Category: NOTD

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Silver Stamping & Wrapping Paper Inspired 🎁

Hello lovelies, & happy Thursday! & happy December 1st! It is officially Christmas season, & the countdown to Christmas is on. I should probably get my shopping done before it gets too crazy, haha.

But — in honour of this brand new festive month, I thought some Christmas wrapping paper inspired nails would be a fun start. I love my Christmas pattern stamping plates this time of year because they have some many fun patterns you can use, which always makes me think of wrapping paper. While I’m dedicated to doing Glam Nails Challenge December, I also want to do some fun other Christmas manicures on my off days.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • OPI Just Be-Claus
  • ACO by Ardene Dancing Queen
  • Essie No Place Like Chrome
  • NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper 
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate (no longer available)

Please excuse my ring finger which was a bit of a mess up, but that’s okay. I love the crisp silver over the sparkly base — OPI Just Be-Claus topped with ACO by Ardene Dancing Queen (which is a sparkly fuchsia pink). It definitely gives off the wrapping paper vibes I was hoping for.

& it also Christmas-y/Holiday vibes while not being out right blatant. & I like that as well.

What do you think about this stamped pattern nails? Do you enjoy the more subtle holiday designs like this, or do you like in your face Christmas vibes?

& let me know what other Holiday nail art looks you might want to see!

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Candy Cane Abstract Stripes (featuring W7 mini polishes)

Hello beauties & happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a lovely Black Friday weekend. Mine was busy–obviously… retail life–but surprisingly fun. & I’m finally starting to feel the holiday vibes. So I’m starting to dig into all my kind of Christmas-y polishes.

Recently I picked up a little polish mini set from Marshall’s by the brand w7. They had a whole selection of mini packs, so I decided to pick the one named “Centre Stage” which had 4 very Christmas-y colours, & a clear top coat. I’ve been staring at this little set for a few weeks now, sitting on my desk, so I decided to finally grab it & create a pretty, & festive, nail art look.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • w7 White
  • w7 Red
  • w7 Green
  • w7 Gold Dazzle
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Striper Brush

How freaking festive is this nail art look? I love it! These were the perfect nails to wear for Black Friday for sure. Unfortunately, they got a bit chipped up, but other than that I absolutely adore this look. I did a similar version last year, but when you find a nail art look you love, why not keep returning to it!

Plus abstract stripes are so easy to do. They’re very hard to mess up, & even if you kind of do, they’re easy to fix any messes.

What do you think about these abstract candy cane stripe nails? Are you getting excited for Christmas/holiday nail designs? Glam Nails Challenge December is coming, & I’ve already started planning my nail designs for it.

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SWATCH SUNDAY — OPI Just BeClaus

Good Morning lovelies & happy Sunday! & to all my fellow retail workers surviving Black Friday… hope you all still have (most) of your sanity left. After 2 days of Black Friday madness, I was happy to come home last night, & paint my nails, & relax.

Christmas is definitely quickly approaching, in case you hadn’t noticed, & I was going through my stash thinking about Christmas polishes of years past. I remembered about the OPI Holiday 2014 collection which was inspired by Gwen Stefani. I had a few of the shades gifted to me back in the day, so I thought I would pull out one of the beautiful shades from that collection: Just BeClaus.

2 coats, no top coat.

For a polish that is…. yep, 8 years old, this shade applied beautifully on the nail. I did need 2 coats for full opacity, but other than that I had no issues. It dried down to a nice finish, with a good sheen to it.

The colour is a dark berry red, although in my Lightbox, it was coming across more berry than it does in regular light. The colour, though, is absolutely lovely. It’s a nice switch up from your usual Christmas-y reds.

Oof, please excuse the dustiness of my bottle! I didn’t realize how neglected she looked until I was looking at my pictures afterwards.

I feel like for Christmas, this is a great base shade — perfect for a nice glitter topper (which is how I’m currently wearing it), or some nail art. The shade is beautiful, & deep though, & I’m happy this was my pick of this week. I’ve been pulling from my OPI oldies a lot lately, & always happy when I see the shades are still as lovely 5, 6, 7+ years later, as they were when I first bought them. I’m also back working near where I used to buy a whole bunch of OPI shades, & I’m looking forward to popping in to the store to see what goodies I might be able to find.

What do you think about OPI Just BeClaus? Did you have this OPI shade in your stash back in the day… or maybe you still have it as one of your go to shades? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below, & let me know what shades from this years holiday collections have caught your eye!

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Holo & Snowflakes (featuring some NailStuff.ca goodies)

Features Gifted Product

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday!

It’s officially a little over a month until Christmas, can you believe it? I feel like I should really start thinking about Christmas shopping soon, but things have been in this weird adjustment period, I really haven’t had a lot of time to think about anything holly or jolly.

I was feeling some nail art the other night, but I was also feeling super tired — I recently started a new job, so after a few weeks off, I’ve been adjusting back into work life. & I’m tired, haha. But I wanted some cute nails, so I decided to grab some of my nail goodies from Nailstuff.ca. I thought some snowflake nails might, just, inspire me to feeling festive.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • Dimension Nails Great Blue Heron (c/o: NailStuff.ca)
  • Starrily Eclipse (c/o: NailStuff.ca) (Holographic Top Coat)
  • NailStuff.ca snowflake stickers (not currently available but she does have other cute Christmas stickers right now)

So I definitely applied these stickers when my base shade was still a bit too wet, hence a bit of a 3D effect on some of my nails. But I think these little snowflakes look so cute over the blue holographic base. I wanted something kind of dusty, but with a holo kick, & this combination was perfect! Also, somehow, I think this is the first time I’ve worn Dimension Nails Great Blue Heron as a full manicure, & that’s kind of crazy. It’s such a beautiful blue!

What do you think of my easy snowflake nails? Do you like seeing easy manicures like this, or do you prefer more complicated nail art? I have a few more “easy” looks to share, & then we’ll be jumping into Glam Nails Challenge December so stay tuned! I plan on having something for everyone.

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Merry & Bright Collection (Holiday 2022)

PR — Features Gifted Product

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

Can you believe it’s already the 20th of November? Like… it’s almost December! This year is almost over. Which means it’s my favourite time of year — Holiday nail polish collection time! & I was super excited, & grateful, because my besties over at Sally Hansen were kind enough to send me 4 of the beautiful shades from the new Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Merry & Bright Collection for Holiday 2022. They also sent me a gorgeous gold & green stone happy face bracelet which I’m absolutely loving.

But let’s get onto the swatches, shall we?

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