Category: Blue Nails

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Half Moons & Gold StudsĀ 

Happy Monday! How was everyone elseā€™s weekend? Weā€™ve been starting to pack for moving which is about as much fun as it sounds… I hate packing & I hate moving. (& I havenā€™t even starting thinking about moving my 1000+ nail polishes yet.) 

So what am I sharing to cheer myself up after a packing haze? One of my favourite go-to designsā€”the half moon. & thought Iā€™d share a quick pictorial on how easy these actually are to create! & no special vinyls are needed!

The products used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • China Glaze Fancy Pants
  • China Glaze Glamcore
  • NailStuff.ca gold Mixed Decoration Nail Wheel

Paint your base colour & apply quick dry top coat. Let dry completely, roughly about 20 minutes depending on the top coat you use. 

Once your nails are completely dry, pull out your pack of paper hole reinforcements & apply at the base of your nail. Make sure to press down at each end. 

Repeat on all 5 nails. I always do one hand at a time. 

Press down each side of hole reinforcement (to make sure polish wonā€™t bleed under) & then quickly paint second colour over top. A one coat polish works best, but she make sure base colour is covered. 

Immediately remove your reinforcement. 

Repeat steps on all fingers & then seal in design with top coat. Bam! Almost instant half moons (with a few steps in between). I loved the blue with purple but I wanted to add a little more of a snazzy finish to my nails. Iā€™ve been obsessing about this wheel of nail studs lately adding it to a lot of my manicures lately so I figured it would be the perfect addition to this design. 

For my accent nail, I applied some blobs of coat, then picked up my studs with a wet nail art brush & arranged them. I always make sure to pull my studs out of the wheel ahead of applying them, as it takes less time trying to find them. Also, sometimes you will have to dab on more clear polish/top coat to make sure the studs stick. Also I always seal my studs in with top coat so no edges catch & get pulled off. 

What do you think of this half moon? How do you create your half moon designs? Let me know in the comments below! šŸŒ™

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Happy Halloween with Wonder Woman Nails! šŸ’«

Happy Halloween everyone! I canā€™t believe itā€™s already Halloween šŸŽƒ ā€” how crazy is that? This year I was dedicated to doing a family Justice League costume with the hubs & our little Bubs so I could wear my Wonder Woman costume again! & obviously that means I needed to have nails that matched. 

Originally I was going to try for full on Justice League Nails with all the hero symbols but… my freehand skills are just not that good. I started & realized it would probably take me 14 hours & multiple attempts so I decided to go the easier route & just go Wonder Woman. 

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Boho Green Make Up Pacific Ocean
  • Lā€™OrĆ©al Color Riche Carmin Parisien 
  • Color Club Almost Famous
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard To Get
  • UR Sugar Star Nail Stencil item #AUB39877 ā€” Click to buy
  • NailStuff.ca gold triangle studs ā€” Gold Mixed Decoration Nail wheel 
  • Small detail brush from Bundle Monster 

I love, love, love how these turned out. I had a bit different idea going into this mani but even though these are different than who I originally planned, I think they turned out WAY better than what I was thinking I was going to do… & say Wonder Woman much more! I was super scared to attempt that W symbol, but I think it turned out great. & these are going to compliment my costume perfectly. 


 šŸŽƒ whether you plans involve trick or treating, handing out candy or just hiding inside with a box of mini candies (or anything else!) I hope you have the best Halloween ever. For those who follow me on Instagram Iā€™ll make sure to post a picture of my nails & my costume together later on! 

šŸ–¤

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Geometric stamping over Sally Hansen Mermaid’s TaleĀ 

Yesterday I featured a swatch of Sally Hansen CSM in Mermaid’s Tale–a beautiful teal jelly glitter shade. Today I have the mani I did using that shade as my base colour! I’ve really had a lot of fun getting into stamping, & practicing, so I decided to try stamping a pattern over the glitter. I knew black wouldn’t show up over such a dark base, so I decided to grab something fun & bright (Turquoise) & the end result turned out perfect. 

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: Finger Paints Peel Off Base Coat for Glitter
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Under the Twilight 
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Mermaid’s Tale
  • China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper item #24059
  • Older Born Pretty Stamping Plate that’s no longer available — this plate contains the same image. 

Can I just say how impressed I am with how well Turned Up Turquoise stamps? I was shocked with how opaque it was on the nail, especially over such a dark base colour. I wasn’t sure how it was going to look, but it turned out awesome! I always find myself so drawn to dark shades in the Fall months, but the pop of colour over top works well for a transitional manicure–just enough of Summer & just enough of Fall, all in one design. 


What do you think of this stamping? What polishes do you love for stamping? Share all your secrets in the comments below! I’m going to be ordering a bunch of new stamping plates (especially Halloween/Christmas themed plates) in the next couple days so I’m looking for all the best stamping polishes for playing. 

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SWATCH SUNDAY: Sally Hansen CSM Mermaid’s Tale


Have you ever had a polish that you’ve thought & thought & thought about but for one reason or another just don’t buy for whatever reason? I’ve got a few on my list, but a major one is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Mermaid’s Tale. 

Mermaid’s Tale is a dark teal jelly stuffed full of assorted sized glitters both large & small. It was originally released as part of the Under The Sea collection in 2013 & stayed as part of the permanent collection.  Recently I’ve noticed it popping up in the clearance section at my favourite pharmacy’s polish clearance, so I had no excuse not to pick up this long overdue lemming. 

Because Mermaid’s Tale is a jelly base, I was scared about building opacity so I applied two coats over a base of Essie Under the Twilight. It helped achieve the look without having to apply 40 coats. I tend to do this a lot with jelly based glitters to avoid polish waste–all you need to do is find a creme shade close to your glitter shade to keep any visible nail line from showing. From what I’ve seen online, without undies it takes 3-4 coats for opacity. That’s a lot of glitter to remove when you go to change your polish! 

Oh goodness, seeing this shade on my own nails makes me so happy to own it! Originally I started listing after Mermaid’s Tale because it was a very close dupe to Deborah Lippmann’s Across the Universe for about half the price. & because I waited, & waited & waited I got the polish for only $5 which is half the price Sally Hansen CSM shades usually go for in stores around me. 


What do you think of Sally Hasen Complete Salon Manicure in Mermaid’s Tale? Have you ever waited a long time to buy a much loved lemming shade? What is you #1 all time lemming shade? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

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Icy Blue Chevron Moons

You can never go wrong with Chevron Moons… that’s pretty much my nail art motto. But seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever met a Chevron moon I didn’t like–they’re relatively quick & easy & they always look beautiful. For this design I used a few more of the beautiful shades from OPI Iceland collection, this time featuring some of the beautiful blues of the collection. 

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • OPI Check Out The Old Geysers 
  • OPI Reykjavik Has All The Hot Spots
  • OPI Suzy & the Artic Fox 
  • Snail Vinyls Single Chevron Vinyls

These shades look great together, don’t you think? The coolness of these blues compliment each other really well & work well in a design like this. I liked this design so much (& the colour combination) I wore them for a full 5 days, which is almost unheard of for me. I just didn’t want to change them! 

With September here, I’m craving those cool tones to match the coolness in the air. Seriously, it was like as soon as the calendar flipped over to September Fall pushed its way into the weather forecast. Not that I’m complaining too much… gives me the perfect reason to wear my new plaid dress I picked up this Summer specifically for cooler days. 


What do you think of these Chevron Moons? What is your favourite Fall colour combination? Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments below! 

All of these lovely polishes were all gifted to me by OPI as part of the #PreenMeVIP program.