Category: Manicure

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Glam Nails Challenge December — Jingle Bells

contains PR/gifted items

Hello lovelies & happy December! Yep… that’s right. It’s December! Which means the countdown to Christmas is officially on! & the abundance of Christmas designs can begin! As promised, I’m participating in GlamNailsChallenge for December, as I love a holiday themed nail art Challenge.

& the first prompt for the month: Jingle Bells.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Red It Twice (2021 Joy of Colour collection)
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Gift For Blue (2021 Joy of Colour collection)
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • Essie Muse Myself
  • China Glaze Ever Glaze Cashin’ Out
  • NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper 
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate (no longer available)
  • Small detail brush

How cute did these turn out?

I started over with a base of my two colours which are both shades from the new Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Joy of Colour collection for Holidays 2021, that were so kindly gifted to me from Sally Hansen. I really like the soft grey with sparkle of Gift for Blue against the more poppy brightness of Red It Twice. Next I stamped the bell image onto my nail using my Nailstuff stamper & Starrily Vantablack. I knew that it needed some kind of colour, so with a very tiny detail brush, I went in with my Essie Water-colours shade Muse Myself… which, over the sparkle, totally comes across as gold! I finished with some red & green accents, just to tie everything together, & topped everything with topcoat to seal the look in.

What do you think about this design? Would you wear these Jingle Bell nails? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below! & don’t forget to follow along below with the prompts on Instagram with GlamNailsChallengeDec.

Have a lovely Wednesday!

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Vampy Half Moons

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! It’s a snowy Wednesday here in Halifax, which is the first snow of the season for us. Not a lot of snow, granted, but just enough to get those toasty holiday vibes swirling. & my kids were so excited for it this morning. The walk to school was definitely interesting, haha.

Today I’m sharing a design style I haven’t in a while: half moons. These have been a go to classic for me since I first fell in love with nail art, but sometimes with all the other awesome nail art designs I love to do, I forget about this classic look. I was wearing a beautiful fun red last week, & decided I wanted to do some kind of half moon look with it, so I grabbed another shade from the same collection (Sally Hansen 2018 Decadence collection) & paired them in a fun vampy design.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Good Cheer-y
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Garnish Attention
  • Paper hole reinforcements

As I mentioned, this is a favourite easy nail art look of mine. & a great beginner nail art technique! I feel like if you’re new to nail art, this is the perfect way to get fancy nails, without too much hassle. The hardest thing is always just waiting to make sure your base shade is dry enough (which I’m super guilty of being impatient, so definitely make sure you wait!)

This colour combination is beautiful, & I like that it’s not too Christmas-y, although you could definitely swap one of the shades out for a glittery gold, & bam! Christmas party ready.

What do you think about these vampy half moons? Are you a fan of the half moon mani design? Let me know down in the comments below which colour combination you would pair together for a fun moon mani!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — SpaRitual Open Minded

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Can you believe we’re almost done with November? This has definitely been a blink & it’s over kind of year — but I’m definitely excited to get my Christmas nail art on!

Today’s Swatch Sunday pick a brand new (to me) brand: SpaRitual Open Minded. I was at Marshall’s the other day & checking out the clearance section, as always, when I saw this beautiful blurple looking shade. I knew I needed it in my life, especially as I didn’t own any SpaRitual shades in my stash, so I added into my cart! I scored this polish for $4 on clearance, regular Marshall’s price was $4.99.

2 coats, no top coat.

According to the SpaRitual website: “Our Nourishing Vegan Nail Colors are vegan, cruelty-free and clean. Our colors are formulated without 13 harmful chemicals and are 1-step, no need for base coat or top coat.” I’ve never tried their polishes before, so I was excited to see how this shade would hold up.

For my swatches I needed two coats for full opacity. The first coat was definitely patchy & streaky — the formula itself is almost crelly like, leaning more towards the cream side. The second coat gave the application you see down below — perfect opaque coverage, no streakiness.

The colour itself is really vibrant & striking. The SpaRitual site describes it as a cobalt blue, but I feel like it does lean a little purple which is why I’d call it almost blurple. Over all, I’m quite impressed with this shade, & my first experiences with SpaRitual in general. I’ve also been wearing this shade since Thursday, & it’s still holding up with minimal tip wear, even after two very busy days at work.

I’m interested to see how easily removal will go with this shade. Blues can sometimes be tricky, so hopefully we’ll have no issues!

What do you think about this beautiful SpaRitual shade? Do you have any experience with this brand?

I will definitely be searching out more of these shades whenever I see them at my local Winners/Marshalls. The price can’t be beat, the lasting quality has been awesome, & I would love to try out more colours in their range!

Have a lovely Sunday!

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Smooshy Marble Nails (inspired by @grapefizznails)

Hello lovelies & Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a lovely week so far. Here on the East Coast you can feel that Winter is quickly approaching — it was downright cold this morning. & I am not a girl who enjoys the cold! Especially because it absolutely wreaks havoc on my nails if I get busy, & forget to keep up with my nail care routine!

But enough about the cold, let’s concentrate on the good stuff: this icy smoosh design inspired by @grapefizznails! Anne is a fellow Canadian nail guru who creates the most stunning smoosh nails I’ve ever seen! Literally, it’s like witchcraft I swear. As soon as I saw her latest smoosh design I knew I needed to attempt a recreation ASAP.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essie Under The Twilight
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Tutu Ballet
  • Sally Hansen MG Get Mod
  • Essie Getting Groovy
  • Sinful Colors Twilight Twinkles
  • NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper

How absolutely gorgeous did this turn out? Obviously nothing compared to the original, but I think I channeled my inspiration very well. It gives me a nice Fall Icy feel, which works well with these chilly November days. It was also pretty easy to create as well. Anne has some pretty awesome tutorials on her instagram on how she creates her smoosh marbles, as well as drip marbles & other nail art! So definitely check them out, especially if you want to recreate this look as well.

What do you think about this smooshy marble design? Do you think my recreation lived up to its inspiration? Would you wear this look on your nails as well? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

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Gold & Burgundy Colour Block

Hello lovelies & happy Monday! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

Myself — I worked all weekend, so it was very busy. The holiday season is full effect, especially in retail, so I’ve really been feeling somewhat pre-Christmas vibes. & I’m showing it off on my nails! Today’s look was really me just feeling some holiday colours. I wanted to pull out some of my more holiday-esque shades, but without going to fall into Christmas land. This feels like a good balance between Fall & the holidays.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • China Glaze Screen Vixen
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Pat On The Black
  • Finger Paints Piece De Resistance

Who doesn’t love red/burgundy & gold paired together? I think it’s such a beautiful combination. I also haven’t worn one of these colour block looks in a long time, & it’s such an easy look to pair together. &, like so many nail art designs that I love, an unlimited amount of colour combinations. You know that I’ll be doing a full Christmas colour block once we get into December (or at least slightly closer to December).

What do you think of this colour block design? Leet me down in the comments below, & let me know what colours you would like to see me do next!