Category: NOTD

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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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Mani Monday Mermaid Nails

Who doesn’t love a good mermaid manicure? 

When I made my What’s Up Nails order I knew I needed to stock up on some of their scale stencils so I could create mermaid nails. They just make me so happy! I just can’t stop playing with my vinyls. 

For this manicure, I used: 

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie All Access Pass 
  • Icing Breakfast At Tiffany’s
  • China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla
  • What’s Up Nails Scale Stencil

I really wanted an excuse to pull out my bottle of Sand Dolla Make You Holla. Sadly my bottle has seen better days, & I’ve been trying to bring it back to life with polish thinner, but it’s not going well. Anyone else have trouble saying goodbye to old polishes at the end of their life, or is just me? I find it especially hard with polishes that are discontinued because you know you can’t get go out & buy a new bottle easily. I mean, yeah there is EBay but I feel weird buying polish off of EBay. Guess I will just have to hope & pray I come across it at Winners or Marshall’s one day soon. 

What do you think of this mermaid mani? What polish do you keep even though it’s seen better days? Let me know in the comments below!

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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!

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Earth Day nails with #thenailartsquad


For Earth Day 2017 I joined up last minute with a couple members of #thenailartsquad–@25sweetpeas & @nbnailart–for some Earth inspired manicures! Each one of us had a cute, unique take on the idea & all the designs turned out so awesome! 

For my Earth Day inspired manicure, I had an idea to create a drip marble that would look like the Earth, & I’m so happy with how it turned out! 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Coat. 
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Boho Blue
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Babe Blue
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Kiwi Bikini
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Jazzy Jade
  • Silicone Craft Mat


To achieve this design, I used the same technique as my last drip manicure. The more I practice this technique, especially applying the decals, the easier it gets! Also I think it actually looks like the Earth, which makes me so happy! I wasn’t sure if this idea was going to turn out, but it actually worked so well! 

What do you think of this Earth inspired design? Let me know in the comments below. 🌎 and don’t forget to check out #thenailartsquad on Instagram to see these designs, as   well as all past collaborations! 

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Tropical Leaves Accent Nail featuring OPI Fiji minis. 

Recently I entered a contest hosted by OPI Canada on Instagram, and surprise! I won! And my prize was the OPI Fiji Collection minis. I will hopefully have full swatches of the minis coming soon, but first I have a mani featuring a few of the colours to share. 

For this manicure, the Products I used are:

  • OPI Two Timing The Zones
  • OPI Getting Nadi on My Honeymoon 
  • OPI Is That A Spear In Your Pocket? 
  • Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • What’s Up Nails Tropical Leaves Stencil

I seriously couldn’t think of a more perfect combination than these gorgeous colours and this pretty leaf accent nail. I ordered these stencils from What’s Up Nails recently on my vinyl buying splurge. They just looked so fun for Spring/Summer. 

These OPI Fiji polishes are gorgeous. I’ve always loved the mini sets OPI releases because it gives you the chance to try out a few polishes for a great deal, & then go pick up a big bottle (or bottles) of the ones you really love. 

Have you picked up any of the polishes from the OPI Fiji collection? Which ones are you favourite? Let me know in the comments below.