Author: Shannon Rae

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Chevron Accent Nail featuring Pacific Blue. 

I’ve written before about my unrelenting love for the original formula Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. So much so I still search for back up bottles when I’m looking through clearance. I don’t wear it a whole lot, but when I do I am reminded why I love this polish so much.  The other night I was looking for something to put on my nails, & immediately reached for my old trusty favourite. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Pacific Blue
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust
  • Sally Hansen Montley Hue
  • OPI Angel With A Lead Foot (under Montley Hue)
  • Snail Vinyls Staggered Chevron Nail Stencil

Sometimes I love wearing a simple colour & sprucing it up with a simple accent. If I’m remembering correctly, Pacific Blue was one of my very first Sally Hansen X-treme Wear polishes. I’ll never not love it. Even if it didn’t have this elusive Unicorn status, it would still be one of my favourites. 

What do you think of this mani? Do you have Pacific Blue in your stash? I’ve been going through my stash &  found some potential dupes, so I’m going to post a comparison post coming up! 💙

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Smooshy accent nails using a silicon mat! 

I’m getting so much use out of my silicone craft mat! I understand now why people love their nail art mats so much–the options are endless. I wanted to try out some smooshy nails, & I saw this technique some on Instagram before (I just can’t remember by who unfortunately) so I decided to give it a try. 


For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat. 
  • My Beauty Spot unnamed green colour.
  • Essie Wrap Me Up
  • Essie Bobbing for Baubles
  • Essie Cocktail Bling
  • Nicole by OPI A Phil’s Paradise
  • Born Pretty Store Peel Off Tape
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Stamper
  • Silicon Craft Mat

For this look, I started by dropping different colours onto my mat, & moving them around some to spread around the colour. I then took my clear stamper & pressed down, smooshing the polishes together. I immediately then pressed the stamper down on my nails to create the marbled look, & finished everything off with top coat.

I really love how these turned out. You can never go wrong with marbled nails. I don’t know if I could consider this an easier way to create smooshy nails, but it was definitely fun! You still want Liquid Latex around your cuticles to keep your clean up minimal! 

What do you think of this mani? What is your favourite design to create on your silicone mat? I’m always looking for inspiration, so share your nail art ideas in the comments below!

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Messy Abstract Dotticure

I originally intended for these to be a classic dotticure, using my nail art pens. But my navy pen was being a pain (it’s the original version) & ended up looking not dotty, so I went with it. This was the end result. 

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Matte Top Coat: L’Oréal The Matte Velvet
  • Mary Kay White Lace 
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Turquoise
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Navy
  • Wet N Wild 2% Milk

I’ve owned this Mary Kay polish since my early nail polish addict days. As I’ve written before, White was my most searched for colour in an attempt to mimic Buffy Summers white nail polish. The addition of 2%  Milk did give the polish an off white colouring, but I still love it. Gives the overall manicure a bit of a vintage feel. 

What do you think of this manicure? Do you prefer more a classic dotticure? Let me know in the comments below! 

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Mani Monday Mermaid Nails

Who doesn’t love a good mermaid manicure? 

When I made my What’s Up Nails order I knew I needed to stock up on some of their scale stencils so I could create mermaid nails. They just make me so happy! I just can’t stop playing with my vinyls. 

For this manicure, I used: 

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie All Access Pass 
  • Icing Breakfast At Tiffany’s
  • China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla
  • What’s Up Nails Scale Stencil

I really wanted an excuse to pull out my bottle of Sand Dolla Make You Holla. Sadly my bottle has seen better days, & I’ve been trying to bring it back to life with polish thinner, but it’s not going well. Anyone else have trouble saying goodbye to old polishes at the end of their life, or is just me? I find it especially hard with polishes that are discontinued because you know you can’t get go out & buy a new bottle easily. I mean, yeah there is EBay but I feel weird buying polish off of EBay. Guess I will just have to hope & pray I come across it at Winners or Marshall’s one day soon. 

What do you think of this mermaid mani? What polish do you keep even though it’s seen better days? Let me know in the comments below!

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Desert Sunset inspired nails

Coachella is finishing up this weekend, which means lots of festival inspired nails have been popping up in my feed! I’ve never been to Coachella, but I DO know it takes place in the desert so I thought these desert sunset gradient nails would be perfect to channel my inner festival goer (instead of what I’m actually spending today doing which is cleaning my bedroom & putting away way too much clothing while simultaneously trying to convince the baby to nap.)


For this design, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • Color Club Almost Famous 
  • OPI Where Did Suzy’s Man-go?
  • Essie Play Date
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Black. 
  • Latex Free cosmetic sponge 
  • Born Pretty Store Liquid Latex Peel Off Tape

My bottle of top coat is reaching the bottom which lead to some weirdness & shrinking. Never the less, I really love the colour combination of this gradient with the desert landscape. I could totally see these fitting in at Coachella, or another similar music festival! 🌄 all I need is a flower crown & some cut off denim shorts & I’d fit right in! 

I think I’ve rediscovered my obsession with gradients, clean up be damned. (Thank goodness for Liquid latex.) & I think I’m slowly getting better at them! They make me happy. This colour combo worked out so well, I just can’t stop staring! Even my husband commented how wicked these were (& without asking even!)

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