3 Easy Accent Nail Ideas

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Hello lovelies!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic start to their week & October! Can you believe it’s October already?! It is absolutely my favourite month of the year because HALLOWEEN! & my birthday as well, but still haven’t decided if I’m excited for my birthday this year or not.

Today though I have a fun nail art post to share with you featuring 3 different accent nail art looks that are both quick & easy! For these designs I used the same polishes for all 3 looks, & tried to do nail art that #1. wouldn’t take forever to dry, & #2. didn’t need a whole lot of complicated tools

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For all three designs, I decided to use the same polishes:

  • Essie After School Boy Blazer
  • Essie White Page
  • Quo by ORLY Breathable Nail Superfood
  • Joe Fresh Gel Look Sparkling Glitz
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Frosted Berries

As always, I used my base coat & top coat for a complete look. As well, I used a couple nail art tools in order to achieve my look–a dotting tool & a striping brush. Mine are both from NailStuff.ca, although there are a ton of different places you can purchase nail art tools.

Continue reading “3 Easy Accent Nail Ideas”

Shimmery Teal & Purple Half Moons

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Good morning lovelies & happy Thursday! Hope everyone is having a lovely week so far. Today I’ve got some more Fall nail art to share with you, in a fun jewel toned colour scheme!

There is something I love SO MUCH about pairing purple & blue/teal together. I just find they compliment each other so well, which is probably why–regardless of the season–it is a go to combination for me. I was already wearing my Swatch Sunday pick for this week, & I wanted something to pair with it in a quick half moon, so naturally I had to reach for a purple to complete the look.

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For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Gel overlay
  • Top coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Quo by ORLY Breathable Freudian Flip
  • Essence 25 Arabian Nights (new formula Shine Last & Go!)
  • Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Lo
  • Paper hole reinforcements
  • small dotting tool (Mine are from NailStuff.ca)

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Trying out this new purple from the reformulated Essence line at Shoppers Drug Mart. I’m trying my best not to buy too many new polishes (since, you know, I have a million) but I can’t resist $2.99 nail polish so I picked up this pretty shimmery dark purple called Arabian Nights, & I really think it compliments my base of Freudian Flip really well! I decided to add in some gold as well, so keep it feel luxe, & I think the end result looks super fancy. (Also Arabian Nights applied over my base in only one coat, which made this manicure even quicker to do!)

Feeling like this has a bit of a Mardi Gras vibe as well, although a little bit early for that! But I really do love how fancy these feel, thanks to the jewel tones & gold accents. Of course, the fanciest place I’ll be wearing these is the grocery store, but that’s okay with me! I’ll have the best looking nails at Sobeys!

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What do you think about this half moon look? What manicure are you planning on rocking this weekend? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Quo by ORLY Breathable Freudian Flip

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Good morning loves! It’s that time of week again: Swatch Sunday. & today I’ve got a brand new polish to share with you that I literally just bought from Shoppers Drug Mart: Quo by ORLY Breathable in Freudian Flip, which appears to be a brand new addition to the Quo by ORLY collection exclusive to Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada.

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For complete opacity, you’re looking at two coats of polish. & what you get is a beautiful teal metallic shimmer. I was a little nervous because metallic shades like this can sometimes have a thin formula which is hard to build up, or works best layered over dark undies, but Freudian Flip needed neither of those things. I was also pleasantly surprised that there were no glaring brush strokes when it dried.

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Of the two new metallic foil-y shades that is part of this new Quo by ORLY Breathable release, this is definitely the one I was the most excited about. So I was a little disappointed that the Duochrome shift that is so prevalent in the bottle doesn’t as show as much on the nail, at least in the light of lightbox. However, that being said, this is a seriously gorgeous polish, in a fun colour I don’t wear that often. & because it’s part of the Breathable line, I can feel good about wearing it because it’s design to be good for my nails.

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For my Canadian friends, you can currently pick up this shade at your local Shoppers Drug Mart & online at Beauty Boutique… & it’s currently on sale for $9.99! For my American friends, ORLY has their version of this shade (also named Freudian Flip FYI) which can be purchased online at their official website, NailPolishCanada & Amazon. So if you are looking at this polish thinking “Oh My God! I need it!” you are in luck because there are lots of places to buy it from!

& trust me, you definitely need this polish.

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What do you think about this polish? Are you as love in it as I am? I’m loving that Quo by ORLY has come out with some really fun shades in their Breathable line, & I can’t wait to go back & pick up the other duochrome shade I saw You’re a Gem. I’m such a sucker for these foil duochrome shades.

Let me know if you would add this polish to your collection & what was the latest polish you bought! 💎

Fall Inspired Abstract Nails

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Good morning lovelies! Hope you’re enjoying the beginning to another beautiful week. Also how is it possible we’ve passed the middle of September & it’s creeping (quickly!) towards October?! It feels like just yesterday I was dreaming wistfully about pumpkin spice, & now it will be Halloween before we know it!

Today I have a really, really fun design to share with you that I had an extremely hard time figuring out what to call. It has a little bit of everything in it: negative space, polka dots, colour blocking, abstract lines. This look was partly inspired by a few of these looks I’ve seen popping up on Instagram & partly inspired by my daughters new soothers. But I am 100% in love with the end results!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Gel overlay
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Wet N Wild 2% Milk
  • Essie Fall For NYC
  • Essie Bobbing for Baubles
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod!
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

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This look is super easy to do, even though it comes across as more complicated & fancy. Basically the hardest part is figuring out how to layer your lines of colour, but because they’re “abstract” you don’t have to worry about making them perfectly straight. & then just go in with a small dotting tool for some extra dots, & you’re finished! I originally was going to add a few random lines as well, but was worried about kiddos waking up (I literally did these at 6am while everyone was asleep) so I went the safe route. Definitely want to try them again & see if I can get even closer to my inspiration! This was a fun first attempt though!

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Love love loving this look! Seriously, it feels so good to paint my nails, & even if it means waking up earlier than I might want, it’s so worth it in the end. Painting my nails is what keeps me feeling like me, & it’s important to have that “thing” that makes you feel like you, especially when you’re a new Mom.

I know I get asked a lot how I have time, with two young kids, to keep doing my nails & the honest answer is: I just make the time when I can. It’s not always easy, & sometimes it takes into the next day to finish a manicure, but sometimes that’s what you have to do. We’ll see what happens when my maternity leave is up & I go back to work, but I will keep trying as much as possible to keep the routine going & finding my times to paint & create.

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What do you think of this nail art look? What kind of manicures would you like to see next? Share down below your favourite nail art look!

🧡

VACATION NAILS — ocean inspire Saran Wrap splatter.

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Hello lovelies! Still on vacation, but even though I’m on vacation that doesn’t mean I’m not painting my nails! Like I wrote in my last Swatch Sunday post, visiting my parents means I get to take advantage of my Mom’s massive nail polish collection she uses for her jewelry. So I decided to take a few of her polishes to create an ocean inspired design perfect for an East Coast vacation!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvacote
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen CSM A Bleu Attitude
  • Quo by ORLY April Showers
  • Santee ACO6433
  • China Glaze Cattle Drive Me Crazy
  • Crinkled up Plastic Wrap

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Obviously, being away from my own nail polish stash & supply, I’m not going to attempt to crate one of my more complicated designs–like floral– which is why something like a Saran Wrap splatter is such a perfect design! Easy to do, minimal clean up, but still looks fancy & fun! & obviously because my nails were inspired by the ocean I had to take pictures of this look right on the beach! 🌊

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Looking at these close up, I realized how much these look like the mussel shells we used to collect off the beach as kids! This colour combination is definitely one of the best versions of this design I’ve done, but I find that happens whenever I do anything in shades of blue! They always just turn out so beautiful!

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What do you think of this look? What do you do about your nails when you’re on vacation–do you still paint them, or go with something like soak off gel that lasts 2+ weeks!

Let me know your vacation nail routine down in the comments below!