Category: Freehand

Posted on

Watercolour Freehand Floral 🌸

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday!

I hope everyone is having a lovely week. The weather here has been pretty amazing & Spring like. You can’t help but love it! Our flowers are even starting to bloom in our front garden, so naturally I was inspired to create some pretty floral on my nails! This design was also inspired by a nail art look that popped up in my Facebook memories from 6 years ago (this one, in case you want to see the original.)

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Where’s My Chauffeur
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • OPI Be Magentale With Me (Sheer Tints)
  • OPI Don’t Violet Me Down (Sheer Tints)
  • Essie No Shrinking Violets (Silk Watercolours)
  • Essie Love Sheen (Silk Watercolours)
  • Essie Flowerista
  • OPI Lost My Bikini in Molokini
  • OPI My Dog Sled Is A Hybrid
  • Essie Poolside Service
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Blacky
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio 

Okay, so I know every time I do a floral, I say that it’s my new favourite — so I won’t even say it, but seriously this might be the most favourite floral I’ve ever done! I feel like the sheer polish plus darker outlining just gives this manicure such a beautiful feel. & I love the floral combined with the brightness of Essie Where’s My Chauffeur which is hands down one of my favourite polishes for Spring. I’m really really in love with this whole combination.

& obviously, a close up because I am so freaking proud of how these turned out! I know roses are my floral safe zone, but I think I would to branch out a little bit more, maybe try & perfect other styles. I definitely still have plans to try out a tulip design very very soon as well!

What do you think about this floral look? Has your garden started to come to life yet? Let me know what you think down in the comments below, & what kind of floral you’d like to see me attempt next!

Posted on

Crazy Dotticure Pattern Nails

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, & didn’t eat too many chocolate eggs or jellybeans.

We had a pretty lovely weekend here in Halifax, which meant perfect weather for our annual Easter Egg hunt outside. Usually, all the cousins would gather out our house for it, but with social isolation & distancing it was just us. Never the less, our little guy had a blast finding all the eggs, & his baby sister had fun trying her first real taste of chocolate! I could definitely get used to warm sunny days, & they’re calling for sunshine & 16 degrees today, so I’ll take it!

So let’s show off some fun nails, shall we?

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Quo by ORLY pale peach (no label — it was a mini bottle circa 2013/2104)
  • Essie Splash of Grenedine
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essie Playdate
  • Essie Bikini so Teeny
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio (COFFEE10 to save 10% on your purchase!)

So I’ve been thinking about doing one of these dotticure pattern nails for a while, but for some reason was nervous to do it (& kept falling back into old trusted designs — like floral). But I’ve really been wanting to try something different, out of my comfort zone, & I’m really glad I did! At first I wasn’t sure about how these turned out, but I actually really adore them! So much so, I wore this look for a full 3 days until they started chipping.

These sort of remind me of like printed tiles, or something. I really like the bright pop of colour over the pale base shade. I’ve had this Quo shade in my minis drawer for a very long time, but I don’t think I’ve pulled it out to wear before. It makes a great almost neutral base for nail art.

What do you think about this dotticure? What was the last manicures out of your comfort zone you tried–did you grab a colour you never wear, or try out a design that made you nervous? Let me know in the comments below!

Posted on

Rainbow Easter Egg Inspired Accent Nail

Good morning lovelies & happy Thursday!

I hope everyone is having a lovely week, however you’re spending it. I did a fun yoga class last night (via zoom) so I’m feeling refreshed this morning. If there is one thing this home isolation has been doing for me, it’s been inspiring me to work out almost daily, which is awesome!

Today I gave an Easter inspired design to share with you. I wanted a look that would be perfect for Easter celebrations, but could also be worn just to celebrate Spring!

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Blue
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Mint
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Purple
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Pink
  • Essie Ballet Slippers
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • NailStuff.ca 4mm Micro Detail Brush (COFFEE10 saves you 10%!)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio
  • TheBaseCoat Chevron/ZigZag (regular) Stencils

I really, really wanted to do something Easter-y on my nails, without going your typical bunny ears/Easter egg design. I started off on my ring finger by applying 2 coats of Ballet Slippers & my Essie Gel Setter to dry. Then I took my nail vinyls, & applied them to my ringer finger. Using a dotting tool, I started from the bottom of my nail, I worked quickly applied the alternating colours. All my shades were matte, which dry quickly, so I actually pulled off the vinyl one I had filled a section. Next up, I decided outlining would bring the look together, so I went through with my tiniest brush, & outlined all my chevrons with my white polish, as well as the outside of my nail.

& I feel like the end result looks so cool, & dainty, & just Easter-y enough. Like a “grown up” Easter egg design.

Seriously, I’m obsessed. It’s been a while since I pulled out the zig zag chevron nail vinyls, & oh man have I missed them! I guess one thing I can thank this whole situation for, is that I’m really putting more effort into my nail art, & love rediscovering all these old tools of mine. It’s a fun way to distract myself from all the craziness happening outside of the house — or from the fact that I really miss my extended family. Hopefully the world returns to some form of normalcy again, so we can all get together & celebrate all the events we’re missing out on.

Do you have a special manicure planned for your Easter? What is your favourite Easter candy? Let me know down in the comments below! (Mine are Peeps by the way, I know… I’m strange but I LOVE them!)

 

Posted on

Purple & Mint Chevron Moons

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday. Another new week is here, & for the first time in months I feel like Spring might actually be really here. Our flowers are ever starting to bloom in our front gardens! So it’s inspiring me to pull out all the pastel, Spring-y shades I can find. 🌸

You know how much I love my chevron moons, so I decided it would be fun to pair a few shades I don’t wear to often. After my browse through my nail polish stash, I decided I should really make a better attempt at wearing more of my nail polishes.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener 
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint
  • China Glaze Ever Glaze Don’t Grape About It
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in White

It’s been a while since I attempted to freehand a chevron moon, but I think my hands are getting steadier because they turned out pretty good! I used to do them all the time, before I had nail vinyls in my life. & while I do love the precision that nail vinyls give, sometimes I’m too impatient to wait for my base colour to dry. This was one of the moments, & I’m so happy that I didn’t muck them up! Because I’m absolutely in love with the end result.

Who doesn’t love a good chevron moon? Just look at that combo. The purple & green, the clean lines. I’m just really digging this design.

What do you think about these chevron moons? What Spring polishes have you been wearing most often lately? Let me know down in the comments below!

🌙

Posted on

Happy 6th Blogiversary Coffee & Nail Polish

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday. I know what you’re thinking — this isn’t my usual Sunday content. But I’m making a special exception for this Sunday because IT’S MY BLOGIVERSARY!

6 years ago today, I posted my very first post here on coffee & nail polish, & I haven’t stop since. A lot has changed since those early, early days of blogging but my love of nail polish has not. & I can honestly say I can’t imagine not having this place, my very own place, to share that love! So whether you’ve been reading since the beginning, or just recently found me, I just want to say thanks for being here! & have a piece of cake (or a very large fancy coffee) for me!

In honour of today, I thought I would do something I did for a previous blogiversary, & recreate one of my early nail art looks. This orange floral look was the second ever nail art I posted here on the blog, & one of the first really good florals I ever painted. I was going to attempt to repaint this using all the originally polishes I used, but sadly both my bottles of China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin, as well as my bottle of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls are long gone. So I updated the look using newer polishes in the stash.

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Fall for NYC
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Firey Island
  • ACO by Ardene Lemon Sorbet
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essie Off Tropic 
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio 

Back when I started this blog, I think I had a single dotting tool (Essence brand — I still have it around here somewhere) I had bought from Shoppers Drug Mart for like $1.99, some cheap dollar store brushes I never ended up using, & a bunch of striping polishes. & that was the extent of my nail art tools. But you know, I thought that was amazing & I loved teaching myself how to create nail art looks with them, like that beautiful floral. & honestly, I remember being so beyond proud of myself for posting those. I thought they were the best nails I ever painted!

Flash forward: check out those roses! I’m in love. But I will definitely say this — the tools you use definitely make a huge difference in your ability to paint. Everyone always comments on how much my painting has improved, but I definitely think it has a lot to do with the fact my tools have improved as well. That’s always my #1 tip to those who ask me what tips I have for improving their painting: invest in good brushes! I absolutely adore my nail art brushes from NailStuff.ca, but I also have amazing brushes I used to use from Bundle Monster (now Maniology) that definitely helped my improve my skills. &, of course, practice!

So what do you guys think of this floral recreation? Have you ever recreated an old manicure?

Thank you guys SO much for sticking around, for finding me, for liking my posts & leaving comments. You honestly have no idea how much it means to me to see people loving what I do, & the fact after 6 years people still love it! ♥♥♥

Have an amazing Sunday!