Category: Holiday

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Celebrating National Nail Polish Day With Vintage Floral Nails! 

It’s here! June 1st marks the first annual National Nail Polish Day which has been originated by Essie. I’m actually shocked that national nail polish day wasn’t already a thing, but I’m very excited to be able to celebrate it. & in honour of this awesome holiday I just had to go with a vintage floral using some of my favourite Essie colour. 

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Where’s My Chauffeur?
  • Essie As Good As Gold
  • Essie Stones And Roses
  • Essie Brides No Grooms
  • Essie Topless And Barefoot
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essie Off Tropic  
  • Dotting Tool
  • Small Nail Art Brush from Bundle Monster

You’ve heard me gush before about my long standing love affair with floral nail art, so obviously I had to share it on a day dedicated to all things nail polish! & obviously I had to celebrate some Essie love as well. Also I know I said that I would avoid Blue in the month of blue, but Where’s My Chauffeur? is more turquoise so that doesn’t count! 

What are you wearing on your nails to celebrate National Nail Polish Day? Let me know in the comments below! 

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Easter Zig Zag Chevrons

Happy Easter! Was the Easter bunny good to everyone? Did you get lots of chocolate & maybe a few polishes of choice in your basket too? 🐰 I went out earlier in the week & picked up my husbands Easter treats (& a few goodies for my self in the clearance polish section at Lawton’s.) We’re also heading to my Mother in Law’s later for an egg hunt for the kiddos and dinner. 

 I thought in honour of Easter I’d share these zig zag chevron nails that look kind of like Easter eggs! Outside of Easter, these could definitely work as just a fun Spring mani as well. 

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
  •  Essie Lounge Lover
  • OPI Getting Nadi On My Honeymoon
  • Essence You Let My Heart Skin A Beat 
  • Kiss Products Nail Art tips (Chevron vinyls) 

This colour combination works so perfectly for Easter & totally looks like Easter eggs. This would be a great design to go with when you need a quick Easter inspired mani, but don’t have the time (or patience) to do something freehand. 

What are you wearing on your nails today? Did you go with a simple Easter mani, or something more fun? Let me know in the comments below! & don’t forget to enjoy all that chocolate the Easter bunny brought you! 

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Easter Mini Egg Nails

Is there anything more Easter-y than  Cadbury Mini Eggs? Well, I mean back in the day when they only came out at Easter. Sadly my lactose intolerance has come back since having the little one, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still love those delicious chocolate eggs (it just means I can eat them.) & since I won’t be enjoying them in my Easter basket this year, I thought I would continue the tradition of recreating them again on my nails. (I did mini egg nails previously in 2015 here & 2016 here) 


For this mani, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Matte Top Coat: L’Oréal the Matte Velvet top coat. 
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
  • Hard Candy Sky
  • OPI Getting Nadi On My Honeymoon
  • Revlon Minted
  • Nubar New Mood
  • Essie Cocoa Karma
  • Wet N Wild 2% Milk
  • Crinkled Up Plastic Wrap


 I’ve been doing these nails every year and I love how each time year turn out differently depending on the polishes and techniques used. I also think it’s because they’re just so easy to do, but it looks fantastic & just the right amount of festive! But fair warning: they will make you crave chocolate mini eggs. & if you can’t eat chocolate that could become problematic. Haha.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you!


 

What’s your favourite Easter designs to create & recreate? Do you already have planned what you’re wearing on your nails for Easter? Let me know in the comments below! 🐰

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St Patrick’s Day nails with #thenailartsquad

Happy St Patrick’s Day! 🍀

Today I’ve joined with the rest of the girls in #thenailartsquad for some St Patrick’s Day themed nails in honour of today. 

The fellow #thenailartsquad members that I joined for this collab are (clockwise from the top):

For my nails, I freehanded clovers on my accent nail using a fitting tool and small nail art brush. Thankfully, baby was sleeping so I had the chance for some real nail art! I was very excited. 

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Essie First Timer (light green)
  • YSL  vert d’orient (dark green)
  • Icing Icing on Top (off white) 
  • ORLY Bling (holo gold) 
  • Butter London Rock Hard top coat. 
  • Dotting tool (Bundle Monster) and small nail art brush (Born Pretty Store). 

There are few occasions where I pull out green polish, but I always look forward to St Patrick’s Day for some festive green nails. I’m also really happy with my little clovers–I wasn’t quite sure I could pull them off freehand, but I think they turned out pretty cute! 

Hope everyone is having a festive day whether it’s with green beer, or–like me–a very green stir fry! 

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QUO by Orly Holiday 2016 Perfectly Painted collection 

Good morning lovelies! Finally getting these swatches up after meaning to for  way too long! These polishes were kindly sent to me for review and are part of the holiday collection released by QUO. 

For each of these swatches I used a base coat and top coat. Also most of these polishes took 3 coats per nail with the exception of the glitters. 


First up, we have the glitters in the collection, one pink and one more of a rose gold. Both of these polishes went on easily, in two coats. They look more textured than they actually are but the sparkle is amazing. These are fun colours to play around for Christmas. 


Next up we have the two blues in the collection. Both polishes required three coats to cover any patchiness. These two colours go quite well together, although I wouldn’t call them Christmas colours. I also love the fact this 12 pack has a really good selection of different colours to choose from. 


The 3rd set of colours I have to show off are the pinks and peaches. Again, these two colours took three coats to fully cover. The darker was much more sheer and even though you can’t see it, barely covered my visible nail line.  These are great neutrals, and definitely great colours when you need something more subtle.  


Up next we have some pinks! Like all these colours, I found 3 coats best covered. And again, I find these colours not so much Holiday colours (they would be great for Summer!) but I really love these shades. 


Onto the reds… you know how much I love red nail polish. I’m pretty sure these are also featured in the 6 pack collection also for Holiday 2016. But never the less I don’t mind having extras of these pretty colours! 


And last (but not least) we have the last two polishes which are not similar in any way but I think look great together. I’ve been using the grey polish (middle and ring nail) a lot lately! The fushia is also a great bright polish. Again, it took three coats for each for perfect application. 

So which colour do you like the most? Has anyone else picked up this set yet, or any of the other QUO Holiday items.  Let me know in the comments below!