Author: Shannon Rae

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Tribal Print Gradient Nails

I know I say this every time I do my nails, but these have to be one of my favourite gradients I’ve ever done. Seriously–just look! It turned out so pretty. I’d never claim to be a gradient expert, but damn if I don’t feel proud of how these turned out! & what does better with a gradient than a little stamping? I don’t think I’ve done any stamping since before the Lil Bubs was born, & I didn’t realize how much I missed it. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Lounge Lover
  • China Glaze Glow With The Flow
  • China Glaze Plur-ple
  • Essie Butler Please
  • Yves Saint Laurent Noir Brilliant
  • Born Pretty Store Peel Off Liquid Tape
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate (QA66)
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge

Why don’t I stamp more often, seriously? Well mostly because I only have the same few stamping plates. But hopefully I can change that soon because it just makes for sure an intricate manicure. I would never freehand this design (at least not without a lot of crankiness & frustration!) 

For my gradient, I started off with a basic sponged gradient & then went back over the gradient dry brushing my colours for a bit of a rustic look. It lead to an interesting blend that I really, really like. 

What do you think of this mani? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 💜

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Spring Drip Marble decals


Have I mentioned enough how much I’m loving my silicone mat? I’ve been having a blast creating fun decals with it. I can’t believe it took me so long to get on the silicone mat trend. That’s me–always behind on the times! But now that I’ve caught up to modern times, I’m having a blast playing around & can’t get enough.

This drip marble is from a few weeks ago. I had decided to pull out a few more Spring-y colours for another drip marble. These are kind of similar to the Earth Day drip marble I created colour wise. I don’t often reach for green shades, but I’m starting to find myself craving them more. They’re great shades for Spring!

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Color Club Almost Famous
  • Essie Strut Your Stuff
  • Essie First Timer
  • OPI Angel With A Lead Foot
  • Silicone Craft Mat

I wanted some fresh colours (& an excuse to wear use my new bottle of Color Club Almost Famous!) I had originally planned to do a yellow to blue gradient with these colours, but decided at the last minute to make these decals instead. & application definitely gets easier with practice.

So what do you think of this manicure & colour combination? I think it looks so fresh! The colours just meld together so well, I’m completely obsessed! 💛

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My First Franken Polish! 


You know something I’ve always wanted to try? Mixing my own Franken polish. For those who don’t know what a Franken polish is, it is a polish you create by mixing two or more polishes together to create a custom shade. I’ve seen a few people I follow on Instagram do this, & I thought it would be fun to try for myself. Plus I had an empty bottle lying around, so how could I not?!


For this Franken I grabbed a few random colours. Originally I thought I’d mix a greyed out white with purple undertones, but the initial mix came out much more lavender so I decided to go with it.

For this Franken I used:

  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard To Get
  • ORLY Plum Sugar
  • OPI Who You Callin’ Bossy?
  • ORLY Oh Cabana Boy
  • ACO by Ardene Bonne Nuit
  • Nicole By OPI Make A Comet-ment

I can’t really give you an exact “recipe” because I just kept mixing until the colour that came out as perfect (to me). But I love it. It actually goes on perfectly in two coats & just needs a little top coat to smooth out that glitter. I only wish you could see the holo a bit better! It’s definitely subtle, but at least in person you could tell it was there–these pictures don’t show it off at all. Once the sun returns I’ll be interested to see how it comes out under sunny skies. 


What do you think of this colour? Have you ever mixed your own Franken colour before? I can see this being very addictive! As though I don’t already own enough polish haha. Also trying to figure out what to name this Franken colour, so if you have any suggestions let me know! 

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Splatter Nails with @xromapolishandvinyls!

Happy Monday everyone! 

I was recently sent some nail vinyls to play with from @xromapishandvinyls & as soon as they arrived I couldn’t wait to pull them out & start creating. You know how much I LOVE my nail vinyls, & Xroma Polish and Vinyls have a ton of awesome creative designs available on their site. 

First design I grabbed to play around with was the splat stencils! 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Butler Please
  • ACO by Ardene Ice Mist
  • Quo by ORLY mini unnamed pink
  • Quo by ORLY mini unnamed mint 
  • Xroma Polish and Vinyls Splat Stencil 
  • Small dotting tool 

Isn’t this pattern so much fun?! I’m sure I’m not the only person who loves splatter nails but hates the clean up. Plus even with filling in my splats individually, this manicure was easy & surprisingly quick to do! 

These were so much fun to do & even more fun to wear! They even matched my OOTD. I’d definite recommend checking out Xroma Polish And Vinyls site yourself, & all the amazing patterns available. They ship world wide from Australia, & mine arrived super quick! I think it took only 6 business days & I live on the other side of the world in Canada so I though that was really impressive. 

What do you think of this manicure? Let me know in the comments below! 

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SUNDAY SWATCH POST: Quo by ORLY Sweet Dream 


Like any nail polish addict, when I go into a store that sells nail polish (pharmacy, grocery store, department store, Dollar store) always have to look at the polish selection. Even though I’m trying not buy polish I don’t need, I like to know what’s available on the off chance there something I absolutely need right now, or something on an awesome sale. 


While shopping at my local Shoppers the other day, I was checking out the Quo by ORLY selection & came across a colour I hadn’t seen before: Sweet Dream. I picked it up & immediately noticed the pretty pink shift in it. Suddenly I realized I needed this colour. Of course, not before I picked it up & put it down a few times trying to decide. Pretty sure the girl in Cosmetics either thought I was crazy or trying to shoplift. 

Sweet Dream is a pretty pearlescent blue with a subtle pink & turquoise shift that is sadly much more evident in the bottle than on the nail. But, when you hit the right light it is hard to not get distracted! The polish is super sheer–I used 2 coats over a single coat of Sally Hansen Babe Blue undies (& there is still some visible nail line happening.) I’m not sure how many coats it would take if you wore this polish on its own, but I bet it would be a few, so I definitely recommend using it over undies. I’d be interested in seeing how different undie bases would bring out the shimmer. But even with the extra work, Sweet Dream is so, so worth it.  

I mean, check out that shift:

I can’t even begin to explain how much I love this blue. It’s like Unicorn Nails in a bottle! All it’s missing is a flakie top coat, which I wish I had though of! Next time. I’ve been trying really hard to not buy polishes I already have 1000 versions of, & I can safely say I have absolutely nothing like this colour in my stash already. (trust me, I went home & tried to find a dupe. Nothing!)

Quo By ORLY polishes are available for purchase at Shoppers Drug Mart stores across Canada. For my international friends, I know sometimes Quo polishes are recreations of ORLY polishes that already exist, & from my Quick internet search I believe that Sweet Dream is a dupe of ORLY Angel Rain from the Fall 2013 Surreal collection. Looking at swatches in Google, I’m pretty convinced these are dupes. 

So what do you think of Quo by ORLY Sweet Dream? What has been your latestest have to to have polish buy? Let me know in the comments below!