Recreating Tribal Roses (from 5 years ago)

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday! The weekend is almost upon us — & so is August! How crazy is that? We’re almost in the last month of Summer. I swear this year is rushing by way faster than 2020 did. I feel like Summer just started, & now Fall collections are already popping up in the stores. & I’ve already started thinking about what Fall fashion items I want to add to my closet…

But in the mean time, let’s concentrate on nails. More importantly, this tribal & roses design which is actually a recreation of a design I did 5 years ago. This time, though, I decided to go with a reverse colour scheme with the darker shade as my base, & the white for my line work.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Beatnik
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod!
  • Essie Stop Drop Shop
  • Essie Gel Couture Princess Charming
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure So Much Fawn
  • Sally Hansen I ❤️ Nail Art pen in green
  • Cosmetics Arts Lime Green (name has long since worn off)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Striper Brush

How lovely is this combination? The beautiful blue, the line work — that I’m very, very proud of! — & the cute, cute roses. I feel like I did a very good job of recreating my original design, but making it even better! These turned out better than I ever could have imagined. Also the white pops so we’ll over Sally Hansen Beatnik, as does the floral. Just everything about this look makes me so happy.

It just feels so good to be getting back to my roots, & doing my favourite kinds of nail art again. Feels like I’m me again! Also, while having short nails is always a nice change, I’m very happy to have returned to my rounded my nails again. They’re so much more me.

What do you think about this look? Did a do a good job recreating my original? Let me know what you think down in the comments below, & let me know if you’d like to see me do more of these posts recreating old manicures!

Negative Space & Neon Leopard Print

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday!

Today is a beautiful sunny day, & I’m excited because I have some fun nail art to share. It feels like a long time since I was truly inspired to do my nails, but I did this manicure early last week & was OBSESSED. Some nights it feels like I have no energy to come up with creative nail art looks, but I feel like this one turned out perfect.

Plus it combines some of my favourite things: neon, leopard print & negative space!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Blacky-O
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Violet Voltage
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Miami Nice
  • Sally Hansen Miracle GelElectri-Lime
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Fuchsia Fever
  • Sally Hansen I ❤️ Nail Art pen in black
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Striper Brush

Seriously, how cute is this look? I was really feeling something involving negative space — I recently returned to rounded nails, since square nails stopped working for me — & since they’re so short right now, they’re my favourite length for negative space peak-a-boo nail art.

For this look, I started off by freehanding my white space with just the polish brush, then used my smaller sized dotting tool to create my blobs of neon. Then I used my black nail art pen to draw the leopard spots around them. Finally I finished everything off with my black stripes! A little time consuming — I think it took me an entire episode of Dr. Death — but the end result just pops so well!

What do you think of my leopard print nails? Are you still feeling bright & Summer-y shades? I’m in a weird faze right now where I am going between being obsessed with neons, & more muted shades. But for the first time, in a long time, I’m not craving Fall as August starts, so I think I’ll enjoy what is left of Summer & get out a bunch more Summer-y nail art looks too!

Have a fantastic day lovelies!

Glittery Mermaid Scales

contains PR•

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday! Hope everyone is having a lovely week! I can’t believe it’s almost the weekend again — how did that happen.

Today I have a fun look to share with you featuring all six of the shades from Beyond The Nail’s Mermaid of the World collection (that I shared on Sunday.) You know all six of those shades were begging for a sparkling mermaid scale look, so that’s exactly what I did!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Beyond the Nail Pacific
  • Beyond the Nail Atlantic
  • Beyond the Nail Caribbean
  • Beyond the Nail Caspian
  • Beyond the Nail Arctic
  • Beyond the Nail Ontario
  • Beyond the Nail Mermaid Scale Nail Guides
  • Medium sized dotting tool (for filling in the scales)

Seriously obsessed with how sparkly these are! They were definitely time consuming — I did each nail one at a time, one colour at a time — but it was totally worth it. I also really like the neutral negative space base against the glitter. It turned out even better than how I pictured them in my head! My thumb is definitely my favourite — you can just really see all the glitter.

It’s just so pretty. Like, I couldn’t stop wiggling my fingers in the sunshine. I love sparkle.

What do you think of this mermaid look? Would you rock a glittery mermaid scale look like this? Let me know down in the comments below!

Peach Herringbone Nails

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday!

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. I worked all weekend, but the weather is beautiful. It’s officially Summer as of yesterday, which is also very exciting. Of course, here on the East Coast we’re awaiting the remains of a Hurricane which means it’s soggy & gross.

But at least my nails look cute! I did these herringbone nails last week, when I wanted nail art but I was short on time (& inspiration). I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of line work like this lately because I can do it without having to wait for my base to be fully dry.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Essie Lounge Lover
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • Essence Outta Space Stories We Will Spock You
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Striper Brush

Ah, like riding a bike. I’ll be honest, at night when I first did these I wasn’t 100% sure if I liked how they turned out; they seemed messy & awful at 10pm. But I was tired, so I left them on, because awful nails are better than no nails at all (& I was way too tired to repaint them). But as soon as the sun came up, & I took another look I actually really liked how they looked, & they didn’t seem as messy as I originally had thought.

& I really kind of love them.

What do you think about this herringbone look? What nail art designs have you been living for lately? Let me know in the comments below!

Pink & Cactus 🌵🌸

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday! It’s hot & balmy here on the East coast (our second day of heat warnings) but that’s exactly my kind of weather. As someone who is always cold, I live for this kind of weather! So I though, why not paint some bright, poppy nails to match the weather!

It’s been way too long since I rocked some cactus print nails, & I thought they would look gorgeous over a base of Essie Pucker Up.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Pucker Up
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Essie Watermelon
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

Oh man, these are so bright & colourful! They are definitely giving me Summer vibes. I got so many compliments on them at work as well (which always makes me feel awesome). I’m also not sure why I haven’t painted any cactus nails in a while, but it was definitely an oversight. I won’t be waiting this long again!

What do you think about this cactus pattern look?

I’m absolutely loving this Essie shade, which is from their Summer 2021 collection! I had planned to share swatches this past Sunday, but real life got in the way. So hopefully this coming weekend!