Category: Essence

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Rifle Paper Co Style Floral

Yesterday was a beautiful Spring day, I had the day off, & I took full advantage of it. In honour of the occasion, I decided some floral nails were in order. Originally I was going to just do some more negative space nails with pastels, but I discovered a bottle of Essie 5th Avenue in my stash I bought a few months back at Lawton’s, & decided red nails were in order. I’ve been loving all the Rifle Paper Co inspired nails that pop up on my Instagram feed, & while these are not even close to an exact recreation, I was inspired by this pattern initially.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Essie 5th Avenue
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sweet Tea
  • OPI I Eat Maine-ly Lobster
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Piggy
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Orchid-ing Around
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art Pen in Magenta
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art Pen in Black
  • Essence The Green & The Grunge
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Wet My Thistle
  • Bundle Monster detail brushes
  • Bundle Monster dotting tools

This design definitely looks very similar to this manicure I did a few months back. Something about floral on a red base just looks so good to me. & red nail polish in general… I’m so glad I found this gorgeous polish (& did I mention I scored it for only .99 cents?)

There is something just so lovely about floral. The more I paint them, the more I want to do them again. It was totally worth staying up the extra hour & a half to create them. I’m also going to keep attempting to recreate more patterns from Rifle Paper co. Their brand is such a floral loving girls dream! I pretty much want one of everything on their website (especially the phone cases… all of the phone cases!)

Where do you find your nail art inspiration? What do you think of this floral design? Share your thoughts in the comments below! 🌸🌿

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Summer Ready Vibrant Blue & Mint Ruffian Nails

You guys! I’m so excited because it was actually sunny & warm yesterday! Like warm enough I could get away with wearing just a jumpsuit & denim jacket. It was very exciting, like maybe we’ll get Spring after all. In fact this whole week is supposed to be in the double digits! I haven’t been this exciting for anything since Starbucks got almond milk! Especially exciting–I have tomorrow off work & plan on taking advantage with an outside adventure with the Bubs!

Obviously this calls for bright & colourful nails. It’s been ages since I attempted a ruffian design & I really wanted something that would pop! So I grabbed a few of my older Essence shades from deep in my stash for an eye catching ruffian.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Essence Always On My Mint (an Unforgettable Kiss collection)
  • Essence The Gel Lets Get Lost!

Ooooooh this colour combo works so well. This is one of my all time favourite Essence shades, & when I noticed my local Shoppers was taking it out of their Essence display (& had marked them all down to $1) I may have stocked up on extras… like 3 extra bottles… pretty much all the ones they had. It’s just such a good shade! It pairs well with pretty much every colour–purple, pink, mint, light blue, yellow. I haven’t discovered a colour combination I didn’t like. But I have to say, pairing it with mint has definitely become a favourite thanks to this design!

Oh, I’m just so excited with how my ruffian turned out. I feel like I’m getting a lot better with creating that rounded look. It definitely helps that Essence polishes have those beautiful thick brushes. Makes things so much easier! You get a lovely (complicated looking) design with not too much trouble. I love when that happens!

Who else is ready for actual Spring & Summer?! Bring on the iced coffees, sunglasses & maxi dresses. It’s about damn time!

What do you think of this ruffian design? Would you wear this look? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Floral Accent Nails featuring Color Club Eternal Beauty

Happy Friday lovelies! Two posts in a row, I’m on a roll! Today I’m sharing more floral accent nails because my obsession isn’t dying down any time soon. It’s just a floral kind of week I guess!

Today’s design features Color Club Eternal Beauty from the Halo Hues collection which I picked up at Winners a few weeks back. It’s a stunning purple holo, so I decided that it would look lovely with some roses. Honestly, I think every polish looks lovely with roses.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Color Club Eternal Beauty
  • Essie Go Ginza
  • Essence Out of Space Stories We Will Spock You
  • Sally Hansen CSM Killer Heels
  • Sally Hansen CSM Red It Online
  • Sally Hansen CSM Rose To the Occasion
  • Sally Hansen CSM Blush Against The World
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in green
  • Quo by ORLY Second Hand Jade
  • Bundle Monster small detail brush
  • Bundle Monster small & large dotting tool

Check out those rainbows… seriously! Eternal Beauty is such an absolutely beautiful shade & the holo is absolutely vivid & incredible. I finally understand the Color Club Halo Hues obsession & the reason people rave about them so much! They really are just incredible polishes. I really need to go back & pick a few more up before the rest of the world snaps they all up! You can never own enough holos! They make those chilly but sunny days just so much better.

what are you wearing on your nails on this Friday? Let me know in the comments below!

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St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Nails ☘️

Happy Saturday Lovelies… & happy St Patrick’s Day! It’s been quiet on the blog this week, & if you follow me on Instagram you’ll know I had a bit of an accident involving my son where he scratched my cornea with his nail leaving me temporarily blind Wednesday. It was a little difficult to try & do my nails & write a post so I took a bit of a hiatus but I still wanted to try & do something fun in honour of St. Patrick’s Day, so I can up with a fun shamrock design.

Green is not a usual colour choice for me. I own quite a few greens, but I usually save them for either Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day so I was excited to pull a few out to play with.

The polishes I used for this design were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by Orly Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Wrenn Polish I Know Quac is Extra
  • OPI That’s Hula-rious
  • China Glaze Be More Pacific
  • Essence The Green & The Grunge
  • YSL Beauty Vert D’Orient
  • URSugar Nail Vinyls — shamrocks (item #AUB39877)

I started off with a dry brush base using all my greens but YSL Beauty Vert D’Orient & let it dry completely. Then I added the shamrock vinyls over top my design & painted over the whole nail with Vert D’Orient & immediately removed the vinyls revealing my dry brush shamrocks. I think it was a cute way to use a whole bunch of greens & a great design for St Patrick’s Day!

What do you have planned for your St Patrick’s Day? Mine will be spent working & the only green things I’ll be drinking with be green kombucha & matcha lattes… but that’s okay with me! Hope you have a fun (& safe!) St. Patrick’s Day whatever you get up to. 💚 Also head over to my Instagram later on for a bonus nail art look featuring these Shamrock vinyls from URSugar! 🍀☘️🍀

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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!