Glam Nails Challenge December— Cookies

Hello lovelies & happy Monday!

I’ve got 3 more (long) days of work & then I’m excited for 4 whole days of Christmas vacation. & my plan for this week is to (hopefully) post a Christmas design every single day leading up to Christmas Day! 🎄

& today we’re starting off with the next prompt for GlamNailsChallengeDecember: Cookies! & I decided to go with some Gingerbread inspired nail art.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essence Intergalactic Adventure
  • Starrily Eclipse
  • OPI How Great Is Your Dane?
  • Quo by Orly Breathable Bare Necessities
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

I’m super impressed with how these turned out –they came together exactly like how I pictured in my head. Right down to my lack of decorating skills on my cookies (you should see my real life cookies! Haha)

Originally I had thought about doing everything over a holographic pink base, but when I saw this shifty base sitting in my stash. I just had such an urge to use it! I added some holo over top to give off a little extra sparkle. The cookies were completely freehanded using my NailStuff 7mm brush, which made things easy & I’m really happy with how they turned out. I even managed to freehand not one, but two stars on my nails–for the first time ever–so even though my “decorating” looks as bad as my real life decorating, my actual cookies made me feel pretty proud.

What do you think about this design for GlamNailsChallenge? Would you ever attempt a design like this? How are your cookie decorating skills?

Let me know down in the comments below.

SWATCH SUNDAY — Color Club Matte About You

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Who else is excited for another Swatch Sunday post?

I’ve been digging through my stash lately for the most perfect holiday-worthy polish. I bought a few fun Color Club polishes last year at Winners, after Christmas, but haven’t really had a chance to wear them. I decided to pull one of those shades — Color Club Matte About You — & it might be the perfect jewel toned teal for the holidays. I’m

2 coats, no top coat.

The formula on this shade is pretty thick, but still applied fairly easily. There is a really nice shimmer, the matte finish is very nice. It also dried down fairly quickly — not too quick that it was impossible to apply the polish evenly, but quick enough you don’t have to wait around forever for it to dry.

Seriously, how pretty is this polish!?

You can see from the macro shot how lovely the metallic finish is. Couldn’t you just imagine a flakie topper over this shade? It would be so gorgeous! I also think it would be absolutely fabulous as a base for some sweater/snowflake stamping.

What do you think about the beauty of this polish? I did find a listing for it on NailPolishCanada.com, so it doesn’t seem like an impossible to find shade.

Let me know your thoughts down below on your opinions on this polish, & what polishes you look forward to wearing for the holidays? I’m always looking to add more to my Christmas list for Santa!

Purple & Gold Freehand Swirls

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday!

Hope everyone is having a very lovely week so far! We’ve actually been having a beautiful weather here in Halifax — very un-November like weather! It’s been absolutely beautiful… which has kind of made being inspired for nail art a little difficult. So I decided for my latest mani to go with a look I used to do all the time — this freehand dainty swirl look.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • OPI Ink
  • Essie Getting Groovy
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

Back in circa 2014-2015, I used to love freehanding these swirly looks, so I decided since I wasn’t feeling all that inspired, it was a great look to go with.

I really love the look of the gold over the shifty purple base of OPI Ink. I feel like this look is very regal — it also gives me slight wrapping paper vibes, but I’m not mad about it. I think it looks very beautiful. It was definitely a good nail art choice in this in between time when it doesn’t quite feel like Fall, but is too early (in my eyes, anyways) for Christmas.

What do you think about this nail art look? What designs are you wearing right now? Have you started thinking about Christmas nail art? Let me know in the comments below!

Purple Metallic French Tips

Hello lovelies & happy Monday… it’s been a while! Sorry for my bit of an absence—this last couple weeks have been a little crazy, & I was trying to accomplish too many things at once, & my head ended up not in a great place. So I decided to pause doing the challenge for this month, & take a little breather.

I did miss posting my nails though.

I did these easy metallic French tips last week, when I needed an easy to do look. I used to love French manicures circa 2002 — inspired by Kaley Cuoco on 10 Rules… who always rocked a classic French manicure on the show. The classic French still remains too boring for me now (sorry) but I have been loving the updated versions I’ve been seeing on Instagram, so I wanted to try them myself! Of course, we had to give it an updated Fall feel.

& easiest part was no tools needed.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essence Arabian Nights
  • Zoya Devin

Oh man, long nails look so good with these kinds of designs. This was pre-me breaking a few nails last week & needing to trim my claws back. I really adore how this looks so I’ll definitely be doing it again in a variety of colours when I need an easy go to nail art look — a nice change from my usual dotticure. & again, this look was so so easy to do, with no tools needed. I just carefully used the brush from Zoya Devin & ran it along the tip of my nail ever so carefully.

Of course, if you were feeling uneasy about trying to freehand this look, you could definitely use French tip guides, or my favourite: paper hole reinforcers.

What do you think about this nail art look? What are your feelings on this new version of the French manicure? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & which colour scheme you would love to see next!

Mermaid Gradient Nails

Good morning lovelies & happy Thursday!

How is it almost the weekend again? I’m not complaining, it’s just crazy how this weekend is speeding by. & it’s Victoria Day weekend here in Canada, which has always felt like the kick off to Summer to me! Of course it’s going to be a rainy mess all weekend here in Halifax, but you can’t win them all.

Today I’m sharing some very fun, very Summer-y nails. I’ve been saying forever that I needed to order some new mermaid nail vinyls, so when I placed my Mother’s Day order at Beyond The Nail, I made sure to include some mermaid nail guides in there!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter + Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Shiny Top Coat
  • Beyond the Nail Blazing Blush
  • Beyond the Nail Honeymoon
  • Beyond the Nail Auburgine
  • Beyond the Nail Mermaid Scale Nail Guides
  • Latex free make up sponge (I buy mine from Dollarama)

Okay, so I know I call pretty much every manicure I do my favourite, but seriously just look at this design. I’m obsessed!

I decided to go all out with a gradient (another look I haven’t done in a while) for my scale base, then added my Aubergine over top. & I am so freaking in love with how these three polishes look together. Seriously— I wore this design for three whole days, before I snapped my middle finger nail clean off. Plus the combo totally matches my current hair colour combo.

I can’t even begin to explain my love for this look. I also really like the mermaid scale guides because they were super easy to use, & they’re quite large so I managed to split them so I could use one guide per 2 nails. That makes me so happy!

What do you think about these bright & colourful mermaid nails? Does this design scream Summer to you? Have you done mermaid nails in a while? Let me know down in the comments below!