Category: Manicure

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Simple Geometric Nails Featuring Essie Watermelon 🍉

Do you remember what your first was? Nail polish I mean! Do you remember your first Essie, first China Glaze, & first OPI? What were the polishes that started the obsession? I was looking through my stash the other night, trying to find a colour to paint my nails, & picked up my bottle of Essie Watermelon which was the very first Essie I ever owned. I can’t ever remember the last time I put it on, so it seemed like a good day to pull it out. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • Essie Watermelon
  • Essie Strut Your Stuff
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls ‘X’ stencil (I used the inside part). 

I love how these turned out! I wanted a simplistic design to compliment this juicy pink, without overpowering it. I though the blue tones of Strut Your Stuff & Mint Candy Apple complimented it well. 

I really enjoy how Summery these ended up being. I decided to use the inside angles from my X stencils from Xroma Polish & Vinyls because they were a sharper angle than my other Chevron Vinyls. They worked really well to create these little blocks of colours. 

Do you remember what your very first nail polish was? I don’t remember what my very first polish was, though I can guarantee it was probably white. I do remember what the polish that was the beginning of my nail polish addiction was though! Claire’s Evil Queen.

Let my know your first in the comments below. 

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SUNDAY SWATCH POST: Essie In The Cab-ana

First off, Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums out there! 🌸 

Continuing my Swatch Sunday trend with one of my all time favourite blues! You might remember last Summer I had a bit of a love affair with Essie In The Cab-ana & used it frequently (if not, check out the end of this post for a refresher haha). But it occurred to me I had never swatches the polish on its own so I knew I needed to!

Originally from the 2013 Resort collection, In The Cab-ana is the prettiest vibrant blue cream than leans slightly turquoise. It also has a great formula that only requires 2 squishy coats for full opacity.

But most importantly it’s just so pretty! I mean, I love blue in general when it comes to nail polish, but In The Cab-ana is extra special. You can bet I’ll be wearing this polish a lot again this coming Spring/Summer.

And a few more manicures featuring In The Cab-ana:

What do you think of Essie In The Cab-ana? It is part of your nail polish stash? What polish can you not live without? Let me know in the comments below!

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Craving Spring with Wavy Pattern Nails

TGIF! I mean I’m on maternity leave so sometimes I forget what day it actually is. But it’s supposed to be semi-warm & sunny this weeekend & some what Spring-like so I am very excited for the weekend to come! So in honour of the sunny days to come, I did this wavy design using some Spring shades & wavy nail vinyls from Xroma Polish and Vinyls. 

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • China Glaze Ever Glaze Don’t Grape About It
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard To Get
  • ORLY Gumdrop
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Babe Blue 
  • Xroma Polish and Vinyls Skinny Waves Nail Vinyls
  • Dotting tool

I’m loving these vinyls from Xroma Polish and Nail Vinyls! They’re just so easy to use. This manicure only took me about 1/2 hour to do (after my initial polish had dried) including placing all my vinyls. & no issues with polish bleeding under the vinyls, which I hate so much. Even better, these wave vinyls were long enough I could cut them in half on some nails which meant I used less. 


This colour combination looks so pretty together, I love it. What is it about purple & mint that looks so stunning when paired? Definitely just feels like Spring-time to me. 💜 

What do you think of these wavy patterned nails? What colours are you wearing most lately? Let me know in the comments below. 

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Tribal Print Gradient Nails

I know I say this every time I do my nails, but these have to be one of my favourite gradients I’ve ever done. Seriously–just look! It turned out so pretty. I’d never claim to be a gradient expert, but damn if I don’t feel proud of how these turned out! & what does better with a gradient than a little stamping? I don’t think I’ve done any stamping since before the Lil Bubs was born, & I didn’t realize how much I missed it. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Lounge Lover
  • China Glaze Glow With The Flow
  • China Glaze Plur-ple
  • Essie Butler Please
  • Yves Saint Laurent Noir Brilliant
  • Born Pretty Store Peel Off Liquid Tape
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate (QA66)
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge

Why don’t I stamp more often, seriously? Well mostly because I only have the same few stamping plates. But hopefully I can change that soon because it just makes for sure an intricate manicure. I would never freehand this design (at least not without a lot of crankiness & frustration!) 

For my gradient, I started off with a basic sponged gradient & then went back over the gradient dry brushing my colours for a bit of a rustic look. It lead to an interesting blend that I really, really like. 

What do you think of this mani? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 💜

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Spring Drip Marble decals


Have I mentioned enough how much I’m loving my silicone mat? I’ve been having a blast creating fun decals with it. I can’t believe it took me so long to get on the silicone mat trend. That’s me–always behind on the times! But now that I’ve caught up to modern times, I’m having a blast playing around & can’t get enough.

This drip marble is from a few weeks ago. I had decided to pull out a few more Spring-y colours for another drip marble. These are kind of similar to the Earth Day drip marble I created colour wise. I don’t often reach for green shades, but I’m starting to find myself craving them more. They’re great shades for Spring!

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Color Club Almost Famous
  • Essie Strut Your Stuff
  • Essie First Timer
  • OPI Angel With A Lead Foot
  • Silicone Craft Mat

I wanted some fresh colours (& an excuse to wear use my new bottle of Color Club Almost Famous!) I had originally planned to do a yellow to blue gradient with these colours, but decided at the last minute to make these decals instead. & application definitely gets easier with practice.

So what do you think of this manicure & colour combination? I think it looks so fresh! The colours just meld together so well, I’m completely obsessed! 💛