SWATCH SUNDAY—China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald (Fall 2010 Vintage Vixen Collection)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. The first Sunday of November! I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween. I definitely ate my weight in mini bags of Sour Patch Kids & Starbursts.

But now we’re moving on from Halloween, at least for another 363 days, & it’s time to focus on the latter part of this year! I thought for today’s Swatch Sunday post I would pull a favourite from my stash to share, that is the perfect colour story for a November day. This is Emerald Fitzgerald from the 2010 vintage vixen collection.

2 coats + top coat

The formula on this beautiful dark green was a bit on the thin side, but easy to apply. It needed two coats for full cover, but as you can see from my swatches, it covered beautifully. For a nail polish that is potentially 15 years ago — I purchased mine on clearance circa 2013 or so — she doesn’t seem affected by age at all. The dark green colour has a beautiful shimmer that’s very easy to see both in the bottle & on the nail.

Close up shot really shows of that shimmer that’s so prevalent in the formula & it’s truly stunning. It gives this colour a little bit more depth which is just stunning. & I’m not usually a green kind of girl, but I think because this one has kind of a blue-ish undertone to it, it has always drawn my eyes more than your typical green.

It really is the perfect green for this inbetween time after Halloween, but before Christmas/Holiday designs start. It’s just such. stunning jewel tone.

What do you think about this old school China Glaze shade? Like I mentioned, I purchased this guy going on 13 years ago — & it was released 15 years ago — so she’s not easily found in circulation nowadays, but I did find a few listings for it online when I was trying to find out information about it’s original released.

Happy Sunday!

♥︎

GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE OCTOBER 2025 — Ghost 👻

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! It’s hope your week has been as calm & peaceful as can be.

Today is our third prompt for Glam Nails Challenge October, which is ghost! I do love a good ghost design especially this time of year, so I was excited to give this a go. I wanted to create a ghost look slightly different from ones I’ve done in the past, & I think I managed to create a spooky & fun look. & I’m so in love with how they turned out.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen InstaDri Top Coat (red bottle) 
  • Base Coat: Essie Hard to Resist (purple)
  • China Glaze Skyscraper
  • Essence Pastel Ombre Top Coat
  • OPI Alter Ego
  • Icing Store Black
  • Small Dotting Tool (NailsStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio)

So the trick of creating these translucent ghosties is using a really, really shear white polish (or mixing a more opaque white with a clean polish to thin it out.) I Have this Essence Pastel Ombre Top Coat from years, & years ago, & while I’ve never used it for an ombre design, it works perfectly for nail art like this! I also added a bit of OPI Alter Ego for a bit of extra shimmer/glow.

What do you think about this ghostly design? Do you like the spooky sheer effect of the ghosts. I feel like these ones are definitely more on the spooky side, compared to my ghost designs of years past — which I’m loving! Let’s go for all the spooky vibes this October — I am here for it!

Happy Wednesday

♥︎

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Skyscraper (Fall 2011 Metro Collection)

Good morning lovelies & happy first Sunday of October. It’s a beautiful Autumn day, I’ve been jamming to Taylor Swift’s new album for the last two days, & I’m currently enjoying my maple brown sugar coffee. It’s a good day! I’m also excited for another Swatch Sunday.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t really been in the mood to buy new nail polish. Maybe I just need a trip to Sally Beauty, but my usual haunts are not really cutting it right now. However, the plus side of me not buying new polish, is I’ve been going through my current stash a lot more often & finding long forgotten about gems — like today’s polish pick. This is China Glaze Skyscraper from their Metro Collection from Fall 2011.

2 coats + top coat

Once upon a time, purple used to be my signature colour (after red, of course) & as a result I spent many years buying every purple, or purple leaning, polish I could get my hands on. Skyscraper is a gorgeous dark blue/indigo jelly base packed full of silver & blue micro glitters. Some of the pictures of swatches of this shade I’ve seen seem more blue than my bottle, but maybe that’s the result of it being 10+ years old (I can’t remember exactly when I bought it, but I did post about it here.)

Close up shot to see all those glitters. I only did 2 coats on my nails for swatches, but you could definitely do another coat for even thicker glitter — or sponge it on to make it really glittery! I was happy with the opacity I had after two coats though, & especially happy with how easy the formula was to apply The first coat goes on very thin, but that second one saves it & gives it a beautiful finish. Will I enjoy removing this glitter? Well we will have to see.

But I do love wearing it!

What do you think about China Glaze Skyscraper? Do you own this shade? What do you think about the colour?

China Glaze has long been one of my favourite go to brands (I own a drawer & a half of their polishes!) but I feel like I haven’t really checked out the new revamp they recently did. I’m definitely going to have to go to my local Sally’s & check out the new bottles & polishes they’ve released!

Happy Sunday!

♥︎

Autumn Tonal Skittle 🍁🍂🌻

Good morning loves & happy Wednesday. We’re mid-week through the first week of September! & tomorrow marks the first day of school around here. So it’s a very exciting week all around!

It’s also feeling very Autumn-y, so I’m excited to share some skittle nails which match the mood. (& would be perfect to wear while sipping some apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte!) 🍁🍂

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Top Coat: Essie Good To Go Top Coat
  • Base Coat: Essie Hard to Resist (purple)
  • China Glaze Buffalo Bills Bills Bills (thumb)
  • China Glaze Modern Auburn (index)
  • China Glaze Spice to Meet You (middle)
  • China Glaze Loves You A Latte (ring)
  • China Glaze The Snuggle is Real (pinky)
  • Essie Separated Starlight *pr

I think China Glaze is one of my favourite brands for Autumn nail polish releases. The colours, the formulas — just perfection.

I love a good Fall tonal skittle. It’s so much fun combining some of my favourite Autumn shades for a quick & easy look — & the use of the glitter brings everything together even more!

What do you think about this Fall skittle look? Do you love this combination of colours as much as I do? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below.

🖤

Pink Glitter Placement 🩷✨

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! How is everyone’s week going so far? Enjoying the balmy weather? Our days have been hot hot hot which means the grass is crunchy & the fire risk is extremely high. I don’t usually wish for rain, but we could definitely use some.

Today, though, let’s share some pretty nails.

& you know what’s pretty — a flakie glitter placement. Especially when it is as easy as this one was to do!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Top Coat: Essie Good To Go Top Coat
  • Base Coat: China Glaze Calcium Gel Fortifier
  • China Glaze Glow With The Flow
  • ‘Ard As Nails Fairy Flakes

Look at those pretty sparkles! They’re just so pretty, & girlie & sparkly. I love it. This was also a super simple design to do, with no tools needed. & it’s just the right amount of sparkle — especially over a vibrant base like Glow With The Flow.

What do you think about my pretty pink glitter placement? Do you like this glittery combination? I’m still on the hunt to add more glitters to my collection for glitter placement looks — especially come to Autumn months. So please let me know your favourites!

Happy Wednesday.

♥︎