Category: Essence

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Cadbury mini eggs inspired nails. 

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Easter is coming! So I figured it was about time I did some proper Easter nail art and what is more Easter then Cadbury Mini Eggs. (Or at least used to be back when they only came out in the weeks before Easter instead of being out all year.) 

  

I originally stumbled across the idea for these mini Egg inspired nails on 10blankcanvases.com last Easter, but never got around to creating my own version. Since I can’t eat Chocolate, I decided my next best option was to wear them on my nails! 

The polishes I used for this mani were:

  • Sinful Colors Mint Apple (green)
  • Essence you let my heart skip a beat (purple) 
  • China Glaze Feel the Breeze (pink)
  • Revlon Dreamer (blue)
  • China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin (yellow) 
  • Wet n Wild 2% Milk 
  • OPI How Great is your Dane (specks)
  • Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coay 
  • L’oreal The Matte Velvet top coat. 

    

Edit So what are you wearing on your nails for Easter? I’m still trying to come up with a fun mani to wear for our Easter dinner with my inlaws. 

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Pastel Half Moons. 

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I’ve written before how much I love a good half moon mani—they’re easy and can change up a manicure quick. Also I love coming up with fun and different colour combinations! I really wanted to do a half moon where the moon was darker so I decided to give it a try. 

For this mani the polishes I used were: 

  • ACO by Ardene Sweet Tarts (pink textured polish) 
  • Essie Garden Variety (blue-ish half moon.) 
  • Sally Hansen Nail Art pen in Navy.  
  • Seche Vite quick dry top coat. 
  • Essence French Manicure tip guides. 

It was super easy to create this look. Paint your nails with your base colour, and apply quick dry top coat to speed up the process. When that is dry, you just put the guides a little above where you want your moon to go, and fill in the space with your darker colour and remove! Then I just took my Sally Hansen nail art pen and drew a small line between the two colours. And bam! You are done. 

     

What do you think of this mani? The Mr. says it reminds him of Easter. 🐰 I just love the Spring colours and how bright they are! 

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SWATCH POST — OPI Pineapples have Peelings Too! 

 Good morning lovelies! 

I don’t know if you’ve checked out OPIs Hawaii collection yet. When I first saw the collection there was one polish I just HAD to have and that was this interesting glitter polish Pineapples have Peelings Too!  

PHPT is a yellow-gold frosty base chalk full of multicoloured glitters. It hasn’t received the best reception online, but the trick to making this polish shine seems to be in the top coat application. 

  

 

For my application, I applied three thin coats of PHFT! then applied two coats of Essence Gel Look top coat which is the thickest most pillow-y top coat I own, then finished with two coats of Seche Vite to speed up the drying process. I really kind of love the end result. I couldn’t stop staring at my nails all day! 

So what do you think of Pineapples have Peelings too! from the OPI Hawaii collection? I think the last one I need to pick up from the collection is Go With the Lava Flow — it just looks so pretty!  

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More Chevron Moons, and my new favourite nail art pen!

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I have a serious obsession right now with chevron moons. They’ve replaced regular half moon manicures as my favorite I-don’t-know-what-to-paint-on-my-nails designs. I have given up on trying to do the perfect tape manicure, but I have to say I’m really happy with how my freehand lines are coming along. Definitely a HUGE improvement from when I first started. Plus with my new Essence Nail Art tattoo pen, it’s so much easier to draw on thin lines as opposed to using my stripers! Plus I find the polish doesn’t gunk up the same way that my stripers do.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Orly Decades of Dysfunction — off white base colour.
  • OPI My Dog Sled is a Hybrid — chevron moon.
  • Essence Nail Art Tattoo Pen
  • Seche Vite Rapid Dry Top Coat.

Seriously, I’m in love with this nail art pen. I bought a couple Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens years ago, but never really got into using them. However, I’m absolutely in love with this Essence Pen so I think I’m going to have to bring them back out and give them another try now that I know what technique to use to get nice lines. And it makes creating freehand lines such a breeze! Since most of the designs I create are freehand, that is a big help to me!

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So what do you think of my chevron moons? Like I said, I’m so in love with chevron moons right now–more so than any other kind. It’s a great, easy way to add something else to an otherwise plain manicure–in a short amount of time!

Also I just have to make a shout out to @mynailpolish_addiction on Instagram who twinned me with an awesome (and sparkly!) chevron moon mani and Starbuck Gingerbread latte! Jessica is actually the sweetest ever, we’ve become great friends since meeting through Instagram! You must check out her nail art because the girl is fantastic and SO talented!

**I purchase the Essence Nail Art Tattoo pen on my own accord, and have not be compensate for my comments in any way.**
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Another round of Bestie Twin nails and pretty herringbone nails.

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I’ve been having a blast doing Bestie Twin Nails with all the fellow girls I’ve been meeting on Instagram, so today I’m going to share another fun #bestietwinnails I got to do with one of my fellow nail girlies, @bene_loves. I’ve been dying to do a herringbone designs on my nails for a while, and I’m so excited she joined me in on it! We decided on the colours Dark Purple, Light Purple and Dark Pink then went to work creating our designs. (To check out what polishes she used for her design, just click on her name and check out her Instagram. She’s amazingly talented!)

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For my manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You — my favorite light purple!
  • China Glaze Grape Juice — dark purple.
  • Essence Color and Go Girls Night — dark pink.
  • LA Colors Art Deco Striping Polish — black.
  • Seche Vite Rapid Dry Top Coat.

Oh my god, can I just say how freaking much I love this design! Like I said I’ve been really wanting to give the herringbone design a try, but last time I tried my striper was not my friend and I got frustrated and gave up. So glad I didn’t give up this time, because WOW! I used the tutorial by @DiamondNailArt which was a huge hope in getting this right. =) I still had a couple issues with my striper gunking up on me while I was doing this (hate that!) I think the next time I try this manicure, I’m going to use my Essence Nail Art Tattoo pen which I just picked up! I bet I could create a much smaller herringbone pattern.

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Oh look! My nails match my scarf! =)

What do you think of this Herringbone design? I’m so in love with it! I’m definitely already thinking up a whole variety of different designs… I can definitely see me doing another one using Christmas colours! Because Christmas is quickly approaching, and now that Remembrance Day is over, I’m already planning my Christmas manicures!