Category: Aco by Ardene

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Halloween Skull Nails 💀 

We are only FOUR days away from Halloween which means I only have a couple more days to get in a few more spooky designs. My next Halloween design is one that is quite popular on Instagram—Jack Skeleton’s face (or just a skull since I don’t want any Disney copyright person coming after me!) 

For this design, I wanted to do something quick & easy for those who may be looking for a last minute Halloween nail design that isn’t too complicated to do. 

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Revlon Elusive
  • Ardene Ice Mist
  • Sally Hansen Hard To Get 
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in Black 
  • Bundle Monster small nail art brush
  • Bundle Monster dotting tool 

This design was super simple to do! I decided to freehand my stripes because I wanted my stripes to look somewhat imperfect. I also like that they’re over such a sheer base colour. These really are super simple to do & I feel like you can accomplish them at any nail art level. My eyes/nose were the hardest to get right but even though they’re not perfectly symmetrical, they still turned out fun & Halloween-y. 🎃 For the eyes, I just created blobs using my larger size dotting tool & the mouth length using my striper. I then went in with my smaller brush & created the teeth & nose. 

What are you wearing on your nails for Halloween? Do you have any Halloween designs you’d like to see me take a stab at before Tuesday? Leave your suggestions here or on Instagram & I’ll try my best! 🖤

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More Fall Leaves! 

Oh yessssss. I swear I’ve been just waiting for September to come back again so I could pull out my Fall leaf nail vinyls. You know my obsession with nail vinyls knows no bounds, & I love that you can pretty much find vinyls or stencils for every occasion & season. These particular leaves vinyls are from The Base Coat (whose site is currently on hiatus) but you can definitely find a ton of different versions of these Autumn themed vinyls with a quick search online.  Xroma Polish & Vinyls sells these uniquely beautiful Autumn stencils while What’s Up Nails sells the more classic Fall leaf stencil.

  • Base Coat: OPI Natual Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat
  • ACO by Ardene Jacob Green
  • Essie Leggy Legend
  • ORLY Brilliant Boysenberry (aka ORLY Space Cadet)
  • Nicole by OPI Best Pink Ever 
  • Revlon Spidey Sense
  • The Base Coat Fall Leaves Vinyls
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge

I love the shiftiness achieved by combining all these shades together & I think they look really great over my base of my swatch of Jacob Green. The shimmer of these metallic shades really pops over the dark green base colour. It’s literally Fall on my nails & just makes me wish I had a pumpkin spice latte & plaid blanket scarf to go along with them. 


What do you think of these Fall Leaves? Would you rock this design while drinking your favourite Fall drink? Let me know what you think (& what your drink of choice is!) in the comments below. 🍂

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SWATCH SUNDAY– ACO by Ardene Jacob Green

It’s Sunday, & you know what that means… it’s Swatch Sunday! This has pretty much become my favourite day of the week, because it’s been encouraging me to go through my stash & pull shades that aren’t in my everyday polish repertoire & from my many, many untrieds. 

 Today I’m showing off a shade I’ve owned for quite a while (I believe I bought it two Falls ago) but I’ve never worn. 

This is ACO by Ardene Jacob Green–a deep smooth Forrest green. I’ve written before that green isn’t a colour I’m usually attracted to. Most of the time the greens in my stash are saved for the leaves in my floral designs & Christmas or St Patrick’s Day designs. But there is something about this shade that I find just weirdly beautiful. For my swatch, I used two coats plus top coat, although I’ll be honest it was just as shiny before top coat. The formula is nice & buttery, & easy to apply. 

This is a great Fall shade & a great shade in general which is crazy for me to say. It’s crush worthy, & I really love it. Also there was absolutely no staining with removal which is always a fear for me when it comes to dark shades like this so it gets bonus points. 

For my Canadian girls, you can find ACO by Ardene shades at your local Ardene store usually on special for 3/$10 or something similar. Because this shade is from 2 years ago, your best bet for finding it would be an Ardene Outlet store. 

What do you think of this gorgeous green shade? Do you have a particular shade that is out of your comfort zone, but you can’t help but love? Let me know in the comments below!
Stay tuned because I’ll have some pretty nail art to share that I added over my swatch! 

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Graphic Lines Over Watercolour 

I teased these geometric freehand nails this weekend, which you may have seen on Instagram, so I’m excited to finally share the whole look! I just needed to do some really poppy Summer nails to counter act the fact I’m craving Fall colours so bad. I also feel like I haven’t been practicing my freehand lines enough, so I wanted to play around with my black striper. This design isn’t perfect but I do quite enjoy how they turned out. 

The polishes used for this design are:

  • Base Coat: Cutex Brittle Nail Fix
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard to Get
  • Color Club Evolution 
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Wet My Thistle
  • ACO by Ardene Road to No Where 
  • Essie Cute As A Button
  • China Glaze Sun Upon my Skin
  • Art Club Nail Art Striper in Black
  • Latex Free Make Up sponge 

Bright & colourful & fun was what I was going through with these nails & I feel like I was pretty successful. Of all my nails, my thumb was my absolutely favourite (& I feel like it turned out the best of all 10 nails). I think it had something to do with my striper polish. The more I use it though, the more I’m realizing I need to try out aryclic paint. I know I keep saying that, but the more I use my stripers, the more frustrated I get with how easily they thicken up. So hopefully the next time I show off a freehand line design, I’ll be sharing my expirences with acrylic paint! 


What do you think of this design? Have you ever used acrylic paint for nail designs? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

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Born Pretty Store Review — Origami Pattern Stamping Plate Harunouta L040 item #39127



Happy Monday! Today I have a new manicure featuring another stamping plate so kindly sent to me for review from Born Pretty Store. This time, I’m reviewing the Origami Pattern Manicure Stamping Plate Harunouta L040 item #39127. This plate called to me because of all the gorgeous origami shapes. & the arrival of the plate was just in time that I could wear these nails to my sister in laws baby shower this past weekend! 


For this manicure, I used: 

  • Base Coat: L’Oréal All in One
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Revlon Gel Envy To The Chapel
  • Essie Chillato
  • Ardene Fluffy Tutu
  • Born Pretty Store Black Stamping polish (from this set)
  • Origami Pattern Stamping Plate Harunouta L040 item #39127
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper

I think I’m finally getting the hang of stamping. The images are so delicate that you really have to move quickly (or the stamping polish dries) but I’m figuring it out! I’ve used Essence Back to Black for stamping before & it worked really well but my bottle was all used up so I’m going to get a new bottle & try stamping with that to see how it does. I definitely had more practice using this plate, so it went a lot easier. 

I love how adorable all of these images are! You have the hanging pictures, the individual pictures & then the cool geometric cloud images. So many different ideas & manicures that you can create! Like I mentioned, I wore these for a baby shower but I could see this being perfect for lots of occasions (or just for fun everyday). 

I still consider myself a stamping newbie, so while this plate was a little difficult for me after a little fiddling & practice I think I came up with a very pretty manicure! This plate could definitely be suitable for someone still new to stamping, as well as those pros out there I hope to someday join!

If you’re interested in ordering this plate (or something else) from Born Pretty Store feel free to use my discount code COFFK31 to save 10% off any regular price items! I’ve been ordering from them for years, & I love the wide variety of products you can find for all your nail polish addict needs! 

Stay tuned because I still have 2 more Born Pretty Store reviews coming your way!