nail polish – Page 145 – Coffee & Nail Polish

October 28, 2019October 26, 2019

GlamnailschallengeOct—Skull

Good morning lovelies & Happy Monday! Can you believe this month is almost over? The countdown to Halloween is officially on & I’m both excited to celebrate, & sad for my favourite month to be over! But since we have a few more Halloween looks to go, I’m going to keep the excitement rolling with our second last #glamnailschallengeOct prompt which is Skull. A similar idea to skeleton, so I wanted to try & do something way different from my skeleton design.

& it was the perfect opportunity to use some nail tattoos by Maybelline that I recently purchased on extreme clearance at my local pharmacy (& favourite place for nail polish deals!) These nail tattoos were pretty cool, & I couldn’t think of a better opportunity to use them.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea Bamboo Strengthener
Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
Top coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
Sally Hansen Color Therapy Slicks & Stones
Acrylic Paint
NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush
NailStuff.ca dotting tool trio

How much fun! This was also my first time in a long time wearing Sally Hansen Slicks & Stones which is just such a pretty shade for Autumn. It also goes really well with the orange & blues of my skull tattoo. It turned out more celebratory than scary, which is fun for this time of year as well. I’m digging it! & I added roses to add to the sugar skull feel.

Close up look at that nail tattoo. This makes me excited to use a few more of the designs that came in the packs I got. Definitely fun for fancy nails when you’re on a time limit… I definitely couldn’t draw that skull design in the 60 seconds it took me to apply that tattoo & add my top coat.

What do you think about these sugar skull nails? Remember you can check out the other #glamnailschallengeOct looks on Instagram. There is just one more prompt to go!

October 27, 2019

SWATCH SUNDAY—LA Girl Rockstar Groupie

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! If you follow me on Instagram (insert shameless plug here) you would have saw that I posted a poll to pick this week’s Swatch Sunday polish. & the winner with 59% of the vote was LA Girl Groupie from the Rock Star collection. This collection is pretty old — I found a Vampy Varnish swatch post that date back 10 years. I purchased this particular bottle pre-blog life, in 2013. & I’ve only done one manicure with it since starting this blog: these pink & purple half moons. So a reunion was long overdue!

LA Girl Rock Star Groupie is a deep grape purple with a very prominent blue micro glitter. This is definitely a classic example of a blurple, which I was absolutely obsessed with when I bought this guy. &, I’ll be honest, is still one of my favourite kinds of purples. There is also a bit of pink shimmer that comes out depending on which way you shift your fingers. The perfect example of a “galaxy in a bottle” nail polish.

For my swatches I did base coat (always), 2 coats of colour & I did finish things off with quick dry top coat because I was planning on doing nail art over top. First coat had some streakiness, but second coat levelled everything off nicely. If you wanted an even solid application, you could do a thin 3rd coat, but I really feel like it’s not super necessary. That being said, with the polish being thin (& quick dry top coat), the polish dries fairly quickly on the nail so you don’t have to worry about drying to dry a big gloopy mess.

Sadly, it looks like this particular line of LA Girls has been discontinued & even eBay didn’t seem to have an overpriced bottle to be found. However, the LA Girl brand is still up & running & from the looks of it still has lots of gorgeous polish options to choose from at a very affordable price. In my early polishaholic days, when I was a poor retail slave, these were some of my favourite polishes to buy because I could buy 2 or 3 & still be able to afford my coffee addiction. In fact, next time I pop over to my favourite pharmacy (the one that has ALL the nail polish deals) I think I’ll have to check out what LA Girl polishes they have to offer!

What do you think about LA Girl Rock Starts Groupie? Do you love a pretty blurple like this? Do you own this bad boy in your stash? Let me know! & let me know if you’d like to see me feature more of the shades from the brand in an upcoming blog post.

💜

October 22, 2019October 22, 2019

Halloween Patchwork Nails (recreated from @thelittlecanvas!)

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday! Today I have some more Halloween nails to share with you, this time a recreation of a design by Alaina aka @thelittlecanvas! If you follow her, you might have seen she recently recreated my ghost design, as well as my candy corn dotticure , so I really wanted to recreate one of her past Halloween nail art designs! & I found the perfect look in this patchwork design from 2 years ago!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea & Bamboo Strengthener
Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
China Glaze Be More Pacific
Essie Flowerista
Sally Hansen CSM Fiery Island
Black Acrylic Paint
NailStuff.ca 11mm Liner Brush

Oh my gosh you guys, this look is so fun & so easy! I started with a base of white, because it was easiest to make colours pop, & then created my blocks of colour. I did my green & orange first, & then filled in the middle with my purple. You don’t have to be too concerned with perfectly straight edges because you’ll be adding the black stitching, so I didn’t see the point in using tape. Then to finish my design, I took black acrylic paint & one of my NailStuff stripers, & added the black stitching along the edges. Finish off with top coat, & your nails are all ready for Halloween!

This patchwork look is perfect for a variety of different Halloween costume ideas, & you can definitely change up your colours depending on needs–this would be perfect for a Bride of Frankenstein, Zombie, Scarecrow, etc. Lots of fun ideas, but super easy to do, even for a nail art beginner. & using acrylic paint for your lines vs nail polish also makes things a little easier, because if you mess up you can erase the lines without wrecking your whole nail.

What do you think about this nail art look, recreated from @thelittlecanvas? Did I live up to the original? & hop over to Alaina’s blog today to see her version of another one of my nail art looks!

October 20, 2019October 14, 2019

SWATCH SUNDAY — OPI DS Extravagance

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. This is my first swatch post since my disastrous nail break last week, so obviously I need to pick something stunning to share. & Today I’ve got one of the most beautiful polishes I own, & one I always pull out this time of year–OPI Designer Series Extravagance. This polish was a birthday gift given to me 5 years ago, & I love to wear it in October on or around my birthday.

The OPI Designer Series was a collection of polishes (that are now discontinued I do believe) that were a step above OPI’s regular polish line. A lot of them had holo glitter & flakies to give them a special touch. Extravagance was my first polish from this line, so it holds a special place in my heart. It was also one of the first holos I ever owned, & helped me fall in love with holographic nail polish.

For my swatches, I did base coat, 2 coats of polish & finished it off with YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat. I’m planning on doing a full post on this top coat, but oh boy am I loving it so far. It dries SO QUICK you guys, like I almost can’t believe it. It might actually be the quickest quick dry top coat I’ve ever used.

The formula on this polish is pretty damn awesome. First coat goes on not quite opaque, & the second coat gives your nail a beautiful sparkly finish. It’s slightly jelly like, but not quite as much as say China Glaze Private Side-Eye. The glitters are so dense though, which is what makes this shade just so beautiful. Literally, it turns your actual nails into gemstones & I love it.

Even though I do believe this collection has been discontinued, you can see find the polishes available in some places like nailpolishcanada.com & amazon, as well as a few other places they sell OPI I’m sure.

I must say, I don’t officially have a list of all time favourite polishes but if I were actually to sit down & compile one (which I’ve been thinking about doing), this shade would definitely be on it! There are only a few polishes I’ll ever truly wear on their own without even thinking about nail art, but Extravagance is definitely one. It’s just too perfect. 💗

What do you think about OPI DS Extravagance? Do you own any shades from the Designer Series collection & which is your favourite? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

October 13, 2019October 9, 2019

SWATCH SUNDAY — (part of) the Essie Rocky Rose collection

{PR SAMPLE}

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday! & Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my fellow Canadians–I hope you’re enjoying a lovely feast with friends & family. Today I’m very thankful for everyone who takes the time to sit & read the blog, & comment & like. I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for you guys. & I wouldn’t have the opportunities I have if it wasn’t for you guys.

Like being sent PR packages from Essie!

Today I have a couple of polishes that we’re so kindly gifted to me from Essie themselves! They sent me 4 shades from the Rocky Rose collection from this past Summer. The collection itself features 9 neutral toned shades & is described in the PR materials as “a collection that harnesses the sun-saturated grandeur of the iconic desert landscape.”

Can’t get more awesome than that!

For my swatches, I received the shades The A-bliss, Cliff Hanger, Set in Sandstone & No Shade Here. I will add, only two of the bottles came with the actual polish names on the bottom so I’m guessing based on the other swatches I’ve seen.

Now let’s get to the swatches.

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY — (part of) the Essie Rocky Rose collection”

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