SWATCH SUNDAY — Boho Green Make Up Moonlight

Good morning & Happy Sunday loves! After a chaotic week I’m finally feeling a little refreshed & excited to start off a brand new week! & what is more excited to start off the week, than with Swatch Sunday & a pretty purple from the depths of my stash.

Today’s polish is one that I found on clearance at my favourite local Health Food Store for only $4! This beautiful crelly purple is called Moonlight & is from the brand Boho Green Make Up, which is based out of France. This brand is organic, natural & vegan–so it’s nail polish that you can feel awesome about wearing. You definitely get that feeling from the look of the bottle: it’s simple & uncomplicated with a wooden cap.

For my swatches, I used base coat (as I was going to be wearing the polish as the base next manicure) then two coats of colour & finished it off with top coat. Because of the crelly formula, you definitely need two thicker coats or three thinner coats for full opacity.

The smell while applying this polish was interesting — I suppose it is part of it being a “natural” brand, but it almost had a grape-like smell to it. I don’t know if that was psychosomatic from seeing the purple colour or actual but it definitely was more pleasant than your typical nail polish (not that I make a habit of going around sniffing every bottle of nail polish I put on my nails.)

Overall, I was quite impressed my experiences with this polish & brand. I own two shades–this one (Moonlight) & a Blue (Pacific Ocean) & both are really lovely polishes with fairly decent lasting power. I love the fact that they’re all natural & organic because it makes you feel good about wearing it on your nails.

Have you ever tried the polishes from Boho Green Make Up? What did you think? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!

Holo Gradient & Hearts

Happy Thursday lovelies! & happy first day of February. Seriously, how is the first month of 2018 already over?! That’s kind of amazing in a way. It also means we’re 2 weeks away from Valentine’s Day, so it’s time to start getting my love-themed manicures started.

When it comes  to Valentine’s Day, I feel like hearts are kind of a necessity. For this design, I decided to skip the pink (there will be lots of pink to come, don’t worry) & used silver, purple & blue holo shades instead. You still get that Valentine’s Day feeling without going too overboard.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Mercury Twilight
  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Ultra Violet
  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Ocean Rush
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • KaylaRayLoves Nail Vinyls Tumbling Hearts Vinyls
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge

I really, really love how these turned out. The gradient + the hearts just looks so good together! You could definitely go with more pink shades if you wanted these nails to be extra girlie (which I could see myself doing for actual Valentine’s Day). Also I was really impressed with how well these holo polishes blended together to create a gradient! I feel like I haven’t been doing enough gradients lately, & that seriously needs to change. Yeah, they can be kind of messy, but that’s why they invented liquid latex.

Below, I have a couple of shots of the gradient before I added the hearts. I really need to do more holo gradients because the end result is just so pretty!

what do you think of this manicure? Would you wear it for Valentine’s Day? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Happy National Sunglasses Day with #thenailartsquad 🕶

Good Morning! Today I’m sharing some fun sunglasses themed nails I did after teaming up with my fellow girls in #thenailartsquad in honour of National Sunglasses Day. 😎 Quick fact about me: I LOVE Sunglasses. In fact I usually have at least 3 pairs in my purse at any time. My favourite are those big bug eye classes (think Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen circa 2004) but coming in second? My pink sunglasses! & those are what I used as my inspiration for my sunglasses mani!

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: L’Oréal All in One
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Essie In the Cab-ana 
  • Sally Hansen Hard to Get
  • Maybelline Audacious Asphalt 
  • OPI Two Timing the Zones
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art Pen in Fine Black
  • KaylaRayLoves Zig Zag Nail Stencil 
  • Small Nail Art Brush from Bundle Monster

I actually have 3 pairs of pink sunglasses I wear on the regular–my generic pink sunnies, my Hello Kitty pink sunnies & my Starkid pink sunnies. This particular design makes me think of the beach–the grey & white zig zags on my accent nail make me think of a beach towel which I love. I haven’t yet had the chance to go to the beach, but little Bubs & I are going on vacation next week to my parents so maybe I’ll get a little beach time! & of course I will have my pink sunglasses handy for the occasion. 

Are you celebrating National Sunglasses Day? Do you have a favourite pair of Sunglasses you can’t live without (or would inspire your own mani)? Let me know in the comments below! 

& don’t forget to get out the other amazing manis by my fellow girls by checking out the hashtag #thenailartsquad. 🕶 

Blue on Blue Heart Accent Nails 💙

What’s your favourite colour to wear on your nails? Mine is definitely blue. For some reason, whenever I’m reaching for polish to paint my nails I’m always immediately drawn to blue. It calls to me. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • OPI Give Me Space
  • OPI Gelato On My Mind
  • KaylaRayLoves vinyls Tumbling Heart Vinyls

Once again played around with some of my vinyls won from @kaylarayloves on Instagram. These tumbling heart vinyls are lovely, & so easy to use! Definitely check out her shop–she has a great unique selection of vinyls & decals to choose from! 

Also loving the combination of Give Me Space & Gelato on My Mind. 💙💙💙 still having fun shopping my own stash. They may not be brand new polishes, but they’re lovely none the less. 

What’s your favourite vinyl pattern? I particularly love quatrefoil designs & hearts. Mermaid nails are especially fun in the Summer too. They’re just so pretty & easy to do! 

What do you think of this mani? What polish colour are you drawn to most often? Let me know in the comments below!