SWATCH SUNDAY — Icing Stores Santa Baby

6BD25297-2380-4DB6-AD99-BEAE3A6CBE0A

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! & happy December 1st as well! The countdown to Christmas is officially on, so naturally it’s time to get SERIOUS about all things holly & jolly. This month, I’m going to be dedicating all my Swatch Sunday posts to polishes of Christmas past, which are my favourite to pull out during the holidays.

First up, I chose a shade that’s a few years old but is probably one of the most Christmas-y shades I own: Icing Stores Santa Baby. For those who don’t know what Icing is, it’s a accessories store owned by Claire’s–basically Claire’s big sister store–& during holidays like Halloween, Christmas, or Easter, they always come out with themed collections. This bottle of polish was originally released as part of their 2015 Christmas collection, & I’ve been pulling it out ever since!

6815C8CB-A788-4D79-8E21-8CEFF34CB073

881839F5-F4E7-4736-82DA-7B5898DB82B7

Santa Baby is a glitter topper — the base is clear, & it is packed full of an assortment of glitters in red, green & white, all ranging from tiny micro glitters to medium sized bar glitters. But the coolest part about this polish is that it is scented like peppermint/candy canes once dried, & it comes through even with a nice coat of glossy top coat to seal it in. Seriously… the barista at my local coffee shop commented on how cool this polish looked on my nails, & I literally was like “you have to smell them! It smells like candy canes!” I’m a little weird sometimes.

73C99CE1-ADB5-4818-8C61-A8AAA6BE2F85

C9B5D02C-F233-4A59-88D0-4DC40DD1B94F

0601315E-5907-4F4F-A168-05636FF45053

For my swatches, I applied one coat of Santa Baby over Essie Wrap It Up, & sealed everything in with Essie Gel Setter to level my nails out. This is one of my favourite ways to wear this polish & the best option for showing it off in all its glory. Second to that, this shade makes for the most perfect glitter gradient which I’ve shown off in years past. I’d love to try to sponge it on someday, & maybe I will as like an accent nail with some peel off base coat if I’m looking for a one night kind of manicure. I’d be really curious to see what it looks like all sponged on.

0A036C16-4986-4202-8882-95FBA15AFBCF

ED973995-B66C-4719-AF5B-415647057D97

As you can see, it’s like Christmas-y confetti on the nails. How amazing is that? I just adore the different range of glitter styles packed into one bottle. It always makes me feel festive whenever I put it on, even if I’m feeling more Grinch-y than Elf-y! Instantly it is like my holly & jolly levels will begin to rise, no rum spiked egg nog needed at all.

810A48BB-6BB1-4D46-9AC8-42A27932C435

353D9382-2C98-4BD8-95BC-63FD86943466

Sadly this polish is 4+ years old, so it’s no longer in production. I even checked online to see if there was a similar product available, but there doesn’t seem to be any Christmas nail polishes at all this year by them. So this is definitely one of those lock it in the vault kind of shades if you happen to have it as part of your collection, because it really is special.

Do you have any special to your Christmas polishes you pull out every year? Let me know what yours are, & stay tuned because I have more Christmas themed nail polishes to share with you this month!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Essence It’s Raining Men!

0B215596-78E1-431A-BA59-F26DC7BCD496

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

Today I’m sharing a pretty old polish from my stash that I haven’t worn in ages: Essence It’s Raining Men! It’s been quite a while (like 5 years) since I last wore this colour, so it felt like a good polish to grab. I’ve gushed before how much I love the Essence line of nail polishes, so I have a ton of them in my stash. & some of my favourites are like this beautiful blue: deep, right & slightly sparkly.

906AA14A-732F-4BCC-80FC-F2C27C7B64D4

83FDA104-2F27-4D46-A4D7-D1F78CD09DF3

For my swatches I did base coat (always), & two coats of colour. For my swatches, I didn’t apply top coat so you could see it on its own when it dries, & as you can see it dries pretty shiny! The base is a beautiful dark blue, with a ton of lighter blue, turquoise shimmer & purple glass fleck glitters. The first coat goes on pretty patchy, but with the second coat you can see how opaque the polish becomes.

8650CA38-A1C2-4573-B9D4-05D3C7E74C87

496CA3A2-A7A7-42CA-AD1A-63410F3ED5F3

I know it’s not a typical Christmas polish, but I love love love blue for Christmas for some reason. Maybe it’s because my Granny’s favourite colour was blue & she used to decorate with so many blue ornaments it makes me think of her. & Christmas was my favourite time of year with my Granny, so that’s why I just wear so much blue as December approaches. I mean, she would have never worn a polish this colour, but I feel like she would appreciate it on me. 💙

6F7B5EB9-FE3E-4127-8B48-D0DB935EA570

FB889C7D-282F-498E-8F11-27CDDD28FDC7

Sadly, this shade is way discontinued as Essence has update their nail polishes a few times since I purchased this beauty. I did look in my stash, & I’d say that China Glaze Blue Iguana is a close shade. Also, Essie Tied & Blue from their new holiday 2019 collection is very close in colour (from the swatches I’ve seen), although the finish is much different.

What do you think about this colour? Do you have a non-green/red polish that you love to wear during the holidays? Let me know in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Holiday 2019 {Oh My Gold}

5389D1C1-7179-4690-8E26-854150A632A5

{PR sample}

Hello lovelies! Not only is it one of my favourite days of the week — Swatch Sunday — but even more exciting… the Holiday nail polish collections have started popping up! & Sally Hansen Canada, bring the sweethearts that they are, sent me their brand new Holiday 2019 Oh My Gold! Collection.

The Oh My Gold! Collection is a limited edition collection consisting of 3 gold polishes — one metallic gold with chunky Holo glitter (Goldie Rocks), one dense gold glitter (Good as Gold) in a clear base & finally a sheer gold base with a scattered holo glitter (Five Golden Blings).

60621799-97C5-40CA-A6A9-2C493E8C0778

& now onto the swatches!

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Holiday 2019 {Oh My Gold}”

Birthday Nails with Essie Birthday Girl 🎉

F516455D-4537-4A98-AB92-7F0C2C493092

Hello lovelies & Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is having a beautiful start to their week. Today I’m breaking up my usual posting schedule because TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY! That’s right, today marks 33 years around the sun. So obviously I needed to do something fun on my nails to mark the occasion.

In years past I’ve done some obvious birthday nails, but this year I decided to let the polish do the talking. When I saw that Essie had released a polish called Birthday Girl, I knew that I was going to need to own it & incorporate it into my birthday mani this year! I also wanted to do something fun, as I snapped a nail just in time for my birthday, so I am back to some serious shorties.

B6F4411E-B3BE-4022-A8E6-B491C3881773

D5BA04A3-77C1-4A8D-97B2-F6EDDF238362

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie The A-bliss {PR sample}
  • Essie Birthday Girl
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Color Club Eternal Beauty
  • Essie Play Date
  • Sally Hansen Pat on the Black
  • Nailstuff.ca 11mm Liner Brush {PR sample}

.

6B65E022-F47A-402E-A001-10F99CDAA9E7

01B4F731-8F0D-445D-AAF9-C1103719365E

For my base, I applied two coats of Birthday Girl over one coat of The A-bliss. I then did a whole bunch of Pinterest stalking to see what kind of design I wanted to do overtop my base of Birthday Girl & in the end I decided a Waterfall look was the way to go! Do you remember when Waterfall designs were all the rage? I feel like this design needs to make a comeback!

3C197715-613B-4B6C-8739-90325123C31A

DF26AE0C-B843-43C7-B7C3-D9FD5043AFED

For this look I decided to pick a few purples that I thought would compliment my pink base. Then o used my liner brush from NailStuff to brush thin streaks of polish at my cuticle line, & bam! An low effort design that looks super fancy & fun. Kind of reminds me of sparkling fireworks at the base of my nails which is perfect for celebrating, even if my idea of celebrating is drinking my free birthday drink from Starbucks & playing with the new stamping plates my Mum bought me for my birthday! I can’t think of a more perfect day. ☕️💅🏻

06924BF0-00CA-4581-8459-66D69BCD6AE0

59F2C682-46CF-43FC-8C89-1023165DE1EC

Hope everyone has an amazing day! Let me know what you think about this look & what colour combination you’d love to see me do in a Waterfall look next! 💙

China Glaze Halloween 2019 Swatches — To Catch A Colour Collection

F76F90DE-633E-4213-AD93-ED2092838018

{PR SAMPLE}

Hello lovelies & Happy Friday!

Today I’m switching things up a bit & sharing my swatches for China Glaze Halloween 2019. I know, usually I would wait & write up a Swatch Sunday post featuring these beauties, but I was too excited about this new collection to wait!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but China Glaze always makes my favourite Halloween nail polish collections, because they’re always super unique & fun for Halloween, but still work really well for other times of the year. This year, the collection consists of 6 brand new polishes: 1 textured shade, 3 regular metallic/scattered holo shade, & two fun glitter toppers.

9A7743BE-AE53-4AC8-BA18-4B3A34734A86

So without any further ado, let’s get to the swatches!

Continue reading “China Glaze Halloween 2019 Swatches — To Catch A Colour Collection”