Fall Argyle Sweater Nails 🍁🍂

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but here in Halifax Fall weather has been slowly creeping into the air. & when I think of Fall, I think of over the knee Argyle socks. They’re pretty much my fashion staple when the days get cooler, so I thought I would translate one of my favourite thing about Fall fashion to my nails using a few the OPI Iceland shades.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Quick Dry Top Coat
  • OPI Krona-logical Order
  • OPI Icelanded a Bottle of OPI
  • OPI Less Is Norse 
  • OPI Reykjavik Has All The Hot Spots
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls Diamond Stencils (turned horizontal)
  • Striping Brush (from Bundle Monster)
  • Small Dotting Tool (also Bundle Monster)

These nails make me so beyond ready for Fall & all the things that come along with the Fall season. Colourful leaves, plaid, & pumpkin spice EVERYTHING. In fact, they’re giving me the serious urge to pull out my favourite pair of over the knee argyle socks just for the occasion! 

What is your favourite Fall fashion accessory? Would you ever recreate it on your nails? Let me know (& what you think of this design!) in the comments! 

All of these lovely polishes were all gifted to me by OPI as part of the #PreenMeVIP program. 

Aurora Borealis Inspired Dry Brush Featuring OPI Iceland Collection 🌌

Good morning & Happy Friday Eve! Anyone else super excited for the weekend to almost be here? 

Today I’ve got some pretty nail art to share with you featuring some of the OPI Fall/Winter 2017 Iceland Collection. The first design I saw when I looked at these polishes was dry brush! I wanted to create something that would bring to mind the beauty of the Aurora Borealis.

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Base Coat
  • Top Coat: OPI Top Coat
  • OPI Less Is Norse
  • OPI Aurora Berry-alis 
  • OPI One Heckla Of A Color!
  • OPI Reykjavik Has All The Hot Spots
  • OPI Check Out The Old Geysirs

A couple tricks to a good dry brush:

  •  have to have a light hand & only apply small spots of colour. I find it’s good idea to only choose a few shades for your dry brush. I tend to stick to about 4 polishes to avoid my dry brush ending up muddied. 
  •  make sure you don’t have too much polish on the polish brush. I like to keep a piece of paper towel (or regular paper would work too) beside me to brush your polish on first to steal any excess. This also keeps you from gunking up the neck of your bottle. 
  • Use a clear polish or non-quick dry top coat to brush over your dry brush a few times to blend the edge of the colours together. (I do this with gradients & sponge manicures too!) 

What do you think of these Aurora Borealis inspired dry brush nails? It’s been a while since I played around with dry brush, but as always I love the look. Also I think I was (semi) successful channeling my inspiration! I’m having a lot of fun playing around with these OPI polishes, so stay tuned for lots more nail art to come! 

All of these lovely polishes were all gifted to me by OPI as part of the #PreenMeVIP program. 

Mani Swap with @hjs_nails!


Good morning lovelies! Hope you’re enjoying your week so far, & what’s left of August. Isn’t it crazy how quickly the month is speeding by? Don’t get me wrong, I’m beyond excited for Fall but it is crazy to think how quickly this Summer has speed by. 

I thought I would break up the Fall colours I’ve been obsessing over, & joint in a fun (& bright & colourful) mani swap with Hannah of @hjs_nails! For this swap I picked her super neat abstract design, & she recreated my recent watercolour lines design (& lets be honest, she did it 100x better! I’m so jealous!) 

For this design, I used: 

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Peony
  • Essie In The Cab-ana 
  • Essie Splash of Grenedine
  • Essence Back to Black
  • Small Bundle Monster dotting tool 

I thought this was such a neat design when I originally away Hannah’s so when she was looking for someone to swap with I knew already what design I was going to pick! Plus it’s such a great pop of colour which I kind of just needed in my life. You can never go wrong with a good abstract nail & the right pop of colour. 

What do you think of our swap? Let me know in the comments below! & don’t forget to head over to Hannah’s instagram & give her a follow if you’re not following her already. 💜

Patterned Watercolour Nails Inspired by @thesammersaurus

So I’ve been feeling a little stuck, inspiration wise, & when I feel lost for ideas I love browsing through the feeds of my favourite nail artists to see what catches my eye. I was scrolling through @thesammersaurus‘s instagram feed & came across a gorgeous geometric design from 3ish years ago. I’ve been a massive fan of Sammy’s for a long time–she was one of the first nail art blogs I discovered–& I love how she comes up with awesome, creative designs & rocks those shorter nails!  It gives hope to those out there who don’t have crazy long nails. So when I discovered this gorgeous design I loved, I popped over to her blog & found all the details of her design to make painting my recreation way easier! 

For the manicure, the products used were:

  • Base Coat: Cutex Brittle Nail Fix
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Go Ginza 
  • Essie Play Date
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Royal Hue
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard To Get
  • OPI My Favourite Ornament 
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls X Stencil (I cut off the bottom) 
  • The Base Coat Triangle Pattern Stencil
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge 

Thanks to my vast collection of vinyls, I was able to cheat & skip having to place striping tape/skinny vinyls individually for a relatively easy to do manicure! (Thank god for that!) I also used a make up sponge instead of the Saran Wrap technique for my colour blending on the accent nails. But even though I didn’t follow her exactly, I feel like this recreation turned out Pretty on point. Just please ignore the shrinkage on my middle finger nail. 😂


Do you have a favourite nail art you love to turn to for nail art inspiration? Where is your favourite place to get nail art inspiration from? Let me know in the comments below! 💜

Graphic Lines Over Watercolour 

I teased these geometric freehand nails this weekend, which you may have seen on Instagram, so I’m excited to finally share the whole look! I just needed to do some really poppy Summer nails to counter act the fact I’m craving Fall colours so bad. I also feel like I haven’t been practicing my freehand lines enough, so I wanted to play around with my black striper. This design isn’t perfect but I do quite enjoy how they turned out. 

The polishes used for this design are:

  • Base Coat: Cutex Brittle Nail Fix
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard to Get
  • Color Club Evolution 
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Wet My Thistle
  • ACO by Ardene Road to No Where 
  • Essie Cute As A Button
  • China Glaze Sun Upon my Skin
  • Art Club Nail Art Striper in Black
  • Latex Free Make Up sponge 

Bright & colourful & fun was what I was going through with these nails & I feel like I was pretty successful. Of all my nails, my thumb was my absolutely favourite (& I feel like it turned out the best of all 10 nails). I think it had something to do with my striper polish. The more I use it though, the more I’m realizing I need to try out aryclic paint. I know I keep saying that, but the more I use my stripers, the more frustrated I get with how easily they thicken up. So hopefully the next time I show off a freehand line design, I’ll be sharing my expirences with acrylic paint! 


What do you think of this design? Have you ever used acrylic paint for nail designs? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!