Category: Blue Nails

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Quo by ORLY Sailor’s Blue

Happy Sunday lovelies! Welcome to my favourite day of the week–Swatch Sunday! 💙 Today I’m sharing a polish that OG readers will remember as one of my early swatches on this blog: Quo by ORLY Sailor’s Blue. (Seriously check out that original post, because the picture quality alone is worth the laugh! 😹)

This shade originally came into my life as part of the Quo by ORLY 2013 Holiday Minis set (it was gifted to me by the Hubby) & was my first real foray into the whole Quo by ORLY Polish line.

Sailor’s Blue is a sheer deep blue polish with a duochrome shimmer that flashes between gold & pink. It’s sheer enough that I wear it with undies (China Glaze First Mate) to avoid having to build coats. I also feel like using it over top of another blue shade keeps it from looking muddy. For this look, I did one coat of undies & one coat of Sailor’s Blue, plus top coat.

Sadly, I don’t think this shade is available anymore for purchase which definitely makes me wish I had more than just a mini bottle in my collection. I know it was also released by ORLY as High On Hope as part of the Spring 2013 collection, but unless you find it buried in clearance bins, I don’t think it’s an easy shade to track down. Which is seriously a shame, because it’s so pretty!

& for fun, a macro shot so you can really see that duochrome shift. ⤵️

What do you think of Quo by ORLY Sailor’s Blue? Do you own this shade (or it’s twin ORLY High On Hope in your stash? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Wrapping Paper Inspired Nails featuring Morgan Taylor’s Little Miss Nutcracker Collection

The countdown to Christmas is on, & I’m trying to squeeze in a few last minute Christmas designs. Today I have a mani to share I created using two of the shades from the Morgan Taylor Little Miss Nutcracker Collection I was gifted as part of the Preen.me VIP program. I have full swatches of the whole beautiful collection coming on Sunday–just in time for Christmas Eve.

Today’s design is another one I could totally see being using as a pattern on wrapping paper! Which sort of reminds me that I have so much Christmas wrapping to do, but that’s okay!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Morgan Taylor No Light React Extended Wear Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Morgan Taylor React No Light Extended Wear Top Coat
  • Morgan Taylor Baby It’s Bold Outside
  • Morgan Taylor Dreaming of Gleaming
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate BPL015 (item #39933)
  • Clear Jelly Stamper
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier

This blue is so vibrant & saturated, I really kind of love it. There is nothing I love more than a good blue & Baby It’s Bold Outside is fantastic. & Dreaming of Gleaming is so perfect for stamping–probably one of the best silvers I have for stamping. I just can’t get over how well it pops out against the blue! & the pattern compliments these two shades together well.

what do you think of these nails? Do they remind you of wrapping paper too? Let me know in the comments below!

*PR SAMPLE* Some of these items were sent to me for review. However, all opinions are my own

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Winter Chevron Moons

Hello & Happy Tuesday! Sorry for the lack of posts this weekend–it was kind of a rough weekend & my motivation for posting took a hit. (Also I noticed the majority of my last post disappeared & I’ve been too frustrated thinking about having to rewrite it so I’ve been avoiding the blog. My bad.) But today I have a brand new post with something that has been seriously lacking in my life lately: chevron moons!

I’m calling these winter chevron moons because… it sounds cool? The colours just kind of give me that Winter vibe, so I thought it worked. Also I figured everyone might want to see something other than snowflakes.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2 Foundations
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Nubar Queen
  • Essie Parka Perfect
  • OPI My Favourite Ornament
  • URSUGAR Chevron Nail Stencils (I used the inner pieces.)

I love the combination of the pale blue, deep purple & sparkly gold. I thought this colour combo was a nice switch up from all the Christmas-y designs I’ve been doing, & features two of my favourite winter polishes: Essie Parka Perfect & OPI My Favourite Ornament. Every Christmas, this gold has to come out because the sparkle is just so perfect. ✨

For me, Christmas/Winter nails are all about the sparkle. These aren’t your typical holiday nails, but I think they would look fantastic with a pretty dress at a Christmas/New Year’s party, especially if you don’t want to resort to the classic Christmas shades. It’s all about the sparkle that makes it perfect. I’m so obsessed with Christmas party looks right now because I have no Christmas party of my own to go to. I just keep coming up with looks I would wear if I had somewhere to go (& then imagine what fancy dress sitting in my closet I would pair with it.)

What do you think of these chevron moons? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Movember Moustache Nails

It’s Movember & I’ve had these Born Pretty water decals sitting in my nail art supplies for absolute ages. Like… 3 years. So after my successful first time experience with the water decals from NailStuff.ca, I decided it was finally time to give these babies a try, just in time to celebrate Movember! 

Sadly I searched Born Pretty to see if they still had these in stock & couldn’t find them or anything similar. But if you wanted to recreate this design, you could use this stamping plate as it has the same design on it. 

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: Essie Grow Stronger 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essie Bikini So Teeny
  • China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Beatnik
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust
  • Edge Perfection 
  • Born Pretty Store water decals
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge

Thankfully I did these nails last week because while packing this weekend I accidentally packed up all my make up sponges, so I guess no gradients until we’re all moved into our new house!

I’m loving this design because it was surprisingly easy (thank you Edge Perfection! 🙏🏻 ) These water decals (as old as they are) were super easy to apply to finish off the look, & I had no issues with them. I always love when I discover all these new nail art items I’ve never tried before—I mean, usually I’m like 10 years behind everyone else, but they always rock my world & give me something new & fun to do on my nails! 

What do you think of my Movember nails? Comment your thoughts below! 💙

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Silver Snowflakes ❄️

Is it too early for snowflakes? Probably (& I’m definitely not trying to encourage Mother Nature in any way) but my few Christmas/Winter plates were sitting on my desk the other night looking so lonely so I decided maybe some snowflakes would be pretty. 

I do a variation of this design pretty much every year, with varying levels of success haha. I love how it looks a bit like wrapping to me. Honestly, the only time I like snow is between December 20th & January 2nd, or when it’s painted on my nails. 

For my manicure, the polishes I used were: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Grow Stronger
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Zoya Yves
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Buffalo Nickel 
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper
  • Born Pretty Store Snowflake Stamping plate (no longer available) — this one (also Born Pretty) could be a good alternative. 
  • Edge Perfective Cuticle Barrier 

I was really impressed with how well Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Buffalo Nickel stamped. I find metallic shades can be so hit or miss when it comes to how well they stamp, but it turned out awesome! I thought about adding a bit of glitter in the middle of my snowflakes, but decided against it just in case I hated how it looked. 

We’re slowly creeping into the holiday season. We were at the grocery store yesterday & you could already hear Christmas carols being played! Trying my best to like Christmas this year, especially because it’s baby’s first Christmas (& my husband’s absolute favourite holiday!) so wish me luck. Maybe if I do enough Christmas manicures, it will subconsciously make me love it? 

What do you think of these snowflakes? Do you think it’s too early for Snowflake/Christmas/Winter designs? Let me know what you think in the comments below!