Category: Icing

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Feeling 90s With Neon Spotted NailsĀ 

Too many rainy days have left me craving some neon nails, so I decided to grab some bright colours to cheer myself up. In the process I saw my bottle of Layla Bubbly in Black & thought it would look really neat over a neon-ish base colour. 

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Forumla Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • ORLY Scenic Route
  • Icing Breakfast at Tiffany’s 
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin 
  • Icing Pink A Boo
  • Layla Cosmetics Bubbly Effect in Black

I’ve owned this bottle of Layla Bubbly effect for a while (I scored it on sale at Lawton’s in the clearence like 3 years ago) but this was the first time I really got it to work for me the way I imagine it’s supposed to work. I did wait until the next morning to add the black, so maybe that made the difference? Either way I’m super excited about how it turned out! Like crackle nails, it just offers an easy way to create nail art without excessive work (or mess). 

& incase you were interested in seeing what my base looked like before I added the Bubbly topper, here was the base. I tried to attempted @laqvid‘s wet dry brush design but I’m definitely going to need to give it more practice. 

What do you think of this design? Have you ever tried the Layla Bubbly Effect polishes before? Let me know the comments below! 

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Mani Monday Mermaid Nails

Who doesn’t love a good mermaid manicure? 

When I made my What’s Up Nails order I knew I needed to stock up on some of their scale stencils so I could create mermaid nails. They just make me so happy! I just can’t stop playing with my vinyls. 

For this manicure, I used: 

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie All Access Pass 
  • Icing Breakfast At Tiffany’s
  • China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla
  • What’s Up Nails Scale Stencil

I really wanted an excuse to pull out my bottle of Sand Dolla Make You Holla. Sadly my bottle has seen better days, & I’ve been trying to bring it back to life with polish thinner, but it’s not going well. Anyone else have trouble saying goodbye to old polishes at the end of their life, or is just me? I find it especially hard with polishes that are discontinued because you know you can’t get go out & buy a new bottle easily. I mean, yeah there is EBay but I feel weird buying polish off of EBay. Guess I will just have to hope & pray I come across it at Winners or Marshall’s one day soon. 

What do you think of this mermaid mani? What polish do you keep even though it’s seen better days? Let me know in the comments below!

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St Patrick’s Day nails with #thenailartsquad

Happy St Patrick’s Day! šŸ€

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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Negative Space Chevron floralĀ 

I always have a few favourite things I always lean towards when it comes to doing my nails. Right now its blue nail polish, nail vinyls, chevrons, negative space & floral. I’ve been reaching for all of those quite frequently, so why not incorporate all of those things into one manicure?!

For this manicure, I used:

  • China Glaze I Sea the Point
  • Essie Go Ginza
  • Essie Peach Daiquiri
  • China Glaze Hang Ten Toes
  • China Glaze Feel the Breeze
  • Chevron Nail vinyls fromĀ My Nails Did Vinyls
  • Small rhinestones from Icing
  • Essie Gel Setter
  • Small nail art brush, & large size dotting tool for floral details.

 

Words cannot begin to describe how much I love how this mani turned out! I love how the floral looks over my negative space chevrons & how all the colours compliment each other. I’ve been having so much fun playing with all of my nail vinyls, & I can’t wait to collect more designs so I can try out all sorts of different looks!

What looks are you loving right now? Let me know in the comments below!

 

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Mani swap with @dsetterfield74!Ā 

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday night! I’m once again delayed on posting, but here is the mani swap I did with the ever so talented  Dianna (@dsetterfield74) on Instagram! 

For this swap, Dianna recreated my matte chevron moons I did back in the Fall, and I recreated her red and gold swirl nails. I had a hard time picking from her assortment of beautiful manicures, but I just loved the gold and red too much not to choose it!

  

I didn’t have the stamping plate that Dianna used, so I decided to recreate the swirls freehand. It could have ended as an epic nail polish fail, but thankfully it turned out super close to its inspiration! (Thank goodness! No one likes a nail fail.) 

For this mani, the polishes I used were:

  • Essie A-List
  • Icing NYE
  • Essie Shine of the Times
  • Essence Black Is Back
  • gold studs (from Born Pretty Store)
  • Small nail art brush (also from Born Pretty)
  • Essie Good to Go 

So what do you think of this mani swap? I’m having a lot of fun swapping with all these amazing nail artists!