Category: Colour block

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Colour Block Half Moons

Happy Wednesday Lovelies!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I’ve been having an exciting week here in Ottawa (although I miss being able to do my nails, I won’t lie.) I thought while I had a minute, I’d write up a quick post! Today’s nail design is one of my long time favourites & I love how versatile it is for all seasons. Half Moons! Seriously, you can never go wrong with a half moon design–they’re fairly quick & easy to do, & always look so put together. Today’s particular half moons were to curb my craving for something bright. I won Essie Flowerista last summer in their Summer Nailphie contest & I haven’t worn it nearly enough! So with Spring coming, I knew I needed to pull it out.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essie Cocktail Bling
  • Essie Flowerista
  • Essence French Manicure Tip Guides

How pretty is this combo? Usually I would use paper hole reinforcements for my design, but because I wanted the half moon to be the darker colour, I used my french manicure tip guides from Essence & filled them in (similar to what I would do with a chevron half moon). Still super easy & gives you even more colour combination options! Does anyone else remember when almost every single half moon I did was pink & purple? I’m really glad I’ve expanded my colour options! Although, I’ll be honest… I really like that colour combination!

So what do you think of these half moons? Do you have a favourite colour combination? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY: Wrenn Polish! 

Good Morning & happy Sunday! Today I’ve got a really exciting swatch Sunday post for you featuring three very gorgeous shades from Wrenn Polish. You have no idea how excited I was when my package from Alissa showed up on my door step, & I couldn’t wait to swatch these gorgeous shades to show off to you! 

A little preemptive warning–this post is going to be long & full of pictures of these stunning polishes. 

Wrenn Polish is a subset of Shop Wrenn which encompasses both these beautiful 5-free vegan & cruelty free nail polishes & their hand made Druzy stone jewelry which inspires it. I was lucky enough to receive three shades for review: Passionfruit Pink, Peri*twinkle* & A Pirates Life. 


Passionfruit Pink

Passionfruit Pink is a dusty dark blush shade that is infused with the most vivid gold shimmer. For my swatch, I had perfect opacity in 2 coats. As soon as I painted Passionfruit Pink on my nails, I knew this was going to be a go to shade for Fall. The pink on its own is a lovely, girlie shade but with the gold shimmer it becomes so much more. & unlike a lot of other nail polishes, this shimmer does not hide on the nail. As you can see from my pictures, it’s in your face & just as present on the nail as it is in the bottle! You can easily understand how these are inspired by Shop Wrenn’s beautiful stone jewelry. 

Peri*twinkle*

Peri*twinkle* is a blurple beauty that took three thin coats for full opacity. The formula on this shade was a little bit thinner than the other two, which was the reason for the extra coat, but I feel like if you were just looking for a sheer polish to add a little shimmer to your nails, one coat would be perfect for you. Depending on the angle, you can get flashes of pink, purple or blue & it’s so distractingly beautiful. I also would be very curious to see what it would do layered over some dark undies! The flash of different colours just makes this shade so beautiful & unique. I thought it might be similar to Quo by ORLY Sweet Dream, but Peri*twinkle* has a much more vivid shift & is much more blurple. 

A Pirates Life

A Pirates Life, the final shade I received for review, is absolutely my favourite. That’s two coats for opacity & honestly they went on like a dream. The formula on all these polishes are incredibly smooth & easy to use & A Pirates Life is the most perfect of the three I tried. The flash of turquoise shimmer just makes it the perfect beach blue–you can’t help but think of Caribbean waters when you stare at it (which makes the name very fitting). You can easily see how these shades are inspired by the Caribbean Druzy stone. 


Now I couldn’t not pair all these shades together, so after failing at a gradient I decided my next best option was a colour block! & oh boy did it turn out pretty. I used Essie Sweet Soufflé for my base (because of its own underlying shimmer) & the straight vinyls from Xroma Polish & Vinyls to mark off my blocking. 

All three Wrenn Polish shades went on easily & levelled well even before top coat. The shades are unique & it is so easy to see where they draw their inspiration from! If you’re interested in picking up these shades for yourself, you can buy them from the Shop Wrenn Website. & don’t forget to check out her gorgeous jewelry designs to compliment your nails! 

What do you trying of these Wrenn Polish colours? Which shade is your favourite? 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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Pink Negative Space Chevron Moons

So have you noticed the abundance of pink lately? Haha I guess when I stay away from blue I wear all the pink. I decided to pull out a few of those Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d shades for some nail art. & what better nail art than some chevron moons! 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formulas Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Flexible Sealcoat
  • Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Summer Bisou
  • Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d J’adore
  • Snail Vinyls Single Chevron vinyls 

These nails are perfect for the balmy Summer weather we’ve been having! These shades from the Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Summer 2017 collection couldn’t be more perfect for sunny days. Now if only I was wearing them on the beach, with some kind of fruity drink, instead of to go stock up on groceries. Haha. If you haven’t checked them out yet, remember that you can find these fun shades at your local Shoppers Drug Mart! 

What do you think of my Chevron moons? Let me know in the comments below! 

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Simple Geometric Nails Featuring Essie Watermelon 🍉

Do you remember what your first was? Nail polish I mean! Do you remember your first Essie, first China Glaze, & first OPI? What were the polishes that started the obsession? I was looking through my stash the other night, trying to find a colour to paint my nails, & picked up my bottle of Essie Watermelon which was the very first Essie I ever owned. I can’t ever remember the last time I put it on, so it seemed like a good day to pull it out. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • Essie Watermelon
  • Essie Strut Your Stuff
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls ‘X’ stencil (I used the inside part). 

I love how these turned out! I wanted a simplistic design to compliment this juicy pink, without overpowering it. I though the blue tones of Strut Your Stuff & Mint Candy Apple complimented it well. 

I really enjoy how Summery these ended up being. I decided to use the inside angles from my X stencils from Xroma Polish & Vinyls because they were a sharper angle than my other Chevron Vinyls. They worked really well to create these little blocks of colours. 

Do you remember what your very first nail polish was? I don’t remember what my very first polish was, though I can guarantee it was probably white. I do remember what the polish that was the beginning of my nail polish addiction was though! Claire’s Evil Queen.

Let my know your first in the comments below. 

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Fairy Dust-ed Half Moons 


Happy First Day of May! I hope the weather wher you are is more beautiful than the cloudy grey skies covering Halifax. 

I recently refreshed my bottle of China Glaze Fairy Dust & I’m obsessed all over again. I’ve been adding it to all my manicures because the sparkle is just so pretty. I realized I hadn’t done any half moons in quite a while so it felt like a good time for some. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • OPI Two Timing The Zones 
  • OPI Lost My Bikini in Monoloki
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust
  • Paper Hole Reinforcements

So pink & purple is definitely my favourite half moon colour combination. I’ve done it a lot, but it just pairs so well together. 💜💗 & adding the holo glitter of Fairy Dust just improves it even more. 

 Feel a gradient coming on featuring these colours, with Fairy Dust of course. All gradients just need Fairy Dust, it’s pretty much a requirement. 


What’s is your favourite glitter top coat? Obviously my #1 is Fairy Dust but if I had to pick another I would say the Quo By ORLY Matte Glitter Topper or Essie Shine of the Times. If there is one thing almost as beautiful as holo glitters, it’s definitely flakies. 

Let me know your top picks in the comments below!