SWATCH SUNDAY: ORLY Bailamos

Do you remember you very first polish of certain brands? I posted my very first Essie a while back, so I thought it would be fun to swatch another first polish… my very first ORLY! I picked up this shade (ORLY Bailamos) back in 2010ish at Winners. According to my internet googling abilities, it was originally released as part of the Summer 2010 collection. 

Bailamos is a stunning turquoise shimmer that screams Summer. Most importantly, it’s opaque in two easy coats. & considering this polish is 7 years old, the formula is still as flawless as when I first bought it. Obviously my weakness for a good blue/teal/turquoise polish has lasted a long, long time. 

Do you have this gorgeous ORLY shade in your collection? After searching this shade, I’m bummed I haven’t pulled it out of my stash to wear my often. Truthfully it did spend a good 2 years sitting in my parents addict (more props to that awesome formula for lasting!) but even still I can’t believe I haven’t reached for it more often. It’s just so pretty. Also I can only imagine how gorgeous this shade would look matte! Must try that next! 

What was your very first ORLY shade? Let me know in the comments below! 

Rainbow Wave Nails 🌈 

Hello Lovelies! It’s been a little while. I spent last week & the beginning of this week away on vacation which meant no posts! But I’m back & refreshed & I have pretty nails to share with you. 

It’s been way too long since I share one of my favourite sponge manicures with you. This manicure is actually from a while back (whoops). I’m so bad for doing my nails & then completely forgetting about them in the recesses of my phone. But I think this kind of rainbow design is perfect for warm Summer days… even if today is feeling less than Summer-y. 

The polishes used for this manicure:

  • Base Coat: L’Oréal All in One
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Hard Candy Sky
  • Essie Chillato
  • ORLY Scenic Route
  • Nicole by OPI Love Song
  • Color Club Peppermint Twist
  • OPI Where Did Suzi’s Man-go?
  • OPI Who You Calling Bossy?
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls skinny wave vinyls

Am I the only person obsessed with sponging? I just used up the rest of my peel of latex for my more messy manicures, BUT  while I was away on vacation I found a peel of by a brand I’ve never heard of in the local pharmacy (which is a big deal because I was in a pretty small town!) so I’m excited to try it out for gradients & the like, as well as seeing how it will fair as a peel of base coat. It’s not glue or latex based so I’m really curious to see how it fairs, especially since it means I can pull out my make up sponge again! There is nothing worse than trying to clean up nail polish mess from around your cuticles. Ugh. 


What is your favourite way to use a make up sponge on your nails? Let me know in the comments below! 

Pink Negative Space Chevron Moons

So have you noticed the abundance of pink lately? Haha I guess when I stay away from blue I wear all the pink. I decided to pull out a few of those Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d shades for some nail art. & what better nail art than some chevron moons! 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formulas Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Flexible Sealcoat
  • Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Summer Bisou
  • Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d J’adore
  • Snail Vinyls Single Chevron vinyls 

These nails are perfect for the balmy Summer weather we’ve been having! These shades from the Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Summer 2017 collection couldn’t be more perfect for sunny days. Now if only I was wearing them on the beach, with some kind of fruity drink, instead of to go stock up on groceries. Haha. If you haven’t checked them out yet, remember that you can find these fun shades at your local Shoppers Drug Mart! 

What do you think of my Chevron moons? Let me know in the comments below! 

SWATCH POST: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Summer 2017

I know, it’s not Sunday. But I do have some super exciting swatches to share today featuring the new Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d colours for 2017. As you might have noticed, I’ve got quite the affinity for the whole Quo by ORLY brand so I was beyond excited when these beauties showed up at my door for me to play around with. Just look at these colours! If you’re looking for some perfect Summer neon-esque shades, that need no white undies, look no further. 

Quo by ORLY  Je T’Aime L’Ocean

Holy Moses, just look! That blinding Mint is 2 coats plus the Color Amp’d flexible sealcoat. All these Summer shades are impressively saturated, & covered the whole nail easily. The brush on the Quo bottles are my favourite–they’re so wide that it only takes a few strokes to fill my whole nail. I also just love the blinding-ness of this shade. I feel like I should be wearing sunglasses while staring at them. When I think about Summer nail polish, this is what comes to mind. 


Quo by ORLY J’adore

I’m going fine honest, my camera did not want to accurately capture this shade. At all. It’s much more Coral-y in person, but my iPhone absolutely freaked out & showed it much more pink so you’ll have to trust me. Either way, this polish only needs to easy coats & its blinding neon-ness makes me want to wear it all day, everyday. These shades are perfect for me, because they really bring out my olive undertones to make me look so tanned (or compliment my tan when deeper into Summer.) 


Quo by ORLY Summer Bisou

The first thing that comes to mind when I look at this polish is juicy, like fresh raspberries. Seriously this is the hot pink of my dreams & I love everything about it. Again all it needed was 2 coats, plus the sealcoat for this dreamy perfection & lasting power. Toes, fingers… this is definitely a great shade for the whole Summer. I usually have hot pink shades on my own toes for the Summer months, so I can see myself putting this on soon! I have a pair of sandy brown gladiators this shade would look awesome with! 

If you’re a Canadian girl & looking for some perfect Summer colours, you can find these polishes right now at your local Shoppers Drug Mart for $10.99 each. If you’re wondering my personal favourite, I think I’m going to have to go with Summer Bisou but Je T’Aime L’Ocean is definitely a close second. 

Has anyone else tried out these shades yet? Let me know your thoughts & which one is your favourite in the comments below! 

*PR SAMPLE* These items were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own. 

Craving Spring with Wavy Pattern Nails

TGIF! I mean I’m on maternity leave so sometimes I forget what day it actually is. But it’s supposed to be semi-warm & sunny this weeekend & some what Spring-like so I am very excited for the weekend to come! So in honour of the sunny days to come, I did this wavy design using some Spring shades & wavy nail vinyls from Xroma Polish and Vinyls

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • China Glaze Ever Glaze Don’t Grape About It
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard To Get
  • ORLY Gumdrop
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Babe Blue 
  • Xroma Polish and Vinyls Skinny Waves Nail Vinyls
  • Dotting tool

I’m loving these vinyls from Xroma Polish and Nail Vinyls! They’re just so easy to use. This manicure only took me about 1/2 hour to do (after my initial polish had dried) including placing all my vinyls. & no issues with polish bleeding under the vinyls, which I hate so much. Even better, these wave vinyls were long enough I could cut them in half on some nails which meant I used less. 


This colour combination looks so pretty together, I love it. What is it about purple & mint that looks so stunning when paired? Definitely just feels like Spring-time to me. 💜 

What do you think of these wavy patterned nails? What colours are you wearing most lately? Let me know in the comments below.