Category: Aco by Ardene

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Inspired by… Keira Knightley!

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So… confession time. I have a HUGE girl crush on Keira Knightley. It’s a little dorky actually. She has an impeccable fashion sense that I can’t help but envy. The other night I was trying to come up with nail art ideas and remembered this Valentino dress she wore to the premiere of a movie a couple years ago. Since I knew I had a color very similar to the background of that dress (NOPI My Jay or the Highway) I thought… why not give it a try! After all, the worst that would happen would be that I’d have to redo them with something else!

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The (many) polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Nicole by OPI My Jay or the Highway.
  • ACO by Ardene Flower Girl.
  • Bourjois Paris in 1938 Mais Oui
  • Bourjois Paris  in 1995 Grains de beauté
  • Boujois Paris in 2002 Effect 3D Lip Gloss
  • ACO by Ardene Misty Love.
  • China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin.
  • Sinful Colors Strapped.
  • ACO by Ardene Green Peace.
  • Sinful Colors Easy Going.
  • Vernis Classique by Cherimoya Black.
  • Essie Good to Go Top Coat.

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I love these. I love these SO much! When I first started I wasn’t sure what to do to capture that dress on my nails, but they turned out just how I hoped they would. Maybe my nail inspiration is little dorky, but the end result makes me smile. I don’t even want to take these off!

 

 

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Inspired by Wonder Woman!

Because I have a huge love affair with all things DC superheroes, I really wanted to do another Superhero inspired manicure. I’ve only done a couple to date: A Flash manicure last summer, and my Spiderman nails. Now most people who know me would figure I would do Batman nails since he’s my all time favorite (I even have a Batman tattoo). Instead, I decided to go with my second favorite: Wonder Woman.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • ACO by Ardene Golden Luxury.
  • ACO by Ardene Strawberry Blush.
  • Revlon Spidey Sense.
  • Maybelline Sapphire Siren.
  • Revlon Superpowered.
  • Vernis Classique by Cherimoya Black
  • Essie Good to Go top coat.

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This manicure was pretty simple to do. I painted my nails all the gold color, and waited for them to dry over night. Then, I taped off the L shapes, and painted on first my creme blue and red, followed by my Revlon polishes. I peeled that off carefully, then outlined with my black and applied top coat. And tada! My nails are super powered!

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The only thing I wish was that I had little star glitters that I could have added to my blue to make it really look like her costume. Next time! These would go perfectly with my Wonder Woman costume (which I wore for Halloween a couple of years ago.) I might even have to come up with some more Superhero inspired manicures–Batman, for sure, but all my other favorites as well. I remember seeing an awesome Star Sapphire manicure on pinterest a while ago that I feel absolutely in love with.

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Purple Ombre.

When I first started getting into nail art, Ombre nails were all the trend. Even though they aren’t as popular as they once were, I still think they’re a great look. I hadn’t done ombre nails in a while so I decided to give them another try. I was feeling a purple manicure, so I grabbed five purple polishes as close to each other in tone and created a quick ombre.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Essence Beauty Beats Baby Ooh Ooh — thumb.
  • Essence Color and Go Break Through — pointer.
  • China Glaze What a Pansy — middle.
  • ACO by Ardene Purple Rain — ring finger.
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You — pinky.
  • OPI I Snow You Love Me — glitter placement.
  • Essie Go to Go Top Coat.

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Plus side of owning a TON of polish–makes it easy to match a few up to create  a quick ombre which still looks like the colors are supposed to go together. I also added some glitter to create a rhinestone look, just for an extra little something-something. It just pulls the whole look together for me.

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So what do you think of these ombre nails? Like I said, I still really love the ombre manicure so I could see myself doing this with all sorts of different colors. Also I’m really digging I Snow You Love Me for all the glitter placement possibilities. Plus from a distance it looks like rhinestones on the nails (but without the worry that I would knock them off in about 2 seconds at work.)

Also I’m seriously addicted to the Skinny Caramel Macchiatos at Starbucks. I go through waves of being addicted to certain drinks, and they’re my drug of choice right now. So delicious.

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Pacific Blue (the original!) and a little subtle shimmer.

So as most people have probably heard, Sally Hansen decided a little while ago to change Pacific Blue, taking it from a beautiful creamy blue to a less appealing darker shimmery blue. I was not very impressed when I heard the news (as most people weren’t) because Pacific Blue is one of my all time favorite blue polishes! I’ve been on the look out to see if I could find any of the old bottles, but wasn’t having the best luck. However, I got lucky the other day when I visited my local Shoppers–they had a whole display with the old formula of Pacific Blue, so naturally I had to stock up on this beauty!

In honor of finding my beloved Pacific Blue, I decided to do a manicure featuring it. Originally I wanted to use striping tape to create triangle accent nails, but after getting way to frustrated I gave up on the striping tape and decided to create freehand mosaic accent nails. Someday I’ll manage to get the hand of striping tape, I just guess that today is not going to be that day.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue — blue.
  • Essence Beach Cruisers Girls Just Wanna Have Sun! — Coral.
  • Essence Beach Cruisers Keep Calm and Go to the Beach! — Teal.
  • ACO by Ardene Kiss From a Rose — Pink.
  • Vernis Classique by Cherimoya Black — black outline.
  • Quo by ORLY Glitter Pink Matte Top Coat.
  • Essie Go to Go Top Coat.

God, I really love this blue. As soon as I came home, I put it on my toes. My old bottle was beginning to get goopy from over use, so I was really sad thinking I’d never get to wear this polish again. I also added some shimmer to my manicure in the form of Quo’s Matte Pink Glitter Top Coat so it would qualify for the OMD Nail Art challenge. I ended up adding top coat over the sparkle, just to bring it out a little more. Maybe it’s not as BAM! IN YOUR FACE! as some shimmery manicures, but I like the subtle quality of it. Plus it looks amazing over Pacific Blue so it’s a definite win for me.

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Happy Canada Day Nails.

Just a quick post today.

So here in Canada we’re celebrating our country’s birthday. In honor of that, I painted my nails for the occasion. I wanted to try and create some maple leaves, but I was short on time as we were heading out to the boyfriend’s brother’s house for pre-Canada Day drinks, so I went with polka dots.

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 polkadots

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The polishes I used for these holiday nails were:

  • OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • ACO by Ardene Strawberry Blush
  • Essie Go to Go top coat.

These were right the right amount of red and white for my Canada Day. =)

I look forward to starting on the OMD2 Nail Art Challenge tomorrow with Coral nails. =)