Category: Fun

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Deborah Lippmann 99 Luftballons

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday! & happy Valentine’s Day! 💗💕 Hope your day is filled with every kind of love — from Friends, from Family, from Pets. & if you’re just not into the holiday what so ever, don’t forget: tomorrow is 50% off chocolate day.

Today I’ve got one more pink polish to share— Deborah Lippmann 99 Luftballons!

3 coats, no top coat.

Base is a beautiful, but sheer, fuchsia pink jelly with an assortment of multi coloured glitters. Like with most polishes like this, I would usually layer it over a corresponding shade to cut down on coats required — & keep clean up from being as complicated & frustrating. But for my swatches, I wanted to show the polish in its true glory.

I will say, I have a few glittery shades like this from Deborah Lippmann, & this shade versus Stronger was definitely a little less packed with glitters. If I wanted to wear this shade on its own, & cut down on coats, I would probably sponge the glitter on instead.

I would just make sure to wear a peel of base coat first!

I originally got this mini bottle as part of a bigger set via Winners a few years ago. From the looks of things, this shade was originally released in 2013, so the only listings I could find for it were via Ebay & Poshmark. It could also pop up at places like Winners, Marshall’s or TJMax as those stores seem to get old school shades like this all the time.

It’s definitely a pretty glitter to wear for whatever occasion you may need a little extra sparkle.

What do you think about Deborah Lippmann 99 Luftballons? Would you wear this pretty pink glitter? What is your favourite glitter polish? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

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#GlamNailsChallengeFeb — Cow Print

Hello lovelies & happy Monday! Currently digging out from a whallop of a Winter storm, but I am super excited to share my manicure for the second prompt of GlamNailsChallenge: cow print.

Now I’ve done my fair share of leopard print nails in the past, & some bird feather looks. But I’ve never really branched out in attempts animal inspired designs. So I was a little uncertain about what to do for this look! But thanks to Pinterest, I found this peak a boo cow print look by @cates.nails (via Maniology) & knew it would be the perfect cow print look to do!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Good to Go
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio (COFFEE10 saves you 10%!)

I really really like the black & white against the pop of colour. I haven’t worn Color Club Pucci-licious in a while, & it’s one of my all time favourite purple polishes, so it felt like the perfect base for this look. @cates.nails original manicure was done with a pink background, but I needed a little pink break haha.

Overall this was a relatively easy look to do. The hardest part was painting the white blocks of colour. For my cow print, I used a smaller dotting tool from my Nailstuff set, & tried to make the blobs look cow-y. My husband did guess right away what they were, so I feel like that is a plus!

What do you think about my cow print nails for #glamnailschallengeFeb? Have you had a chance to check out the the other prompts on Instagram? Click the hashtag above to see all the other fun looks other people have done for this prompt!

& let me know down below what you think of this look!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — ACO by Ardene Love Potion No.82

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! We’re officially a full week into February now, & a week away from Valentine’s Day. Here in Halifax were also anxiously awaiting not one, but two big Winter storms this week. Which kind of sucks, after a couple days of beautiful almost Spring like weather! I was really looking forward to maybe pulling out a few of my dresses.

But let’s not dwell on that, & instead concentrate on the important things—like today’s Swatch Sunday pick: Ardene Love Potion No.82! I’m still feeling all the pink love, so naturally I had to dig deep into my stash to find something perfect for Valentine’s Day, but with a twist. & I think this oldie shade was the perfect pick!

Two coats + Essie Good To Go

For those who don’t know, Ardene is a Canadian clothing store that used to be more of an accessory story, & sold a ton of fun nail polish. Having used to work for the company, that meant I got first peeks at all the polish, which is why I own so many. This particular shade entered in my stash pre-2014. For a lesser expensive brand, I actually think a lot of the shades they used to introduce were really funky & different, with lots of glittery shades—like this! & considering they used to sell for $3.99 a bottle, or 3/$10, that’s a pretty good deal.

As with most glittery shades like this, the formula is cruelly, which allows you to see the layers of glitters. However, two coats does coat the nail well, showing off the multi coloured, multi sized & multi shaped glitters which I’m very happy about! No visible nail line peaking out.

This is definitely a fun shade for Valentine’s Day, especially with a name like Love Potion No.82. But it could also be a fun shade for Summer, or just when you’re feeling funky. I did add some top coat (Essie Good to Go) to smooth things out a bit because the layers of glitters can be a bit bumpy. I also think that a little matte top coat would also look incredible over this polish.

This is definitely one I think I need to wear more often!

What do you think about this old school Ardene shade? Do you think Love Potion No.82 is a fun Valentine’s Day shade? What is your favourite pink glitter bomb polish? Let me know in the comments below!

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#GlamNailsChallengeFeb — Polka Dots

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Today marks Day one of GlamNailsChallengeFebruary, which I’ve been planning for since the prompts were released last month! I’m really excited, because there is a good mix of prompts that can be for Valentine’s Day (which I love doing nail art for!) & some non-holiday prompts as well.

First up, we have Polka Dots — & naturally I was feeling a pink inspired Valentine’s Day dotticure. You can always use more pink in your life. Plus I had this Quo by ORLY set that had been sitting around for absolutely ever that I bought & never used, so I figured why not pull it out & use it a pretty gradient dotticure!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Essie Strong Start
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen CSM Nail Primer
  • Quo by ORLY Holiday 2014 collection — “the Pinks” (none of these mini bottles have names associated, so I can’t give you specifics sadly.)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio (COFFEE10 saves you 10%!)

Oh man, I love a good gradient dotticure, especially one that is as vibrant & pretty as this! I’ve done a few versions of this look over the years, especially for Valentine’s Day, which makes it a classic in my books! Especially great if you’re short on time, but want some pretty & standout nails! & you don’t even need tools to do it — a hair pin works just as easily as a dotting tool.

What do you think of my gradient dotticure for the first prompt of #glamnailschallengeFeb? I’m so exciting to be participating again this month, & can’t wait to play around with all the prompts to come!

It’s going to be a really good month for nail art so stay tuned!

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Metallic Smooshy Nails

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday!

I hope everyone is having a lovely week so far. Today I have some more nail art to share with you that I recently did. I’ve been experimenting with different nail art techniques that I either haven’t done in a long time, or never tried. Today’s look is inspired by a technique by @grapefizznails — smooshy nails using a stamper!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Shiny Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Nail Primer
  • Color Club Silver Lake
  • Color Club You’re My Soul-Matte
  • Color Club Matte About You
  • Color Club Put A Ring On It
  • Bodico small clear stamper
  • Silicone nail art mat

So I definitely love how these turned out, but I don’t think trying to do a marble look like this is easiest with matte shades, which I decided to use. They tend to try faster than non-matte shades, so you get more blob-ish smooshes instead of the delicate effect that I see in a lot of others smoosh looks. I’m going to try it out again for sure, with a different variety of polish formulas. I

t was definitely an easy look to do, which I always appreciate, & I always love seeing other people’s smooshy nails, so I’m dedicated to nailing this technique! I’m already imagining one using a Valentine’s Day inspired colour scheme.

What do you think about this nail art look? Do you enjoy smooshy nail art looks? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below, & share any other nail art techniques you would like to see me try out!