Dainty Present Accent Nail Art 🎁

Hello beauties & happy Friday! Can you believe we’re just a little over a week before Christmas? Where has the time gone?! We have less than 0 snow which means it doesn’t really feel like Christmas or, even, December here. But I’m hoping for a Christmas miracle, & a little bit of snow for the holiday.

Today though I have a cute Christmas design to share with you that I’ve been wearing for the last few days. I recently took a trip to the Chatters by my new work, looking for nail polish. While they don’t quite have the stash they used to have, I did find a couple cute shades including a mini bottle of OPI Green on the Runway from the 2014 Coca-Cola collection. I thought it would be a fun non-traditional Christmas colour choice.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • Starrily Vantablack (c/o: NailStuff.ca)
  • OPI Green on the Runway
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Make It N-Ice
  • China Glaze Sleigh Bells Ring
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Nail Brush Trio (11mm Liner Brush)

I really wanted to see how Green on the Runway would look layered over black, & I like it! Obviously, I had to had some sparkle, & Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Make It N-Ice is a great topper! It adds just the right amount of sparkle to this design. It’s Christmas, so sparkle is almost mandatory!

Also I love how my teeny little bow turned out. Sometimes all you need is just a little accent nail, & I feel like this was the perfect combination of colour, with a little bit extra holiday added. It makes me so happy! My slightly dry cuticles thanks to freezing temperatures? Not so happy. But hopefully Santa has a big tin of Burt’s Bees cuticle balm for my stocking this year.

What do you think of this dainty accent nail, & colour combination? Are you a fan of simple of fancy holiday designs? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below! Just 8 more days until Christmas Eve, so now is the time to get the rest of my Christmas nails finalized.

Have a fantastic Friday!

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Ugly Sweater Party

Hello my loves & Happy Sunday! This is the second Sunday of December, so I’m keeping with the Christmas-ish polish tradition, & trying to share shades that are related in some way to the holiday!

This past week I did a poll on my Instagram asking if people would rather see China Glaze Ugly Sweater Party (Holiday 2015) or OPI Bring Out The Big Gems (Holiday 2022) this week, & with an overwhelming majority, Ugly Sweater Party was the winner!

2 coats, No Top Coat

China Glaze Ugly Sweater Party is a pink jelly formula, packed tightly with an assortment of glitters, including holographic. The formula is a tad on the thick side, but with a little bit of patience, I easily covered my whole nail in two coats. You could probably sponge on the glitter for a denser packed glitter effect, but I much prefer it applied this way as I like the overall finish.

Truthfully, I don’t know if I can remember ever wearing this shade as a full manicure like this before. I originally bought the polish because I loved the name, & glitter is my weakness, but I think I’ve truthfully only used it in glitter gradients, or maybe as a single accent nail, which makes me sad.

I was also surprised I had never swatched this shade previous Decembers, so I was happy. to do both for todays post! This is definitely a fun glitter shade, & just screams Christmas party to me! My Christmas party days are long behind me, but to be honest if I were every invited to one — & didn’t have time for a full nail art look — this would be my #1 polish pick for such an occasion.

Do you remember China Glaze Ugly Sweater Party from its original 2015 release? Did you have this sparkly shade in your stash, or do you still have this glitter on rotation? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE DECEMBER — Christmas Plaid

Good morning lovelies & happy Wednesday! & happy Day two of Glam Nails Challenge December. Also… can you believe it’s December 7th? I mean… it’s raining here on the East Coast & above freezing so it certainly doesn’t feel anything close to December. At least I have Christmas nails to keep me in a somewhat festive mood.

But onto the nails — prompt #2 is Christmas Plaid. I do love a good plaid manicure, & for today’s look I decided to go with a sparkly plaid design.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • Quo Beauty Green With Envy
  • ACO by Ardene Crystal Fog
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Red It Twice
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • China Glaze New Year, New Boo
  • W7 Gold Dazzle
  • Mermaid Tail Nail Brush Trio (11mm Liner Brush)

Originally I thinking of a sparkly green plaid, but as soon as I put Crystal Fog over Green with Envy it gave it a teal/turquoise colour instead. But I decided to go with it, & I think all the sparkly lines still give it the Christmas Plaid look I was hoping for. & I do love all the sparkle & shimmer of the look. If there is any time to break out the glitter, it’s obviously Christmas.

What do you think about my Christmas plaid design? What colour combination would you wear for a Christmas plaid. I feel like usually I go for more a red look, but I’ve been wearing a lot of red nails lately (& I’m sure there will be more!) so it’s fun to change things up a bit.

Don’t forget to check out all the fun #glamnailschallengedec looks on Instagram, & stay tuned because we have a whole lot more Christmas-y looks coming in the next few weeks!

Silver Stamping & Wrapping Paper Inspired 🎁

Hello lovelies, & happy Thursday! & happy December 1st! It is officially Christmas season, & the countdown to Christmas is on. I should probably get my shopping done before it gets too crazy, haha.

But — in honour of this brand new festive month, I thought some Christmas wrapping paper inspired nails would be a fun start. I love my Christmas pattern stamping plates this time of year because they have some many fun patterns you can use, which always makes me think of wrapping paper. While I’m dedicated to doing Glam Nails Challenge December, I also want to do some fun other Christmas manicures on my off days.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • OPI Just Be-Claus
  • ACO by Ardene Dancing Queen
  • Essie No Place Like Chrome
  • NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper 
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate (no longer available)

Please excuse my ring finger which was a bit of a mess up, but that’s okay. I love the crisp silver over the sparkly base — OPI Just Be-Claus topped with ACO by Ardene Dancing Queen (which is a sparkly fuchsia pink). It definitely gives off the wrapping paper vibes I was hoping for.

& it also Christmas-y/Holiday vibes while not being out right blatant. & I like that as well.

What do you think about this stamped pattern nails? Do you enjoy the more subtle holiday designs like this, or do you like in your face Christmas vibes?

& let me know what other Holiday nail art looks you might want to see!

Candy Cane Abstract Stripes (featuring W7 mini polishes)

Hello beauties & happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a lovely Black Friday weekend. Mine was busy–obviously… retail life–but surprisingly fun. & I’m finally starting to feel the holiday vibes. So I’m starting to dig into all my kind of Christmas-y polishes.

Recently I picked up a little polish mini set from Marshall’s by the brand w7. They had a whole selection of mini packs, so I decided to pick the one named “Centre Stage” which had 4 very Christmas-y colours, & a clear top coat. I’ve been staring at this little set for a few weeks now, sitting on my desk, so I decided to finally grab it & create a pretty, & festive, nail art look.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • w7 White
  • w7 Red
  • w7 Green
  • w7 Gold Dazzle
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Striper Brush

How freaking festive is this nail art look? I love it! These were the perfect nails to wear for Black Friday for sure. Unfortunately, they got a bit chipped up, but other than that I absolutely adore this look. I did a similar version last year, but when you find a nail art look you love, why not keep returning to it!

Plus abstract stripes are so easy to do. They’re very hard to mess up, & even if you kind of do, they’re easy to fix any messes.

What do you think about these abstract candy cane stripe nails? Are you getting excited for Christmas/holiday nail designs? Glam Nails Challenge December is coming, & I’ve already started planning my nail designs for it.