Category: Flakie

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GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE OCTOBER—Full Moon 🌙 🦇

Hello lovelies & happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. It’s a new week, & we’re getting very close to the end of Glam Nails Challenge October. Kind of crazy to believe that Halloween is in little more than a week.

Today, I’m jumping into the next prompt for this challenge: Full Moon. Honestly, I struggled a lot with this one for some reason. I was feeling less than inspired, but after a bit of brain storming, I think the end design I created perfectly encapsulates the prompt.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Orly Fowl Play
  • Acrylic Paint
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Brush Trio (11mm liner brush)

I decided to go with acrylic paint to create my design—versus nail polish—because I wanted the ability to start over easily if I needed to without removing everything. Not my cleanest design, but I do like the spooky trees & the brightness of the glowing full moon. & my little wonky bats.

Also a design that benefits from looking at it far away, haha. But I love it none the less.

What do you think about my full moon design for Glam Nails Challenge October? Are you enjoying these spooky designs? Let me know what you think, & stay tuned for a few more spooky looks to come!

Happy Monday. 🖤

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SWATCH SUNDAY — ORLY Fowl Play

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. It’s a rainy & dreary Sunday here, but that’s late Autumn for you. We have only 9 days until Halloween, can you believe it? I’m so excited, even if I haven’t figured out my costume for Trick or Treating yet.

For today’s Swatch Sunday, I broke out a very old shade from my stash which I think is still (sort of) keeping with my Halloween trend. I had planned on going out & finding an actual Halloween shade to share — but I’m having the hardest time finding Halloween collections this year, locally, which is disappointing.

This is ORLY Fowl Play from the Fall 2011 Birds of a Feather collection.

3 coats + top coat

This shade is an oldie, but it’s beautiful. Everything I’ve seen online about it, people talk about how unique this shade is & I have to agree. It’s a purple base packed full of a multitude of flakies & glitters. It was hard to accurately photograph it in my light box, because I feel like it was hard to accurately capture how beautiful it looks (& how many colours it really has packed into it).

Formula for this guy was a bit thin, which meant multiple coats were a necessity (especially to show off all the flakies). I did three coats, because of how thin the formula was, & looking at these swatches I feel like I could have used a forth. Definitely a shade you want to apply a quick dry top coat over so you don’t have to wait forever for it dry.

The colour is perfect for late Autumn/Halloween. Dark & mysterious, & perfect for spooky season, or as the base for Halloween nail art.

What do you think of ORLY Fowl Play? Do you remember when this shade was released? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & share any Halloween shades I should be on the look out for!

Enjoy your Sunday. 🖤

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Layla Pro Nail Polish SG31

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. It has definitely been a while!

This is actually the first time I’ve painted my nails all week after surviving covid. & I won’t lie — it was a rough week for sure. I have never felt so sick in as long as I can remember. But I’m back, slowly & surely, & ready to share a fun nail polish for this week’s Swatch Sunday.

Once again, I went shopping in my own nail polish stash, & found a beauty I’ve owned for quite a while. This is Layla Cosmetics Layla Pro Nail Polish in SG31.

2 coats + top coat

I actually have a couple polishes from the Layla line I’ve picked up over the years in my local Lawton’s clearance bins. &, truthfully, I have two difference bottles for this particular shade; this bottle, titled Layla Pro & the Ceramic Effects line which is the exact same polish.

According to what I read online, the Pro line was released for nail polish professionals, in bigger bottles than their other shades. I picked up this bottle a few years ago for the very affordable price of $3.25 on clearance. What drew me initially to this shade is it’s very close to the original version of Color Club’s The Uptown — although not a direct dupe.

For my swatches, I did two easy coats. The first one applied fairly thinly, but the second one I applied a bit more generously. The flakies are very densely spread through the formula, so you get a lot of coverage. It’s a beautiful polish, with the perfect shift for Autumn weather.

I’m already kind of on a purple kick, & flakie kick, so it’s giving me the best of both worlds. I love the shift between orange, gold & green depending on how you move your hand. I also, obviously, had to top it with some matte top coat

Have you ever tried Layla Cosmetics polishes? Do you love a good flake polish? I feel like you don’t see shades like this as much anymore — outside the Indie polish world. I kind of miss when unique shades like this would pop up in mainstreams store. Can we petition for 2024 to be the year of the mainstream flake polish?

Have a fantastic Sunday!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Revlon Color Stay Stormy Night

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. Well, I hope you’re having a happy Sunday. I’m on my first day of covid isolation — after 3 1/2 years it finally got me. So I’m currently laying in bed, feeling less than fabulous.

It’s also the reason why these photos are not up to my normal standard. These photos were taken in my living room, without my daytime bulb or light box, so they’re a bit potato quality. (My husband — who is also sick — was isolated to our bedroom where my nail polish resides so I was limited in options.) But I still wanted to share something for this week, & when I saw this cement grey polish, I thought it would be perfect.

This is Revlon Colorstay Stormy Night

2 coats + top coat

The formula on this shade was pretty easy to use. It applied smoothly, with good coverage. The bottle is a bit old, so I did need to give it a really good shake before I applied it. The colour is perfect for Autumn, but also very neutral so I feel like you could wear it to work.

I don’t wear grey nail polish on its own very often, & lately I’ve been obsessed with the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Moonlit topper. I’ve been wearing it with a lot of polishes. So naturally, I needed to see how it would look over top this smoky grey.

2 coats over Stormy Night + top coat.

I don’t think I’ve found a polish that Moonlit doesn’t look good with. It just makes every manicure so extra fun! & the pretty flaky shimmers make me so happy. I could see this being a great base for some Fall leaves nail — maybe when I’m finally feeling better.

Sadly the Revlon ColorStay line is long since discontinued, but I know I found my bottle in a random clearance section. The Color Stay line was replaced by the ColorStay Gel Envy line, which is still in production, but I didn’t see any similar colours listed on the website.

What do you think of this neutral grey, & fun combination with the sparkle? What Fall shades do you currently have in rotation? Let me know in the comments below.

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Fall Flakie Skittle

Hello lovelies & happy Monday. It’s a beautiful chilly Monday morning here, & I’ll have to admit it… I’m loving it. Autumn is my favourite season, the Halloween decorations have started popping up in store, & it’s officially PSL release day at Starbucks on Thursday. So I think I’m ready to (fully) embrace some Fall nail polish vibes.

The other day it was a very rainy, chilled day so I decided to grab a few Autumn-ish shades from my stash for a skittlette. I bought this Color Club set from Winners (or Marshall’s… can’t remember) last year & it has a beautiful selection of colours. None of them, however, have any names. But I really wanted to pair them together, & I think this is one of my favourite Skittle designs I’ve ever done because of how beautiful they look together!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Glossy Top Coat
  • Color Club blue-ish grey
  • Color Club grey
  • Color Club dusty rose
  • Color Club wine
  • Color Club dark rose
  • Essie Shine of the Times

Obviously, I had to add some sparkle to this look, & there is no better sparkle to pull out this time of year than Essie Shine of the Times. It adds the most beautiful sparkle to whatever polish to apply it to, & jazzes up every manicure!

What do you think of this Autumn skittle design? Do you love these colours together as much as I do? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!