Category: China Glaze

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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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Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month šŸ’œ

The month of November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, & my fellow girls in #thenailartsquad & I wanted to create some manicures to bring awareness to this terrible disease that has touched so many of us. 

The color for Pancreatic Awareness Month is purple, so we grabbed a selection of our favourite purples. 

 For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • China Glaze Plur-ple 
  • ACO by Ardene Ice Mist
  • Nicole by OPI One Less Lonely Glitter
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Trouble Maker
  • Essence Nail Art Stampy Set stamping plate. 

For my design, I picked to go with purple hearts. Like so many, Iā€™ve lost someone I loved to this terrible diseaseā€”-when I was just a little girl, my Poppy was diagnosed & passed away from pancreatic cancer. I donā€™t remember much about him sadly, except from pictures & home movies. 

This is why I think itā€™s such an important cause to bring attention to because I feel like so many people have lost someone they love way too soon. 

Weā€™d love for anyone out there who would like to bring awareness to Pancreatic Cancer to join us in posting a purple design using the hashtag #pancreaticcancerawarenessmonth

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SWATCH SUNDAYā€”China Glaze Cast A Spell

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope youā€™re not too hung over from whatever Halloween shenanigans you got up to this weekend! (& hey candy bar hangovers count too!) I thought for Swatch Sunday this week, I would delve deep into my stash & grab a Halloween shade to share with you! 

This is China Glaze Cast A Spell which the internet tells is from the 2012 Wicked collection. I picked up my bottle a year or two ago in a clearance bin at Chattersā€”one of my favourite places to find lost polish treasuresā€”so itā€™s relatively new to me. 

Cast A Spell is a blacky green thickly packed full of golden flecks of shimmer. The formula was fantastic, & it applied in two super easy coats. Itā€™s one of those shades that glows on the nail, & I can see why it would be part of a Halloween polish collectionā€”itā€™s the perfect shade for the modern Witch who cares about her mani while out casting her spells or buying eye of newt from her local Trader Joes. 

Seriously though, this polish is gorgeous. I only own a few Halloween shades in my extensive stash, & I think 90% of them are from past China Glaze collections. They just do extremely well when it comes to Halloween collections & you canā€™t help but just love them. Cast A Spell is outside my usual polish comfort zone colour wise, but there is just something about it that makes me not want to take it off. Itā€™s a great Autumn shade that I donā€™t think exclusively needs to be kept for Halloween night. 

& for fun I added some pumpkin stickers I purchased at the Dollar Store on vacation for an instant accent nail! šŸŽƒ


Do you have a favourite Halloween polish/collection either from this year or years prior? Let me know in the comments below!

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Nail Art Goodies from NailStuff.ca & my first experience with Water Decals.Ā 

Iā€™m back from my vacation, & while I enjoyed being away I definitely missed home! I was also excited to arrive home because I knew I had some nail mail waiting for me! My hubby was sweet enough to open my packages for me on a video Facechat, which added to my excitement. I couldnā€™t wait to get home & play with these goodies.

One of the parcels I received was from the new nail art site in town: nailstuff.ca! Iā€™d recently seen items from them popping up on my Instagram feed, & when they offered to send me a few items to try out I couldnā€™t say no! I received a sheet of nail water decals, a sheet of nail stickers, Ā a wheel of nail art studs, & three little tubs of glitter (silver, holo pigment & flakies.)

First up, I had to try out the Halloween themed water decals!

This was my first expirence using water decals. Iā€™ve bought them before, but never actually used them. Thankfully these decals came with very clear instructions to make applying them easy. Hereā€™s what I did to apply the water decals (as a first time user):

  1. I started off by painting my base shade (China Glaze Swanky SilkĀ topped with Revlon Holographic Pearls) & letting dry.
  2. While my polish was drying I grabbed a cup of room temperature water & scissors.
  3. Once my Base was dry, I cut out my desired designs & dunked them in the water for 10-20 seconds. I recommend doing this with tweezers.
  4. Pull out your design & using a dry finger pick up the design carefully. Make sure your finger is dry, or else your decal will crinkle up.
  5. Immediately press the decal down on your base. You only get one try with this, so make sure youā€™re putting it down where you want it.
  6. The instructions recommend using a blow dryer to dry your decal, but I found if you wanted a minute or two it also worked.
  7. Seal in your decal with top coat. I used Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat.

These decals were surprisingly easy to use even though I had no prior experience with them. They sit so flawlessly on the nail, you donā€™t have to worry about them sticking up or peeling off (after you seal them in with top coat). They are a quick & easy way to spruce up a basic colour & would look even more awesome over a gradient! There are also a whole variety of different design options in a variety of shapes & sizes for whatever look youā€™re craving.

Nailstuff.ca is based out of Canada, so shipping is a lot faster some than those other nail art companies, & itā€™s free shipping for Canadian orders over $29 & US & international orders over $45.

Even better, theyā€™re currently having a promo that if you use coupon code SCARYNAILS youā€™ll save 15% off all scary nail items for all your Halloween nail needs. So if you havenā€™t checked out them yet, I definitely recommend giving their site a look & stocking up!

Stay tuned because I have lots more goodies to review!

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

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Graveyard Nail Stencils with NailPolishCanada (& how to score your own set of vinyls for free!)

Weā€™re over halfway to Halloween, which itā€™s time to get serious about Halloween nail designs! & what is more Halloween than spooky graveyard nails! Thanks to Whatā€™s Up Nails & Nail Polish Canada, I had a quick & easy time creating the spookiest of nails! šŸŽƒ 

The polishes used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Go Ginza
  • OPI Auroa Berry-alis 
  • China Glaze Sleeping Under the Stars
  • Essence Back to Black 
  • Whatā€™s Up Nails Graveyard Stencils c/o: Nail Polish Canada 

These graveyard vinyls are great because they have multiple ways you can use themā€”my favourite is to use them as a stencil & paint in the design. I found it worked best by sponging on the black using a tiny piece of make up sponge. You could also apply the stencil to your nail & paint over top or you could use the vinyl itself & seal it all in with top coat. Each sheet of Graveyard vinyls comes with 20 vinyls (inner & outer) in small & large size which means you have a ton of graveyard nails to do in the lead up to Halloween. 

Iā€™ve been lucky enough to team up with Nail Polish Canada to share a code for TEN of my readers to score their very own graveyard vinyls just in time for Halloween! You can click here & enter the code E75337KJX9A1B in order to claim your own set of vinyls. 

What do you think of these graveyard nails? What Halloween design are you most excited to wear this year? Let me know in the comments below. šŸ–¤