Category: Dry brush

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Mermaid Nails for #glamnailschallengeaug

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Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Today I have another manicure to share with you for the August Glam Nails Challenge! Today’s prompt is Mermaid, which is always a fun design to do. Sadly, I’ve run out of my mermaid pattern nail vinyls, so I decided to stamp my scale pattern onto my nail, since I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to freehand them.

I had a pretty specific idea in my mind of what I wanted this manicure to look like, & unfortunately I didn’t have an actual mermaid scale stamping plate, so I went through the plates I do have to find the one which would work best!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Strengthening Base Coat
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Couture Top Coat
  • Essence Across the Universe
  • Essence Mermaid of the Galaxy
  • Essence Guardians of the Unicorn
  • Essence Space Glam
  • Essence Intergalactic Adventure
  • Essence Black in Black
  • NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper & Scraper (gifted)
  • BornPrettyStore stamping plate BP-LO32 (item #23268)

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Please excuse the remaining mess around my cuticles. I forgot to use my cuticle barrier because I was rushing, & trying to clean up the polish on my fingers was tricky. That’s what you get when you try for a nap time manicure & want to get your nails done before the babes wake up!

But even if my cuticles aren’t perfect, I’m still so in love with how this manicure turned out! The Essence Out Of Space Stories polishes work so well for this fantasy type design. Especially with the duo/multichrome finishes they have.

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Posing with my mermaid nail art brush because it’s the only mermaid-y item I think I own. I feel like even though I didn’t use a traditional mermaid image, they still came out very mermaid-esque. I actually think I like this pattern even better!

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What do you think about these mermaid pattern nails? 🧜🏼‍♀️ share your thoughts down in the comments below!

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Beachy Chevron Nails featuring New Summery Studs from NailStuff.ca

Good morning lovelies & happy Tuesday! Hope the weather where you are is nicer than here in Halifax. After a few days of sunshine, we’re back to cloudy grey overcast skies. But today’s nail design is all about bright colours, so hopefully that will cheer me up!

Today I’m sharing these drag marble chevron nails that for some reason remind me of the beach! I was recently gifted some amazing new goodies from NailStuff.ca & I knew immediately that I had to use some of the beautiful summery studs Victoria had sent! I love how flat & easy to work with these studs are. They sit easily on the nail & because I sealed them in with extra top coat there were no edges you don’t have to worry about catching them on anything & pulling them off prematurely.

For this manicure, the products I used were:

I’m really living the pastel shades form this 6 pack set from Claire’s. I picked it up on payday & used every shade with the exception of coral. Also I love how these studs from NailStuff just brings the whole look together & completes the Summery vibe. For my chevrons, I used the drag brush effect to blend the colours together. I used to do this technique a lot with nail vinyls, but it had been a while.

What do you think of this design? How adorable are these studs from NailStuff.ca? What kind of designs would you do with these Beachy studs? Let me know in the comments below!

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Pastel Dry Brush & Polka Dots

Happy Tuesday lovelies! If it’s possible for the Tuesday after a long weekend to be happy. I mean, I worked 2/3 days of this long weekend so I’m not even sure what a long weekend is anymore! But that’s okay… I’m feeling minuscule-ly better & I have a fun new manicure to share with you.

Today’s design is actually inspired by a design from a very long time ago! Okay maybe it was only 3 years ago, but it feels like forever since my nails were that kind of amazingly long. Last time, my polish picks were more in the neon family, so I decided this time to stick to more pastels. & oh yes, do I love how the colours went together!

For this design, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by Orly Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Wet n Wild Clear Polish
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Let’s Snow
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Ocean Daze
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Bourbon Babe
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in black

Dry brush is such a fun technique to create on the nails, because depending on the look you’re going for you can use a clear polish or smudgy top coat to blend your colours together & let dry for a few minutes & use a non-smudging top coat to keep the look of your dry brushing more in tact. I wanted to create a more blended look, so I applied a coat of Wet n Wild’s clear polish over top, & brushed it a few times so the shades would blend together better. In this case, it’s good to smear your design. I also tend to do this with other nail art like gradients or Saran Wrap marbles, but I want to colours to blend together as much as possible.

I’m loving the vibrancy of these shades. They remind me of Summer & I love Summer. Suddenly wishing I could find a bikini with a similar dry brush & polka dot pattern on it. Or maybe a dress… something fun & Summery I could wear on more than just my nails.

what do you think of these pastel dry brush & polka dot nails? Is this a look that you would wear for summer? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!

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Saran Wrap Splatter & Geometric Lines featuring Sally Hansen Canada’s Miracle Gel Pastel Punk Collection 💀🌸

Hello lovelies & Happy Tuesday. I hope whenever you are, the weather is beautiful & Spring like. Today I’m featuring a design using the brand new Sally Hansen Canada Miracle Gel Pastel Punk collection. I saw this collection in stores & was super excited by all the beautiful colours… & then I was just lucky enough to receive the WHOLE collection courtesy of Sally Hansen Canada themselves. I have a full swatch post coming up (this weekend… stay tuned!) which will show you the awesomeness of the colours on their own, but in the mean time I have the first of many designs featuring these awesome shades!

First up…. some dry brushing & geometric lines!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel After Altar
  • Sally Hansen MG Just Maui’d
  • Sally Hansen MG Ocean Daze
  • Sally Hansen MG I Lava You
  • Sally Hansen MG Shell-ebration
  • Sally Hansen MG Golden Glow
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Bundle Monster striping brush.

This whole collection is full beautiful spring shades & they go together so well. The first design I had to do with them just had to be a dry brush & I love how well these colours compliment each other. & then I love the black lines over top the softness of the dry brush because of how well it pops. It feels like I don’t do my free hand lines nearly enough so I wanted to practice a little. I bought acrylic paint forever ago, but I have zero clue where it is. It probably would have made my design a lot easier to do. I did it using polish & it turned out slightly wonky. Never less, I do love how this pattern turned out.

I know I said that the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Travel in Colour collection was my favourite for Spring, but this collection made have beat it. It’s that blue & the shimmers & everything. It’s just so pretty. Even though I don’t wear it nearly as often as I should, I just love a good pink polish. & there are TWO in this collection. & I love, love, love them. 💗 When I get my swatches posted this weekend, you’ll see all the reasons why this collection is amazing. I can foresee a lot of designs coming up featuring these lovely shades.

have you sought out the Sally Hansen Pastel Punk collection yet? Which shade is your favourite? What do you think of this dry brush & graphic line design?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Purple Dry Brush Quatrefoil Nails

Happy Friday & almost Easter lovelies! I’m off today with Good Friday & ooooooh do I have so many blog things to do! This has been a crazy week & I’m still trying balance working Full Time & keeping to my blog posting schedule. Thank goodness I’m going at multitasking! Today I’m showing off some pretty purple nails I did forever ago but didn’t have a chance to post yet. 💜 These nails were inspired by a make up bag I saw at Marshall’s.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essie Go Ginza
  • Essie Play Date
  • Essie The Girls Are Out
  • China Glaze Grape Juice
  • Sally Hansen Hard To Get
  • Random clear nail polish
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper
  • Born Pretty Store stamping plate BP-L003 (item #17921) — quatrafoil image

I’m digging all these purples together. I thought about creating a sponge mani, but didn’t have any sponges so a dry brush was my next option! I really wanted the colours to blend together, kind of like a gradient. So I used a random bottle of clear polish (literally it has no label & I no idea where it came from) and smeared the brush strokes together by brushing the clear polish over it over & over again. The cheaper & random the clear polish, the better things will blend. You don’t want to use a quick dry top coat because it dries to quickly. The whole point is to smear all the shades together.

It feels like ages since I played with my stamping stuff. This is definitely one of my favourite images from this particular plate. It just makes doing Moroccan/quatrefoil designs just so, so easy (& definitely quicker than nail vinyls!

what do you think of this purple design? What design are you rocking for the weekend? Comment down below! 💅🏻