Author: Shannon Rae

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Purple floral featuring China Glaze Flying Dragon. 

If there are two things you can count on me to obsess over when it comes to my nails, it is purple polish (bonus points if there is glitter involved!) and floral.   

One of my favourite purples now and always is China Glaze Flying Dragon–a neon purple polish scattered with beautiful micro glitters. I was going through old mani pictures recently and realized it had been way too long since I had brought it out. I decided to recreate the first mani I ever did with this polish from way back in 2013. 

 

First off, sorry for the shoddy Blackberry shot. I went for almost an exact recreation of my original floral. My hand has definitely gotten steadier. But Flying Dragon remains as gorgeous as always. Damn I love this polish SO much! 

    

The polishes I used for this mani were: 

  • China Glaze Flying Dragon (purple)
  • OPI Angel With A Lead Foot (white flowers)
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacy Lilac (light purple) 
  • Sinful Colors Bianca (pink middle) 
  • Sally Hansen I Love Nail Art pens in Black and White. 
  • Seche Vite quick dry top coat. 

 

  

Do you ever go back and recreate old manis? Let me know in the comments below! 😊

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My Stash — an update! 

You might remember last year I was going through and documenting my polish stash. Well I kind of got delayed on the final inventory, but I did recently go through and count my stash up again. 

Any guesses on a number? 

 

Obsession… Pfft what obsession! 😉

So what’s your number? 

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My first ever Jelly sandwich manicure 

Good morning and happy Spring. I don’t know where you are but here in Halifax we’ve got mounds of snow to deal with. That means I must invoke Spring via my nails! 

Recently I picked up a few awesome neon glitters from Ardene. I’m kind of in love with them.  I initially only picked up the pink glitter (called Pop to it) but after playing around with it I realized I needed all three! 

  

  

I’ve never done a jelly sandwich manicure before, but I’ve always loved the look. I decided my ACO by Ardene polishes would be perfect! I started with two coats of  Wet n Wild Megalast in 2% Milk and applied top coat to set it. Then I took my ACO by Ardene glitters Pop to it (pink), Lighten Up (yellow), and What Dafaq (blue) and applied them over my base. Next I took 2% Milk and applied a coat over the glitters. Then more top coat to seal everything in! And bam! Glitter goodness 😍

On my thumb you’ll notice I’m not wearing the glitter–I broke my thumb nail bad last week (like in half) so I’m wearing a press on to protect the nubbin while it grows out. The pink colour is ACO by Ardene Mermaid with polka dots to match the colours of the glitter. 

  

What do you think of my Jelly sandwich manicure? Have you ever done one before? Let me know in the comments below! 💗💗💗 

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Spring floral.

First, I have to apologize for my lack of posts recently. After getting promoted at work, my ability to sit down and write a blog post took a bit of a hit. But I’m back, and I plan on finding the right rhythm so I can start posting a couple times a week again.

Is anyone else seriously craving Spring?

I don’t know where you live, but we’ve had a seriously messy and frigid Winter. Too much snow! Too much ice! So I’m all about Spring right now. Even if it seems a million miles away, I can still embrace Spring on my fingertips!

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The polishes used for this pretty floral are:

  • Essie Strut Your Stuff (Bright Blue)
  • OPI Angel With A lead foot (White)
  • Icing Cupcakes and Caviar (Darker Pink)
  • OPI Suzy shops and Island Hops (Light Pink)
  • Essie Parka Perfect (Light Blue)
  • Sally Hansen Golden-I (Gold)
  • Sally Hansen I Love Nail Art pen in green
  • Sally Hansen Nail Art pen in navy
  • Seche Vite top coat.
  • L’Oreal The Matte Velvet top coat.

I’m so seriously in love with this mani. My only complaint is that I only did my floral as accent nails instead of a whole mani. Also I’ve found the best matte top coat in the whole wide world! Look at this beautiful matte goodness. If you are looking for an amazing Matte top coat, you simply must search it out!

I have ideas about doing a whole blog post dedicated to the perfect colours for Spring so I must ask–what is your go-to Spring polish? I’m still on the look out to add to my collection so let me know in the comments below!

 

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Comparison Post–holo glitter top coats.

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Hello lovelies!

Today I have a fun swatch post to share with you. A couple weeks ago I was at Wal-mart and noticed that Revlon had released a line of specialty top coats. There was a whole bunch of fun ones, bu the one that caught my eye was the Holographic Pearls top coat, so I had to have it. I tested it out with a snowflake manicure I did, and couldn’t help but be reminded of China Glaze Fairy Dust so I knew I had to do a comparison! I hadn’t yet used OPI My Voice is a Little Norse, so I figured I’d throw it in just to see how close the three of them were.

 

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On my pointer and pinky, I have two coats of China Glaze Fairy Dust applied over Mary Kay Blue Knight. On my middle finger, I have just one coat of Revlon Holographic Pearls, and on my ring finger I also have one coat of OPI My Voice is a Little Norse. As you can see Holographic Pearls is a much denser glitter than the other two. My Voice is a Little Norse isn’t as dense as the Holographic Pearls, but the glitters are bigger than the other two. I definitely think I still prefer Fairy Dust over the other two, but I do love Revlon’s Holographic Pearl top coat and you cannot go wrong for the price (I paid $3.99 at my local Wal-mart for it). Seeing My Voice is a Little Norse in person now, I’m definitely going to be pulling it out again. I’m quite fond of how it looks, especially over a darker polish. Tis the season for glitter, and I’ve been glitter crazy.

 

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So what do you think about these holographic glitter top coats? Do you have your own favourite? Like I said, Fairy Dust is still my absolute favourite, but all three are just gorgeous on the nail.