SWATCH SUNDAY — ORLY Fireball 🔥

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday! That’s right, another week & another swatch post! Trying my best to find time to pain my nails when I can so I can keep my posting semi consistent-ish.

Today’s Swatch pick is an older polish from my stash but such a great Summer shade: ORLY Fireball. I found this beauty as part of a two-pack at Winners or Marshall’s (I can’t remember which) a few years ago, but according to Google it was originally released as part of the Summer 2015 Adrenaline Rush collection.

Fireball is a super vibrant neon coral which leans very red, & has a gorgeous fuchsia shimmer. For my swatches, I did 2 coats of polish over base coat, & finished with Essie Gel Setter Top Coat. On its own, like most Neons, Fireball does dry down to a semi matte finish, but because I was trying to be quick (& adding nail art) I decided to top coat it. Originally I though this shade was going to need some white undies, but I was impressed that this formula was opaque in 2 coats.

Above you can see the fuchsia shimmer both in the bottle & a close up on my nails. I love how it looks because it takes what could just be a coral neon & transforms it to a something little extra which gives it a serious POP! on the nail. & I also think it makes this polish a great transitional shade for the end of Summer as well–this paired with a maroon or darker Fall shade in a half moon or chevrons would make for an awesome almost Fall design.

& lets be honest… it’s almost that time of year where my obsession for Fall becomes real, so I’m already thinking about Fall manicure ideas.

According the Internet, you can still pick up this polish on the ORLY website, Amazon, & NailPolishCanada so if you need his polish in your collection (& seriously, if you love these kinds of shades you really do) you can order them there!

So what do we think of ORLY Fireball? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d LA Dreamin’

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday. Today I’ve got a bright & girlie pink to share with you from deep in my stash: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d in LA Dreamin’. This shade is from the Shoppers Drug Mart based Quo by ORLY range & I picked up this particular shade in the clearance last Summer for only $1!

For those who don’t know, these Color Amp’d shades are designed to wear like gel, lasting longer than your tradition polishes. They are designed to be paired with a Gel-like top coat that, when paired with the polish, will create that gel like bond on your nail.

For my swatches, I used 3 coats of polish & finished with top coat. The polish itself is very, very thin so you need a lot of layers in order to build opacity. You could definitely use some white undies to keep layers to a minimum, but for my swatches I wanted to show the polish on its own.

Even with 3 coats, there is still some visible nail line showing (although not as well in my swatches). Even though I don’t usually like thin formula polishes like this that show off nail line, there is something about this pink shade that I don’t mind it as much. It also has this slightly neon quality to it that I really like with my skin tone for Summer because it brings out the natural olive undertones in my skin & makes me look more tan… which is ALWAYS a good thing.

Who doesn’t love pink!? What colour do you feel like is your shade for Summer? I feel like with how much I’ve been wearing it lately, pink/coral is going to be the shade for me for Summer 2019!

Neon Summer Stripes

Good afternoon lovelies! Today I have some brand new nails to share with you, which was a spur of the moment design that turned out surprisingly fun!

I’ve been using a lot of the same polishes over the last couple weeks (probably because they’re out sitting on my desk, so easy to grab) so I wanted to pull out some other shades! & TADA! this design was created. I decided to still stick to my neon-ish shades, as the weather is warming up & finally feeling beautiful, but dug into the stash to see what other Neons I could find.

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea & Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Peony {PR sample}
  • Color Club Disco Dress
  • China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle
  • China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely
  • NailStuff.ca 11mm Liner Brush {PR sample}

At first, I had just Too Yacht To Handle & Thistle Do Nicely & wasn’t so sure I liked to colour combination — which I hate when that happens — but as soon as I added my lines of Disco Dress, it brought the whole look together & I ended up being absolutely obsessed with the end result.

The imperfection of the stripes reminds me of a beach towel, or something. I originally was going to use vinyls to create everything, but I’m so glad I was lazy & freehanded things because I think it looks so much better the way they turned out.

What do you think of this look? What summer nail art look are you wearing right now? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Color Club Wham! Pow!

Good Afternoon lovelies & Happy Swatch Sunday! I know I missed last week, so I’m back this week with a colour totally out of my comfort zone–Color Club Wham! Pow!

According to NailPolishCanada, this shade was originally released as part of the Poptastic collection. I picked up my bottle in clearance at my favourite pharmacy, for only $1.99, but you can find this shade online for a mere fraction of its original cost.

This shade is very neon, like highlighter orange neon, which obviously made for a difficult time while trying to photograph in my light box with my iPhone. For my swatches, I did 2 coats of base coat, 2 coats of polish & finished with a glossy top coat.

I was super impressed with the formula–sometimes Neons can be less than easy to apply with super thin formulas that need white undies, or they drag really bad, & need too many coats, but Wham! Pow! went on with only 2 easy coats. The first was kind of patchy, but the second coat filled everything in & levelled beautifully.

This colour is definitely out of my comfort zones–usually when I pick oranges I go for more coral shades as opposed to something so bright & neon, but I was feeling in the mood for something different! I do like how shades like this always make you look more tan than you actually are.

& below is what I did with my swatch: I added some holo glitter with both Sally Hansen Make It N-ice & Quo by ORLY Falling Star. You can also see how the colour shows more truly in the sunshine versus the photos in my light box.

what do you think of today’s Swatch Sunday pick? Would you rock this colour? Let me know in the comments below!

Summer-y Neon Dotticure

{PR sample}

Good morning lovelies! & happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a great start to their week — we’re having a beautiful Sunny day today & I plan on fully embracing all the sunshine. So what better day to share this fun neon dotticure I did last week.

Again, I had to reach for my fun Neons from Sally Hansen Canada! I’m seriously either grabbing these Neons & my Holos which is why you see me grabbing either so often!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea & Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Electri-Lime
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Fuchsia Fever 
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Lemon Chillo
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Miami Ice
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Peach Please
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Violet Voltage 
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod

Is there anything more fun than a dotticure? I just love how easy it is to do & how cute they look! With the white base, these remind me so much of candy! 🍭 I wore this design for a good 4 days before changing them up (this was day four) & they lasted an impressively long time without chipping! There was some growth near my cuticles, but other than that they were almost still perfect by day 4.

What design would you like to see next? What colours? Let me know down in the comments below!