕️


You know I love a good excuse to celebrate a holiday & what better holiday to celebrate than National Coffee Day! I joined my girls in #thenailartsquad for some caffeine inspired manicures in order to celebrate this day in style! 

Obvious if we’re doing coffee inspired nails, I had to do something Starbucks inspired! I also thought I would pull out some of the acrylic paints I recently picked up for my freehanding details. 



For this design, the products I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Diamond Flash
  • Essie Mochacino
  • Essie Cocktails & Coconuts 
  • Sally Hansen Hard To Get
  • Acrylic Paints (black, white, brown & green)
  • Silicone Mat
  • Tiny dotting tool 
  • Small Detail Brush

I had this idea of how I wanted this design to turn out, & it turned out exactly how I imagined in my head… I love when that happens! I used my pink silicone mat to create my “latte art” drag marble decals which (I think) turned out really good. I also tested out my acrylic paints for the first time, & they were so easy to use for nail art! I definitely understand why they are such a popular option for nail art—I would have had a much harder time creating my little Starbucks cup using just regular nail polish. Now I want to buy even more colours to test out designs! 

What do you think of these coffee nails in honour of National Coffee Day? What’s you favourite coffee drink of choice? Obviously I love pumpkin spice this time of year, but if we’re picking favourites I absolutely can’t wait for Gingebread lattes to return! 
Don’t forget to check out the hashtag #thenailartsquad to see all the coffee themed designs, as well as our past collaborations! 

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Sparkly Red Stamping 

I’ve been seriously digging red nails lately. They’ve been a favourite of mine for a long, long time—I almost used to exclusively wear red nails during my late teens, early twenties—so I’ve accumulated quite the stash of crimson polish. & even though my days of just wearing red are a bit behind me, that doesn’t stop me from buying good red polishes when I see them so my stash has continued to grow.

 I recently found a beautiful red at my local Lawtons (one of my favourite stores for polish steals) & I found a red shade from L’Oréal (Carmin Parisien) that seemed to me to be more opaque than most reds, so I had to buy it! Even though I love red nails, I find that a lot of red shades are not opaque & usually show some degree of visible nail line. Lucky for me, L’Oréal Carmin Parisien is completely opaque in 2 coats! This pretty much cements it as my new go to red. 

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat
  • L’Oréal Carmin Parisien 
  • CND World Crimson Sparkle
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper (item #38611)
  • Essence Cosmetics Stampy Set stamping plate. 

I’ve actually been thinking about buying this stampy set from Essence for a while, but I had some Optimum Points to spend so I decided to pick it up. The very first stamping set I ever bought was from Essence, & they’ve definitely upped their game since I bought that one—the images actually fit my whole nail now! For a beginner curious about the whole stamping business, this is a great little set to try it out & see if you like it (especially for under $5). 

What do you think of these sparkly red nails? What colour do you love the most on your nails? Let me know in the comments below! 

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Featuring New Limited Edition Quo by ORLY Breathable Shades for Fall 2017. 

Who doesn’t love new nail polish? Who doesn’t love new nail polish that is actually good for your nails! Today I’m sharing three brand new for the Fall Limited Edition Quo by ORLY Breathable shades that I recently received.

It’s always a super exciting day when nail mail shows up at the store, & when I saw these beauties in the box I was extra excited. You can check out my previous post on these Breathable shades from last year here to understand why I was so excited. Not only are these polishes beautiful, with great formulas that require no base or top coat, but they are designed to make your nails stronger & healthier! 
Quo by ORLY Down to Earth



Who doesn’t love a good nude shade? Especially a nude you can get away with one coat of! This grey leaning neutral is the perfect throw & go shade to me, especially since it is only one coat. Also no top coat required! That also means the dry time isn’t instantaneous, but that’s okay with me. 


Quo by ORLY De-Stressed Denim

Let’s talk about the formula of all these polishes—they’re perfect. Like beyond perfect. This is two coats of De-Stressed Denim, & they went on so smoothly. This blue is also just so perfectly named, because it really just the spot on colour of jeans. I actually saw these three shades at my local Shoppers & this was the one I was drawn to first. So pretty! 


Quo by ORLY Fairy Godmother

A shimmery rose gold shade… that’s good for my nails? Yes please! Fairy Godmother took two coats for that shimmery goodness you see above. It dries down easily, with few noticeable streaks. The colour is one I love, especially for this time of year (& holidays) & I love that I wear a pretty sparkly shade while making my nails stronger & healthier. 

So what do you think of these shades? 

Quo by ORLY Breathable shades can be found exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart locations across Canada for $10.99. As I mentioned, these shades are limited edition so you’ll definitely want to pick them up before they’re gone! 

*PR SAMPLE* Some of these items were sent to me for review. However, all opinions are my own.