Category: Essie

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Smooshy accent nails using a silicon mat! 

I’m getting so much use out of my silicone craft mat! I understand now why people love their nail art mats so much–the options are endless. I wanted to try out some smooshy nails, & I saw this technique some on Instagram before (I just can’t remember by who unfortunately) so I decided to give it a try. 


For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat. 
  • My Beauty Spot unnamed green colour.
  • Essie Wrap Me Up
  • Essie Bobbing for Baubles
  • Essie Cocktail Bling
  • Nicole by OPI A Phil’s Paradise
  • Born Pretty Store Peel Off Tape
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Stamper
  • Silicon Craft Mat

For this look, I started by dropping different colours onto my mat, & moving them around some to spread around the colour. I then took my clear stamper & pressed down, smooshing the polishes together. I immediately then pressed the stamper down on my nails to create the marbled look, & finished everything off with top coat.

I really love how these turned out. You can never go wrong with marbled nails. I don’t know if I could consider this an easier way to create smooshy nails, but it was definitely fun! You still want Liquid Latex around your cuticles to keep your clean up minimal! 

What do you think of this mani? What is your favourite design to create on your silicone mat? I’m always looking for inspiration, so share your nail art ideas in the comments below!

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Mani Monday Mermaid Nails

Who doesn’t love a good mermaid manicure? 

When I made my What’s Up Nails order I knew I needed to stock up on some of their scale stencils so I could create mermaid nails. They just make me so happy! I just can’t stop playing with my vinyls. 

For this manicure, I used: 

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie All Access Pass 
  • Icing Breakfast At Tiffany’s
  • China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla
  • What’s Up Nails Scale Stencil

I really wanted an excuse to pull out my bottle of Sand Dolla Make You Holla. Sadly my bottle has seen better days, & I’ve been trying to bring it back to life with polish thinner, but it’s not going well. Anyone else have trouble saying goodbye to old polishes at the end of their life, or is just me? I find it especially hard with polishes that are discontinued because you know you can’t get go out & buy a new bottle easily. I mean, yeah there is EBay but I feel weird buying polish off of EBay. Guess I will just have to hope & pray I come across it at Winners or Marshall’s one day soon. 

What do you think of this mermaid mani? What polish do you keep even though it’s seen better days? Let me know in the comments below!

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Desert Sunset inspired nails

Coachella is finishing up this weekend, which means lots of festival inspired nails have been popping up in my feed! I’ve never been to Coachella, but I DO know it takes place in the desert so I thought these desert sunset gradient nails would be perfect to channel my inner festival goer (instead of what I’m actually spending today doing which is cleaning my bedroom & putting away way too much clothing while simultaneously trying to convince the baby to nap.)


For this design, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • Color Club Almost Famous 
  • OPI Where Did Suzy’s Man-go?
  • Essie Play Date
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Black. 
  • Latex Free cosmetic sponge 
  • Born Pretty Store Liquid Latex Peel Off Tape

My bottle of top coat is reaching the bottom which lead to some weirdness & shrinking. Never the less, I really love the colour combination of this gradient with the desert landscape. I could totally see these fitting in at Coachella, or another similar music festival! 🌄 all I need is a flower crown & some cut off denim shorts & I’d fit right in! 

I think I’ve rediscovered my obsession with gradients, clean up be damned. (Thank goodness for Liquid latex.) & I think I’m slowly getting better at them! They make me happy. This colour combo worked out so well, I just can’t stop staring! Even my husband commented how wicked these were (& without asking even!)

What do you think of this design? Let me know in the comments below!

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Easter Zig Zag Chevrons

Happy Easter! Was the Easter bunny good to everyone? Did you get lots of chocolate & maybe a few polishes of choice in your basket too? 🐰 I went out earlier in the week & picked up my husbands Easter treats (& a few goodies for my self in the clearance polish section at Lawton’s.) We’re also heading to my Mother in Law’s later for an egg hunt for the kiddos and dinner. 

 I thought in honour of Easter I’d share these zig zag chevron nails that look kind of like Easter eggs! Outside of Easter, these could definitely work as just a fun Spring mani as well. 

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
  •  Essie Lounge Lover
  • OPI Getting Nadi On My Honeymoon
  • Essence You Let My Heart Skin A Beat 
  • Kiss Products Nail Art tips (Chevron vinyls) 

This colour combination works so perfectly for Easter & totally looks like Easter eggs. This would be a great design to go with when you need a quick Easter inspired mani, but don’t have the time (or patience) to do something freehand. 

What are you wearing on your nails today? Did you go with a simple Easter mani, or something more fun? Let me know in the comments below! & don’t forget to enjoy all that chocolate the Easter bunny brought you! 

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Easter Mini Egg Nails

Is there anything more Easter-y than  Cadbury Mini Eggs? Well, I mean back in the day when they only came out at Easter. Sadly my lactose intolerance has come back since having the little one, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still love those delicious chocolate eggs (it just means I can eat them.) & since I won’t be enjoying them in my Easter basket this year, I thought I would continue the tradition of recreating them again on my nails. (I did mini egg nails previously in 2015 here & 2016 here) 


For this mani, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Matte Top Coat: L’Oréal the Matte Velvet top coat. 
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
  • Hard Candy Sky
  • OPI Getting Nadi On My Honeymoon
  • Revlon Minted
  • Nubar New Mood
  • Essie Cocoa Karma
  • Wet N Wild 2% Milk
  • Crinkled Up Plastic Wrap


 I’ve been doing these nails every year and I love how each time year turn out differently depending on the polishes and techniques used. I also think it’s because they’re just so easy to do, but it looks fantastic & just the right amount of festive! But fair warning: they will make you crave chocolate mini eggs. & if you can’t eat chocolate that could become problematic. Haha.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you!


 

What’s your favourite Easter designs to create & recreate? Do you already have planned what you’re wearing on your nails for Easter? Let me know in the comments below! 🐰