Desert Sunset inspired nails

Coachella is finishing up this weekend, which means lots of festival inspired nails have been popping up in my feed! I’ve never been to Coachella, but I DO know it takes place in the desert so I thought these desert sunset gradient nails would be perfect to channel my inner festival goer (instead of what I’m actually spending today doing which is cleaning my bedroom & putting away way too much clothing while simultaneously trying to convince the baby to nap.)


For this design, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • Color Club Almost Famous 
  • OPI Where Did Suzy’s Man-go?
  • Essie Play Date
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Black. 
  • Latex Free cosmetic sponge 
  • Born Pretty Store Liquid Latex Peel Off Tape

My bottle of top coat is reaching the bottom which lead to some weirdness & shrinking. Never the less, I really love the colour combination of this gradient with the desert landscape. I could totally see these fitting in at Coachella, or another similar music festival! 🌄 all I need is a flower crown & some cut off denim shorts & I’d fit right in! 

I think I’ve rediscovered my obsession with gradients, clean up be damned. (Thank goodness for Liquid latex.) & I think I’m slowly getting better at them! They make me happy. This colour combo worked out so well, I just can’t stop staring! Even my husband commented how wicked these were (& without asking even!)

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

Unicorn Inspired Gradient 🦄

So by now you’ve probably been introduced to the Unicorn Frappuccino that Starbucks released yesterday. I know it completely blew up my Instagram & Facebook feeds… everyone & their grandma was showing off the drink on social media. Personally I have no interest in trying it–not a fan of frapuccinos (too much sugar), I can’t have any dairy so no whip cream, & there isn’t even any coffee in it! But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to join in the unicorn fun, so I took inspiration from the colours of the drink to create a Unicorn inspired gradient! 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Orchid Around
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Royal Hue
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust
  • Latex Free cosmetic sponge (purchased at Dollarama)
  • Born Pretty Store Peel off Liquid Tape

It’s been so long–too long–since I played around with a gradient, so I’m a little rusty. But I’m pretty happy with how these turned out. The colours might not exactly match its inspiration, but I thought it was a good attempt. It would have been more fun if I had one of those cute unicorn stencils (I think they’re by Twinkled-T) to add a holo glitter unicorn on my ring finger, but with a little Fairy Dust added it still has that magical feel. 

Have you tried Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino yet? Does it taste as magical as it looks? Part of me wants to order one just to take a picture of it with my nails (because I’m silly like that) but that would be a serious waste of money that could be better spent (on coffee, for example). Oh well, when you can’t drink it, why not wear it in your nails!

What do you think of this gradient? Do you see the inspiration? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 🦄

Water colour shattered glass nails. 


I recently won a few contests on Instagram, & one of them was the Spring collection of decals from Kayla Ray Vinyls, as well as 6 sets of stencils that I got to pick. One of the stencils I picked was the Shattered Glass stencils. 

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • ORLY Color Blast Valley Girl
  • Hard Candy Coconut
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
  • LA Colors Gloomy
  • OPI Where Did Suzi’s Man-go?
  • Kayleigh Ray Loves Shattered Glass Vinyls

I was really impressed with these vinyls. They were so easy to use, & even though I was creating this water colour effect, there was very little bleeding under the vinyl. This was my first time using clear vinyls, & I can understand the appeal of them. & the end result turned out so neat! This was one of my favourite techniques last Spring/Summer, & I can see it making a comeback. I had kind of forgotten how good this technique looked! 

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

Easter Zig Zag Chevrons

Happy Easter! Was the Easter bunny good to everyone? Did you get lots of chocolate & maybe a few polishes of choice in your basket too? 🐰 I went out earlier in the week & picked up my husbands Easter treats (& a few goodies for my self in the clearance polish section at Lawton’s.) We’re also heading to my Mother in Law’s later for an egg hunt for the kiddos and dinner. 

 I thought in honour of Easter I’d share these zig zag chevron nails that look kind of like Easter eggs! Outside of Easter, these could definitely work as just a fun Spring mani as well. 

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
  •  Essie Lounge Lover
  • OPI Getting Nadi On My Honeymoon
  • Essence You Let My Heart Skin A Beat 
  • Kiss Products Nail Art tips (Chevron vinyls) 

This colour combination works so perfectly for Easter & totally looks like Easter eggs. This would be a great design to go with when you need a quick Easter inspired mani, but don’t have the time (or patience) to do something freehand. 

What are you wearing on your nails today? Did you go with a simple Easter mani, or something more fun? Let me know in the comments below! & don’t forget to enjoy all that chocolate the Easter bunny brought you! 

Easter Mini Egg Nails

Is there anything more Easter-y than  Cadbury Mini Eggs? Well, I mean back in the day when they only came out at Easter. Sadly my lactose intolerance has come back since having the little one, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still love those delicious chocolate eggs (it just means I can eat them.) & since I won’t be enjoying them in my Easter basket this year, I thought I would continue the tradition of recreating them again on my nails. (I did mini egg nails previously in 2015 here & 2016 here


For this mani, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Matte Top Coat: L’Oréal the Matte Velvet top coat. 
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
  • Hard Candy Sky
  • OPI Getting Nadi On My Honeymoon
  • Revlon Minted
  • Nubar New Mood
  • Essie Cocoa Karma
  • Wet N Wild 2% Milk
  • Crinkled Up Plastic Wrap


 I’ve been doing these nails every year and I love how each time year turn out differently depending on the polishes and techniques used. I also think it’s because they’re just so easy to do, but it looks fantastic & just the right amount of festive! But fair warning: they will make you crave chocolate mini eggs. & if you can’t eat chocolate that could become problematic. Haha.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you!


 

What’s your favourite Easter designs to create & recreate? Do you already have planned what you’re wearing on your nails for Easter? Let me know in the comments below! 🐰