Category: L’Oreal

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Bestie Twin Baby Boy Birthday Nails with @hjs_nails

Happy Tuesday lovelies! Today I have a very special nail collab to share with you. One of the most amazing things about the nail community is the way it brings people together. Last August I did a mani swap with Hannah from @hjs_nails & we bonded over the fact we both had baby boys in February. Since our beautiful little guys share a birthday month we decided to team up & do some Bestie Twin Baby Boy Birthday Nails in their honour.

How handsome do our little guys look hanging out beside their special birthday manicures! For our designs, Hannah & I created a fun celebratory design featuring a gradient dotticure (to represent confetti), some balloons & the number one. Hannah had painted her nail design first, so I followed her polish picks to match the best I could.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • ORLY Decades of Dysfunction
  • Essie Strut Your Stuff
  • Essie Too Too Hot
  • L’Oreal Feeling Kilty
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Small detail brush from Bundle Monster
  • Small dotting tool from Bundle Monster

How cute did this design turn out?! The colour combination reminds me of a race car, which is perfection when celebrating baby boys. My little guys birthday isn’t until Thursday, but it still works because on this day last year I was on day 2 of my 54 hour labour! It’s kind of crazy to believe that I am almost the Mom of a one year old. This year has certainly been a whirl wind, & it definitely hasn’t been easy to balance Mom-life with non-Mom life (like blogging & doing my nails) but I wouldn’t trade it. It’s been a very interesting adventure.

My nails & my 9 pound baby boy.

Hope you liked this design! & don’t forget to pop over to Hannah’s instagram (@hjs_nails) & give her mani some love too!

Have a happy Tuesday! 🎈🎉🎁

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SWATCH SUNDAY — 6 Nail Polishes I’m Loving for Valentine’s Day!

Happy Sunday lovelies.

Since we’re into the first week of the month of love, I thought it would be fun to dedicate Swatch Sunday to some perfect polishes for Valentine’s Day. I own a lot of pink & red shades so I had fun going through my stash to find 6 polishes that I will definitely be loving this month in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day (okay & pretty much always because pink & red nail polish always have my heart). I actually did a post like this a few years ago, so I thought it would be fun to do another one!

So here are my 6 polish picks for Valentine’s Day 2018.

 

CHINA GLAZE — SEDUCE ME

Firtst up is China Glaze Seduce Me, a deep berry red that applies in 2 coats, although if you’re careful you might be able to get away with one careful coat. My bottle is pretty old, so I went with two. I chose this colour for Valentine’s Day because I feel like it’s a really grown up colour: it has pinkish undertones but it’s not bubblegum pink & it’s also not that classic candy apple red shade either. It’s a little bit different, & I honestly feel like this shade is one that will look great on everyone! It also pairs really well with other pink & reds for nail art (like some zig zag chevrons perhaps?)

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L’OREAL VERNIS A L’HUILE — JARDIN DES ROSES

L’Oreal Jardin Des Roses is my first pink choice & it’s a pink I’ve really been loving lately. This is two coats for full coverage of this soft romantic pink & it applies really well. This pink is great because of how soft the colour is–you won’t look like you’re Barbie when you wear it.

 

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN BEAUTY — ROUGE LOUBOUTIN

If you’re looking for a classic red to wear on Valentine’s Day, I feel like you don’t need to look any further than Christian Louboutin Beauty Rouge Louboutin! I received this beautiful red nail polish from a family friend the night before my wedding, & because it is so special to me I tend to save it for special occasions. I used two coats for coverage — it’s pretty good after one, but I wanted to make sure there was no hint of visible nail line. This is definitely the perfect classic red for a Valentine’s Day date, & if your significant other forgets about Valentine’s Day, you can always stab them with the bottle!

 

ACO BY ARDENE — BOUDOIR

Valentine’s Day is a special occasion, & sometimes I want a little glitter & Ardene Boudoir is a fun glitter choice. It a clear base stuffed full of berry glitters. I used 3 coats for my swatches (thank god for peel off base coat) but normally I would either apply it over top a complimentary shade or sponge the glitter onto my nail. You can build close to opacity though, although I couldn’t imagine the dry time. I just love the colour of the glitter in this polish–sometimes you just need to sparkle a little (or a lot)!

 

OPI — FIRE ESCAPE RENDEZVOUS

Next up we have OPI Fire Escape Rendezvous. This is 2 coats of this metallic ruby red polish with glitters–both shard glitter & hex glitter. The glitters are interesting, but I really dig them.  They give this polish an interesting texture which makes it unique, although I definitely prefer it top coated (Seche Vive). If you’re looking for something a little more than just red, this would be a great choice.

SINFUL COLORS — BLOOM BLAST FLOWER POWER

Last, but definitely not least, is Sinful Colors Bloom Blast in Flower Power. This milky pink shade is stuffed full of large & tiny matte pink metallic & white glitters. I belive it’s supposed to be worn on it’s own but I think it looks best over top other pink polishes. This is one coat over OPI Two Timing the Zones. How cute does this look? I know not everyone is a nail art person, so a topper like this is a great way of zazzing up your nails without having to worry about freehanding anything! It’s almost a dotticure without any of the work!

 

So those are the six polishes I’m loving for Valentine’s Day this year? What shades/polishes are your Valentine’s Day favourites? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

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Chevron & Deer Stamped Design

Hello lovelies! Today I have a really fun design to share with you. Back in early December, I made an order through Born Pretty Store & just recently received my goodies which included 6 new stamping plates! Obviously, I couldn’t wait to play with my new plates, because I’ve been using the same ones I bought in 2014 for ages. Today’s design was semi inspired by all the fun stag head designs that have been popping up on my Instagram feed! Finally I can create my own cute deer designs!

For this design, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: Butter London
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Trouble Maker
  • Quo by Orly Breathable Barely There
  • ACO by Ardene Daydreamer
  • L’Oreal Feeling Kilty
  • Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Black Heart
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Stamper
  • Born Pretty Store Image Plate BP-L006 (item #17924)
  • Born Pretty Store Image Plate BP-L03 (item #23268)
  • Small dotting tool
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier.

Seriously, just how cute is this manicure?! I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t order these in time to get them for Christmas, so I could do cute reindeer nails, but I’m very excited for all the upcoming designs I’ll be able to do. I’m also very happy to have a brand new jelly stamper because mine as certainly seen better days & will need to be retired very soon. Don’t get me wrong, I still love doing freehand/nail vinyl designs, but there is something a little more convenient about stamping–you don’t have to spend an hour trying to paint a design, or worry about having to wait for you base to dry to apply nail vinyls (even with quick dry top coat). It’s taken me a while to finally get the hang of stamping, & while I’m not a pro by any means, I definitely feel like I’m so much better than I used to be!

What do you think of this design? Are you a fan of stamping? Let me know all your thoughts (or tips & tricks!) in the comments below.

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COMPARISON POST — Matte Top Coat

Hello lovelies! Today I’m sharing a fun post with you that was inspired by @mugglenails on Instagram! Meghan & I were having a conversation about matte top coats & I thought it might be fun to do a comparison of all the matte top coats I own. Truthfully, I used to own way more, but apparently I got rid of some when we moved so I’m going to (potentially) call this part one.

The matte top coats we will be testing today are from Butter London, Personnelle Cosmetics, Sally Hansen & L’Oréal.

To start, I painted all my nails a base colour. For this comparison, I wanted to go with something dark, so I picked this nameless blackened blue from Hard Candy that I picked up at Walmart in the clearance for 37 cents.

Next, I applied just one coat of each matte top coat to the nail & let dry. From left to right is Butter London, Personnelle Cosmetics, Sally Hansen & L’Oréal on the pinky. As far as dry time, both Butter London & L’Oréal dried fastest, the Personnelle Cosmetics was next & Sally Hansen was the last to dry.

As you can see above, L’Oréal & Butter London dried almost identically with the L’Oréal looking a little more matte to me, & while the Personnelle Cosmetics dried fairly matte it had weird streaking which would require a second coat to hide. As for Sally Hansen… it was the least matte of the 4. It wasn’t glossy but it certainly still had a sheen to it which is especially evident when paired next to the other 3 top coats.

Looking at these 4 top coats, I would say it’s pretty close between Butter London & L’Oréal & if we’re figuring cost into the equation then I would call L’Oréal the winner. Personally I love both Butter London & L’Oréal & tend to reach for them equally. The Personnelle Cosmetics top coat was a clearance score while on vacation (I grabbed it for a $1) & while its not the best, I can see myself using it if I didn’t have my other favourites. As for the Sally Hansen matte… I love Sally Hansen, I really do. It’s one of my favourite brands. But I’m sorry Sally Hansen, I hate this matte top coat. It’s slow to dry, & it’s just not matte enough. There are just much better (affordable) matte top coats you can use.

Did you favourite make this list? Do you have a favourite matte top coat not on this list that you’d like to see a comparison of? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below & I’ll see what I can do about putting together a part two!

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Multicoloured Chevron Accent Nails

Good Morning! We’re half way through the week & in Halifax it’s actually snowing. I seriously thought we would never see actual Winter, so it’s pretty exciting! Although I’m sure it will lose its novelty in about a day & a half.

Today I’m sharing a chevron accent nail design with you. I’ve really been into darker shades right now (& grey, always) so I decided to combine a whole lot of shades together. & I even made you another tutorial to show you the technique I used.

Music: bensound.com

For this design, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Pat on the Black
  • Essie Merino Cool
  • Color Club Silver Lake
  • OPI Aurora Berry-alis
  • L’Oréal Feeling Kilty
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Chevron Vinyls
  • Small detail brush (from Born Pretty Store)

You can see in the video above, I was originally going to use Essie Merino Cool (such a good grey) as my main colour, but switched it to Sally Hansen CSM Pat on the Black because it just went better with the accent nails. Also next time I want to try filling in each chevron with a different colour for even more coloured stripes.

This is such a great design for a beginner because it looks complicated, but it’s really not. The hardest part honestly is just placing your vinyls (as you can see from the above video!) You could also use straight vinyls to make your stripes, but that would involve extra wait time for drying. Your stripes don’t have to be perfect because you’re covering them up anyways, so freehanding them usually is just easiest!

What do you think of this design? Would you try it out? Let me know your thoughts below! & if you do try it out, don’t forget to tag me on social media & use the tag #lookcoffeeandnailpolish! 💜 Happy Wednesday everyone!