Matte Neon Moon Manicure 🌙

Happy Friday lovelies! Today I’m blasting you with a little neon to cheer up the Winter blues. It’s currently -11 degrees here in Halifax, so I need anything I can get that feels even a little Spring-like. Also this colour combination might actually be perfect. 💜

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: Butter London
  • Quo by ORLY Culture Classic
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • White Paper White Reinforcement stickers.

I’m so one of those people who can only stand Winter until Christmas is over, & then I want Spring already. If I didn’t love Halifax so much, I would move somewhere where it was warm all year & I could drive to the snow. Instead, I guess neon nails to cheer myself is in order! (& all the hot drinks I can handle to keep myself from freezing)

I guess I should probably start planning my Valentine’s Day designs soon! I missed out on a lot of Valentine’s designs last year, you know with having a baby haha, so I want to make up with it this year!

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

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!

Valentine’s Day Manicure Inspiration  

 The big day is quickly approaching so I though I would share a few of the manicures I’ve done the last couple weeks just in case you were on the search for some last minute nail art inspiration. 

 Heart accent nails featuring OPI DS Extravagance. 
 
Romantic Vintage Roses. 

 
Matte Heart doodles featuring Sally Hansen I 💗 Nail Art pens. 

 
Itty bitty gradient dotticure featuring Sally Hansen I 💗 Nail Art Pens.   

Valentine’s Day dotticure. 
 
So what are you planning on wearing on your nails for Valentine’s Day? The hubby and I are planning on going to see Deadpool so I’m going to attempt some Deadpool nails in honour of the occasion! If they actually turn out, I promise to post them!

Monthly mani favourites! 

  

Manicures from top left:

  1. Aztec Inspired Chevron Moons
  2. Matte Chevron Moons
  3. Blingy Accent Nails
  4. Another Go at Abstract Accent Nails
  5. Matte Swirl Accent Nails
  6. Matte Mermaid Nails

Can you believe it? The end of the month is already upon us! Crazy. It definitely was not easy picking just  6 manicures for my monthly mani favourites… January saw some pretty fun nail art! (And a whole lot of Matte top coat 😍)

 I’m just in love with all the manicures I’ve done so far this year, and I can’t wait to get into some Valentines Day manicures. 

Which of the above manicures was your favourite? Let me know in the comments below! 

Simple Sunday Dotticure. 

The other day I was at my local Winners and discovered a new (to me) polish brand: Orchid! I’ve never heard of this brand before, but as they had a 7 pack on sale for $5 I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try it out. 

  
The colours I used for this manicure were: 

  • Orchid Nail Polish Teal Me a Secret 
  • Orchid Nail Polish Steel Guitar
  • Butter London Matte top coat. 

This mani was in part inspired by a recent manicure by @polishandbeyond who posted a matte teal mani that I was just in love with. What is it about matte nails that just scream perfection? 

Have a fantastic Sunday loves! ☕️