Category: Essie

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Jade Abstract Stripes

Today I’ve got some abstract stripes to share with you featuring another untried polish from the stash! I’m ashamed to admit I have way too many untried polishes, so I’m trying really hard to pull them out & actually wear them. Except it’s me, & I just end up going out & buying a new one that then adds to the collection haha. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Problem? I don’t have a nail polish problem. 

But today I’m wearing Deborah Lippmann She Drives Me Crazy which is a pretty jade green shade which my Mom picked up for me at Marshall’s.  The colour is obviously gorgeous, but I felt like it definitely needed something added, so I came up with these abstract stripes over top. 

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: L’Oréal All in One
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Deborah Lippmann She Drives Me Crazy
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in White
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in Black
  • Quo by ORLY Nail Art Striper in Gold

This design never gets old to me.  It’s like floral or polka dots–easy to pull out when I’m too tired to think about what to do on my nails. It’s all about the colour palate. You have to make sure your secondary colour (in this case Essie Mint Candy Apple) falls within the same colour family as your base for the stripes to really just look awesome together. Also I need to stop forgetting to do a tutorial for this design because I keep promising one. Blame it on the fact I do my nails on the couch in my pjs  (bottle balanced between my knees) & not at a table like a normal person haha. But now that I have this fancy new iPhone, maybe I’ll finally be able to film a long promised tutorial. Crazier things have happened! 


Am I the only person who buys nail polish then proceeds to forget to wear it? What polishes do you currently have waiting to be worn?

I recently went through & reorganized my stash so I’m really trying to make a point to pull out those forgotten shades that I forgot I owned! Hopefully I’ll be able to incorporate more into my blog posts before I end up buying more! 

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Flashback Inspired Prom Nails

Yep! I’m showing off more prom inspired nails. Last week I created some nails that I thought would be beautiful to wear to prom, & today I’m sharing a manicure inspired by one of my own prom dresses! I totally got nostalgic thinking about prom after my last post, & started looking through old prom pictures on Facebook & figured why not create a mani inspired by those pretty dresses. 

My inspiration above. 🔺 Can you believe me that dress only cost me $17 & I still adore it so much. Man, if only we had occasions to wear formal dresses more often! Now obviously this is a simple look, so I thought a simple line of holo would perfectly represent the sparkly sequin belt on my dress. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: L’Oréal One Stop Base
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Layla Cosmetics Ocean Rush
  • Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls Skinny Straight Nail Vinyls

Who doesn’t love holo? This is a serious question… I would love to meet this person. I’d put Layla Cosmetics Ocean Rush on their nails, because it would definitely change their minds. I mean just look at it–even though it’s a small line of holo, it just shines.  You can see some serious rainbows. 

What do you think of these nails inspired by my very own prom dress? I hope you like them, because I may have accidentally clicked “like” on a prom picture of my high school boyfriend & I while trying to scroll through & find a picture of this dress on Facebook & that’s awkward. Haha. 

Would you ever create nails based on a favourite dress of yours? Let me know in the comments below! 💙

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Turquoise Marble Stone Nails


Happy Friday! Today I’m sharing a gemstone/Turquoise stone design. I attempted a similar design three-ish years ago so it felt like a good chance to revisit this design! This is is also the first post using my brand new iPhone 6s. I just can’t get my over the picture quality–it’s awesome! 


For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • My Beauty Spot unnamed Teal
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Golden-I 
  • Layla Bubbley Effect in Black 

For this design, I kind of made up the technique on the fly. I started off with my base of teal. I then took a piece of crinkled up plastic bag, and dabbed on Mint Candy Apple & Golden-I & finished off with some top coat to seal in the base. After I felt like my base was dry enough (about 5-10 minutes) I grabbed my bottle of Layla Bubbley effect & added splots of the polish on each nail. I then went & ran that nail under water to remove some of the polish which left the black bubbles on the nail. Depending on how it turned out, I would add more black again and repeat the process. When I was happy with each nail, I finished off the whole design by sealing in with top coat. 

This is a super simple design, & it ended up being relatively quick to do. & definitely less clean up than using the traditional water spotted technique that you see for creating stone nails. However, because Layla Bubbley is a special effect polish, I’m not sure how well it would work with normal polish (I’m guessing probably not very well.) However, I’m thinking it might work out with acrylic paint which I’ll have to add to my list of things to do! If you try it out, let me know how it works out! 

So what do you think of these turquoise stone nails? Would you wear these? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

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Celebrating National Nail Polish Day With Vintage Floral Nails! 

It’s here! June 1st marks the first annual National Nail Polish Day which has been originated by Essie. I’m actually shocked that national nail polish day wasn’t already a thing, but I’m very excited to be able to celebrate it. & in honour of this awesome holiday I just had to go with a vintage floral using some of my favourite Essie colour. 

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Where’s My Chauffeur?
  • Essie As Good As Gold
  • Essie Stones And Roses
  • Essie Brides No Grooms
  • Essie Topless And Barefoot
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essie Off Tropic  
  • Dotting Tool
  • Small Nail Art Brush from Bundle Monster

You’ve heard me gush before about my long standing love affair with floral nail art, so obviously I had to share it on a day dedicated to all things nail polish! & obviously I had to celebrate some Essie love as well. Also I know I said that I would avoid Blue in the month of blue, but Where’s My Chauffeur? is more turquoise so that doesn’t count! 

What are you wearing on your nails to celebrate National Nail Polish Day? Let me know in the comments below! 

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Simple Rose Accent Nails

Sometimes a polish is so pretty, it doesn’t need much in tens of nail art. That’s how I felt about the combo of CND Vinylux in Dazzling Dance & Nicole by OPI Love Song. It looked so dang pretty on its own I didn’t want to ruin it by overwhelming it with too much. So what would be the perfect simple nail art? Roses of course! 

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formulas Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • CND Vinylux Dazzling Dance
  • NOPI Love Song
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Peony 
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Bourbon Belle 
  • Essie Brides No Grooms
  • Essie First Timer
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Kiwi Bikini
  • Dotting Tool from Bundle Monster
  • Small Nail Art Brush from Bundle Monster 

First off, check out the holo glitter in Dazzling Dance! I’ve worn this polish before a couple years ago, but without any undies & it took way too many coats (4+ with visible nail line.) So undies we’re necessary. I picked out NOPI Love Song to bring out the purple undertones. I bet a gray base would be beautiful too. 

These roses make me happy. So simple but beautiful. I will never get tired of roses & floral designs in general. They’re just the perfect pop of nail art for when you don’t want (or don’t have time for) something more complex. 

What do you think of my roses? Don’t forget to comment below & let me know you thoughts!