Category: Nicole by OPI

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Drag Marble Decals 


If you’ve been around a while, you’ve probably heard me mention before how I can’t water marble. I’ve tried to do it, I really have but the results never turn out quite right. So thanks to rewatching old Simply Nailogilcal videos on YouTube, I wanted to see if I can cheat at watermarble using my silicone mat, ala Cristine!

So for my first Drag Marble decal experiment, I decided to try a couple different designs that would sort of look like watermarble (if you didn’t look too closely). I did about 15 different decals using different polishes to see which colours/polish formulas worked best & picked the three best to apply.

For each manicure I used my silicone craft mat & a water marble tool from Bundle Monster. For how to apply decals, there are lots of useful tutorials on YouTube. I also topped all designs with my Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat.

Continue reading “Drag Marble Decals “

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Smooshy accent nails using a silicon mat! 

I’m getting so much use out of my silicone craft mat! I understand now why people love their nail art mats so much–the options are endless. I wanted to try out some smooshy nails, & I saw this technique some on Instagram before (I just can’t remember by who unfortunately) so I decided to give it a try. 


For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat. 
  • My Beauty Spot unnamed green colour.
  • Essie Wrap Me Up
  • Essie Bobbing for Baubles
  • Essie Cocktail Bling
  • Nicole by OPI A Phil’s Paradise
  • Born Pretty Store Peel Off Tape
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Stamper
  • Silicon Craft Mat

For this look, I started by dropping different colours onto my mat, & moving them around some to spread around the colour. I then took my clear stamper & pressed down, smooshing the polishes together. I immediately then pressed the stamper down on my nails to create the marbled look, & finished everything off with top coat.

I really love how these turned out. You can never go wrong with marbled nails. I don’t know if I could consider this an easier way to create smooshy nails, but it was definitely fun! You still want Liquid Latex around your cuticles to keep your clean up minimal! 

What do you think of this mani? What is your favourite design to create on your silicone mat? I’m always looking for inspiration, so share your nail art ideas in the comments below!

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Spring Essentials: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat Review 


Winter finally seems to be leaving us, the days feeling a little bit warmer, which means it’s time to refresh my nails! Bitter cold Winter days can be rough on your nails, making them brittle, so sometimes you need a little help bringing them back to life.

I was sent Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat to review, and I was excited to try out this base coat. I’ve used their Hot Coral Gel Coat Color Polish before & I was really impressed with how strong it made my nails feel! So when given the chance to try out this base coat, I couldn’t wait to see if it would give my nails some new life after a long winter!


Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat is available to buy at Sephora for $30.  It can be worn either on its own, or as a base coat under your manicure. The ingredients are designed to strengthen your nails while simultaneously protecting them from breaks. The pink tinge also brightens the nail, which can cover any discolouration.

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Drip Marble decals inspired by @SimplyNailogical 


I’ve tried water marbling, & it was… not my thing. I’ve tried drag marbling, & it’s usually hit or miss. But I really love marbled nails, so naturally when I picked up a silicone craft mat I knew I needed to try drip marbling recently done by @simplynailogical.


For this mani I used:

  • ORLY Decades of Dysfunction 
  • Sally Hansen Pretty Piggy
  • Nicole by OPI We Got Beiber Fever
  • Finger Paints Wanna Gogh Dance?
  • ACO by Ardene Base Coat
  • Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat

To create my decals, I started off by dropping my polished of choice onto the mat, starting with my lightest colour (ORLY Decades of Dysfunction) as my base, then continued with my darker colours, & finished with my metallic shade (Finger Paints Wanna Gogh Dance?). Once all my colours were down, I moved my mat around to create my marbled effect. Once I was happy with one decal, I’d let it sit & dry for a few minutes before starting on the next one. When I was happy with the amount of decals I’d made, I left them to Dry for a few hours (around 2 hours).

I’m not going to lie, trying to apply these wasn’t the easiest. I started off by painting my accent nails with a base colour (again I used ORLY Decades of Dysfunction) and let dry. I then peeled off my decal & figured out which part I wanted on my nail, trimming it down to a more manageable size. When I was ready, I applied a coat of my ACO by Ardene base coat & immediately stuck my decal onto the nail. Using a brush dipped in acetone, I cleaned up around the cuticle. This was probably the least fun part–I wish I had better nail art scissors to trim off the access instead! When the decal was fully cleaned up & my cuticles were clean I sealed everything in with top coat to finish. I also surrounded my cuticles in oil to help after all that remover. No one likes wrecked cuticles.

And how does the final result look?

Continue reading “Drip Marble decals inspired by @SimplyNailogical “

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Matte Chevron Moons

What are your favourite Fall colours? For me I tend to reach towards your Navy blues, deep maroons and dark purples. And matte top coat! Ohhhhh I’m so Matte obsessed right now. 

It had been a while since I’d worn any kind of moon manicure–my favourite go to when lacking inspiration–so I decided on a pretty combination of some Fall beauties.  

   

The polishes I used for this mani were:

  • Nicole by OPI Shoot for the Maroon
  • Essie After School Boy Blazer
  • Stripe Rite  Striper in Gold 
  • Seche Vite 
  • L’oreal The Matte Velvet matte top coat. 

Shoot for the Maroon was a recent buy (the husband picked it out) and holy amazingness when Matte! It’s pretty normally but add some Matte top coat and it’s a whole other level! I love it! 

  

  
Also I can’t stop obsessing about Essie After School Boy Blazer–it is by far my favourite Navy. I need to try it out with my ACO by Ardene Crystal Fog because I think the combination would be incredible!

💜