Category: Fun

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#GlamNailsChallengeDec — Presents 🎁

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Good morning lovelies! I hope everyone had the most amazing Christmas & Boxing Day. Our whole family was very spoiled, & I’ve very much enjoyed celebrating in the place I spent many a Christmas as a kid. ♥️🎄 it also means I’m super late on sharing the next prompt for #GlamNailsChallengeDec: Presents!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Strengthening Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Dimension Nails Pygmy Sloth
  • Unnamed Mariposa metallic gold
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Goldie Rocks
  • Essence Black is Back
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)

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Is there anything more beautiful than red & gold. I love how the gold presents pop over this beautiful vibrant red holo polish! Feels very Christmas-y! Also any excuse to wear this amazing shade from Dimension Nails is a good excuse… it’s such a perfect glitter shade for this time of year I knew I had to incorporate it a Christmas design for this year.

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Was Santa good to you? Hopefully you were spoiled not just with presents under the tree, but lots of lovely family time & memories. Those are my favourite Christmas presents.

Don’t forget to hop on over to Instagram to see the other looks for #glamnailschallengeDec. I love going through & seeing everyone’s interpretations of the same prompt! So many cute versions of the same idea.

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#GlamnailschallengeDec — Christmas Trees

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Good morning lovelies & happy Monday! & happy Christmas Eve Eve! We are quickly approaching Christmas & the end of GlamNailsChallengeDec! Today’s prompt for this challenge is Christmas trees! Naturally I went to Pinterest to find a look I liked, & found this tutorial originally posted on Instagram by @thebasecoat.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Strengthening Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Icing Stores matte teal shimmer
  • Quo by ORLY Falling Star
  • China Glaze Ruby Pumps
  • Ardene Ice Mist
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio (COFFEE10 to save 10%)

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For this look I started off by applying the triangle nail stencil to my accent nail, then one at a time applied my colours to the empty spaces to create a triangle on the nail. I followed the Base Coat’s tutorial for colours. It was also way easier using a pre designed nail vinyl than attempting to position striping tape or straight nail vinyls into the same shape.

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Honestly this look was too simple to do, but turned out so cute! I think this is such a perfect Christmas Day look—who doesn’t love Christmas trees! & the mixing of colours is very Christmasy. I absolutely lovely it!

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What do you think about this design for Glamnailschallengedec? Have you figured out your Christmas design yet? Don’t forget to check out Instagram for all the other amazing look for #glamnailschallengeDec!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Deborah Lippmann Stronger

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Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday! I’m currently on a very, very long drive to Northern New Brunswick to start our Christmas celebrations, but I wanted to make sure I got a Swatch Sunday post done for today! & I thought since we are only 3 days away from Christmas, we needed to get glittery! & boy, are we going all out!

Today’s Swatch Sunday pick is Deborah Lippmann Stronger. This shade was originally released in 2013 & created in part with Kelly Clarkson. I picked up my particular bottle at Winners/Marshall’s a few years back, probably on sale because that’s usually the way.

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The polish itself is a smoky purple jelly base which is packed full, & I mean full, of multi coloured & holo glitters. There are varying sizes as well, which you can really see in my macro shots. Absolutely stunning. This is definitely what I like to call a party glitter — the kind of polish designed for a special occasion, like Christmas or New Years Eve, when you just want everything about you to sparkle. Or maybe if you’re having a down day, & you want eye catching movie star worthy nails for buying bananas.

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Normally a shade like this, I would wear layered over a corresponding shade like dark purple or navy blue. This cuts down on the coats you need, which helps make removal easier & saves on polish. For my swatches though, I pulled out my UNT peel off base coat & applied the polish all on it’s own to see it in it’s true glory.

For my swatches I did 2 coats of polish which for me was enough, but wasn’t completely 100% opacity. I feel with the holo though, it fills in the gaps & you don’t even notice you can kind of see my naked nail. If I really wanted full coverage, sponging would be the way to go, especially when you have a bit of a trickier formula due to the dense glitter.

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I applied two coats of top coat to my nails to seal & smooth my glitter. One layer of super quick dry top coat (YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat) & then a thicker glossy top coat (Essie Gel Setter) just to smooth everything out.

I definitely recommend wearing a peel off base coat with glitters like this, just because it makes removal so much easier than trying to soak off a thick layer of glitter. I’ve done it–it takes way too long, uses way too much nail polish remover, & is no fun at all. Peel off base coats, like UNT Ready for Take Off, make life so much easier because you can just pop it off & move into the next manicure. & that makes me happy!

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So what do you think about Deborah Lippmann Stronger? Do you have a favourite glitter like this? Any secrets to removal you can share? Hop on over to my Instagram, & let me know what you think!

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Winter Pattern inspired by Selby’s Bunker!

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Hello lovelies & happy Friday! It is the LAST Friday before Christmas, if you can believe that! Sending lots of good vibes to all my fellow retail works prepping for the absolute busiest weekend of the year — keep strong! You’re going to make it.

Today I’m sharing a really special manicure that I’m so excited to share that is inspired by my absolute favourite coffee & gift shop located here in Cole Harbour — Selby’s Bunker & Gifts. We go to this adorable little coffee shop daily, & love to peruse through the gift shop attached. I was there a few days ago shopping for Christmas gifts & saw the most adorable winter themed mug & immediately knew I had to recreate it on my nails as part of my Christmas designs this year.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Strengthening Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Acrylic Paint
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Red It Online
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio (COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

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I started off with my crisp white base, & made sure to apply top coat & let it dry well just in case I needed to erase any of my paint. I went with acrylic paint just because I wasn’t sure how well my drawing would go, & I wanted to opportunity to erase any mistake I made — & honestly, I probably started over about 15 times before I felt like my design was resembling the mug enough! If you’re new to nail art & want to attempt something out of your comfort zone, I definitely recommend starting first with acrylic paint! Makes erasing mistakes so much easier!

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Honestly, this might be one of my most favourite designs I’ve done in a very very long time. I can’t remember the last time I attempted to recreate a pattern — or whether this turned out — but oh boy do I adore this! It works for Christmas, or just winter in general, & I think it is so delicate & sweet. Also I had every intention of taking a picture of my nails with the mug, but I got so caught up at looking at everything when Christmas shopping I totally forgot! Haha.

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What do you think of this look? Does it give you the Christmas feels? Would you wear this look on your nails for the holidays? 🎄

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#GlamNailsChallengeDec — Poinsettias

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Good morning lovelies & happy Wednesday. & happy week until Christmas, for those who celebrate! Is everyone else rushing around like a chicken with no head trying to finish up their shopping/organizing/wrapping, or is it just me? 😅

Today’s post is another entry into #GlamNailsChallengeDec — poinsettias. & fun fact: even though I love love love a good floral, I don’t think I’ve ever attempted a poinsettia design! Kind of crazy, but I was excited to give it a try.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Strengthening Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • China Glaze December to Remember
  • China Glaze Feeling Twinkly
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust
  • Sally Hansen CSM Red It Online
  • Sally Hansen CSM Berry Fancy
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Good Cheer-y
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essence Black Is Back
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio 

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So for this look, I started off by creating a super sparkly base using December to Remember, Feeling Twinkly & Fairy Dust. I really really wanted a super dense glitter for the poinsettias to pop against, I feel like the layering on these three shades really achieved that look. Next I hand painted my poinsettias using all nail polish. I know I’ve been using acrylic paint a lot lately, but I don’t actually have any red acrylic paint in my stash so I went old school & used nail polish.

It was a little time consuming, but the end result I feel like turned out really well. The only place I really struggled was with the leaves, & they’re definitely not perfect, but over all I think my design turned out pretty close to its inspiration!

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Is there ever such a thing as too much sparkle during the holidays? I don’t think so. The only downside is glitter removal, but thanks to peel off base coat, if you just want extra glittery nails for a night, you are in luck! Can’t go wrong with that!

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Absolutely loving these poinsettias & excited to finally mark this off my bucket list! If you like this look, hop over to Instagram & let me know. & while you’re there, check out the other beautiful poinsettia looks as part of #glamnailschallengeDec. I love going through & seeing everyone’s interpretations of the same prompt! It’s so much fun!