Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! & a very exciting Sunday at that because today we’re going full holiday mode with Swatches of the Sally Hansen MiracleGel Joy of Colour Holiday 2021 collection. You might have seen that Sally Hansen Canada was so kind as to gift me this collection, & I was like a kid on Christmas morning opening up the package! I’m always very excited when Sally Hansen releases a new collection, but add in some Christmas glitter, & I reach full on “I need to own this collection!” so I’m. very excited to share it with you today.
Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! It’s a snowy Wednesday here in Halifax, which is the first snow of the season for us. Not a lot of snow, granted, but just enough to get those toasty holiday vibes swirling. & my kids were so excited for it this morning. The walk to school was definitely interesting, haha.
Today I’m sharing a design style I haven’t in a while: half moons. These have been a go to classic for me since I first fell in love with nail art, but sometimes with all the other awesome nail art designs I love to do, I forget about this classic look. I was wearing a beautiful fun red last week, & decided I wanted to do some kind of half moon look with it, so I grabbed another shade from the same collection (Sally Hansen 2018 Decadence collection) & paired them in a fun vampy design.
The polishes I used for this manicure are:
Base Coat: Essie First Base
Top Coat: Seche Vive
Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Good Cheer-y
Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Garnish Attention
Paper hole reinforcements
As I mentioned, this is a favourite easy nail art look of mine. & a great beginner nail art technique! I feel like if you’re new to nail art, this is the perfect way to get fancy nails, without too much hassle. The hardest thing is always just waiting to make sure your base shade is dry enough (which I’m super guilty of being impatient, so definitely make sure you wait!)
This colour combination is beautiful, & I like that it’s not too Christmas-y, although you could definitely swap one of the shades out for a glittery gold, & bam! Christmas party ready.
What do you think about these vampy half moons? Are you a fan of the half moon mani design? Let me know down in the comments below which colour combination you would pair together for a fun moon mani!
Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Can you believe we’re almost done with November? This has definitely been a blink & it’s over kind of year — but I’m definitely excited to get my Christmas nail art on!
Today’s Swatch Sunday pick a brand new (to me) brand: SpaRitual Open Minded. I was at Marshall’s the other day & checking out the clearance section, as always, when I saw this beautiful blurple looking shade. I knew I needed it in my life, especially as I didn’t own any SpaRitual shades in my stash, so I added into my cart! I scored this polish for $4 on clearance, regular Marshall’s price was $4.99.
2 coats, no top coat.
According to the SpaRitual website: “Our Nourishing Vegan Nail Colors are vegan, cruelty-free and clean. Our colors are formulated without 13 harmful chemicals and are 1-step, no need for base coat or top coat.” I’ve never tried their polishes before, so I was excited to see how this shade would hold up.
For my swatches I needed two coats for full opacity. The first coat was definitely patchy & streaky — the formula itself is almost crelly like, leaning more towards the cream side. The second coat gave the application you see down below — perfect opaque coverage, no streakiness.
The colour itself is really vibrant & striking. The SpaRitual site describes it as a cobalt blue, but I feel like it does lean a little purple which is why I’d call it almost blurple. Over all, I’m quite impressed with this shade, & my first experiences with SpaRitual in general. I’ve also been wearing this shade since Thursday, & it’s still holding up with minimal tip wear, even after two very busy days at work.
I’m interested to see how easily removal will go with this shade. Blues can sometimes be tricky, so hopefully we’ll have no issues!
What do you think about this beautiful SpaRitual shade? Do you have any experience with this brand?
I will definitely be searching out more of these shades whenever I see them at my local Winners/Marshalls. The price can’t be beat, the lasting quality has been awesome, & I would love to try out more colours in their range!
Hello lovelies & Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a lovely week so far. Here on the East Coast you can feel that Winter is quickly approaching — it was downright cold this morning. & I am not a girl who enjoys the cold! Especially because it absolutely wreaks havoc on my nails if I get busy, & forget to keep up with my nail care routine!
But enough about the cold, let’s concentrate on the good stuff: this icy smoosh design inspired by @grapefizznails! Anne is a fellow Canadian nail guru who creates the most stunning smoosh nails I’ve ever seen! Literally, it’s like witchcraft I swear. As soon as I saw her latest smoosh design I knew I needed to attempt a recreation ASAP.
How absolutely gorgeous did this turn out? Obviously nothing compared to the original, but I think I channeled my inspiration very well. It gives me a nice Fall Icy feel, which works well with these chilly November days. It was also pretty easy to create as well. Anne has some pretty awesome tutorials on her instagram on how she creates her smoosh marbles, as well as drip marbles & other nail art! So definitely check them out, especially if you want to recreate this look as well.
What do you think about this smooshy marble design? Do you think my recreation lived up to its inspiration? Would you wear this look on your nails as well? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!
Hello lovelies & happy Sunday… The first Sunday of November!
I’m not quite ready to start thinking about holiday polishes yet—although I’ve been tempted—so I thought I would delve into my stash & pull out an untried. Todays pick is OPI Ink, which I scored on a serious deal at my local Lawton’s.
2 coats + Seche Vive Top Coat
According to my Google research, Ink was originally released as part of the 2007 Night Brights collection. It has since become part of the permanent core collection.
The polish is a deep blue shimmer with a multitude of purple & blue micro flakie glitters. It’s very densely packed, which means 2 coats of polish easily covers the nail. There is also a beautiful shift that shows blue or purple, depending on how you move your nail.
You can really really see the glass fleck glitters in a macro shot. It looks really beautiful. Also you can really see the beautiful shift — it’s a stunning polish for sure!
You can OPI Ink (pretty much) anywhere OPI nail polish is sold, both in regular formula as well as the gel formula. A few places I’ve found online which have it in stock are:
What do you think about this beautiful OPI shade? Do you have OPI Ink in your nail polish stash? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!
Coffee & Nail Polish 