Category: Pictures

Posted on

Dripping Blood French Featuring URSugar Vinyls


Ready for some more Halloween inspired nails? Today I have what I’m calling a dripping blood “French” Manicure that has just the right amount of scary & sparkles—which is just how I like my Halloween designs! 

The few times I’ve tried to do a dripping design, I’ve always done it using a dotting tool (which isn’t always easy to accomplish the right look.) These drippy nails were made much easier by using URSugar Vinyls which were kindly sent to me for review. 

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Gosh Holographic Hero
  • China Glaze Ruby Pumps
  • URSugar Drip Nail Vinyls item #AUB39877 —click to buy. 

These URSugar vinyls are great for a design like this. You have two options—you can paint your nails a base shade & apply the stencils & paint over with a second shade, pull off & reveal or you can use the other half to paint inside (like a stencil). I find the second option works best for a design like this, done at the tip of your nails. 

What do you think of this Halloween-y take on a French manicure? Would you wear this design? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

*PR SAMPLE* Some of these items were sent to me for review. However, all opinions are my own. 

Posted on

SWATCH SUNDAY—Essence Out Of Space Stories in Beam Me Up!

Happy Swatch Sunday! Hope you’re having an exciting weekend. I’m excited because I was at my local Shoppers Drug Mart & found they’ve recently put out the Essence Out Of Space Stories collection. I actually squealed when I saw them, which lead to awkward stares from those around me. Haha. 

I first saw these shades when Mani Geek posted about them, but was disappointed they were only available on the website. Well surprise… not anymore! I decided to only pick one (for now) which turned out to be a hard decision. I must have picked up each shade & put it down again about 3 times before I finally decided on Beam Me Up! 

Beam Me Up! is a vibrant pink with golden shimmer with a slight scattered holo. This was two coats, plus top coat. I’ve been a fan of Essence shades for a long, long time & I always get so excited when new collections are released & this shade definitely lives in to the inner excitement I had brewing for these shades! This pink is just perfect & it manages to stand out from the other pink scattered holos in my stash. 

This pink is seriously everything. That little bit of scattered holo takes a pretty polish & makes it a gimme gimme gimme polish. Also I have to mention how much I love the Star Trek inspired names! I grew up in a totally Trekky house so it’s a nice bit of added geekiness. 

Have you found any of the Essence Out Space Stories shades in stores yet? These polishes had definitely only been recently added at this location (I usually go there every couple days) so if you haven’t found them yet, keep checking. I plan on checking my local Superstore (Loblaws) to see if they’ve added them to that display as well. 

Have a great Sunday everyone! 💅🏻

Posted on

Happy National Coffee Day Nails! ☕️


You know I love a good excuse to celebrate a holiday & what better holiday to celebrate than National Coffee Day! I joined my girls in #thenailartsquad for some caffeine inspired manicures in order to celebrate this day in style! 

Obvious if we’re doing coffee inspired nails, I had to do something Starbucks inspired! I also thought I would pull out some of the acrylic paints I recently picked up for my freehanding details. 



For this design, the products I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Diamond Flash
  • Essie Mochacino
  • Essie Cocktails & Coconuts 
  • Sally Hansen Hard To Get
  • Acrylic Paints (black, white, brown & green)
  • Silicone Mat
  • Tiny dotting tool 
  • Small Detail Brush

I had this idea of how I wanted this design to turn out, & it turned out exactly how I imagined in my head… I love when that happens! I used my pink silicone mat to create my “latte art” drag marble decals which (I think) turned out really good. I also tested out my acrylic paints for the first time, & they were so easy to use for nail art! I definitely understand why they are such a popular option for nail art—I would have had a much harder time creating my little Starbucks cup using just regular nail polish. Now I want to buy even more colours to test out designs! 

What do you think of these coffee nails in honour of National Coffee Day? What’s you favourite coffee drink of choice? Obviously I love pumpkin spice this time of year, but if we’re picking favourites I absolutely can’t wait for Gingebread lattes to return! 
Don’t forget to check out the hashtag #thenailartsquad to see all the coffee themed designs, as well as our past collaborations! 

Posted on

SWATCH SUNDAY — Featuring New Limited Edition Quo by ORLY Breathable Shades for Fall 2017. 

Who doesn’t love new nail polish? Who doesn’t love new nail polish that is actually good for your nails! Today I’m sharing three brand new for the Fall Limited Edition Quo by ORLY Breathable shades that I recently received.

It’s always a super exciting day when nail mail shows up at the store, & when I saw these beauties in the box I was extra excited. You can check out my previous post on these Breathable shades from last year here to understand why I was so excited. Not only are these polishes beautiful, with great formulas that require no base or top coat, but they are designed to make your nails stronger & healthier! 
Quo by ORLY Down to Earth



Who doesn’t love a good nude shade? Especially a nude you can get away with one coat of! This grey leaning neutral is the perfect throw & go shade to me, especially since it is only one coat. Also no top coat required! That also means the dry time isn’t instantaneous, but that’s okay with me. 


Quo by ORLY De-Stressed Denim

Let’s talk about the formula of all these polishes—they’re perfect. Like beyond perfect. This is two coats of De-Stressed Denim, & they went on so smoothly. This blue is also just so perfectly named, because it really just the spot on colour of jeans. I actually saw these three shades at my local Shoppers & this was the one I was drawn to first. So pretty! 


Quo by ORLY Fairy Godmother

A shimmery rose gold shade… that’s good for my nails? Yes please! Fairy Godmother took two coats for that shimmery goodness you see above. It dries down easily, with few noticeable streaks. The colour is one I love, especially for this time of year (& holidays) & I love that I wear a pretty sparkly shade while making my nails stronger & healthier. 

So what do you think of these shades? 

Quo by ORLY Breathable shades can be found exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart locations across Canada for $10.99. As I mentioned, these shades are limited edition so you’ll definitely want to pick them up before they’re gone! 

*PR SAMPLE* Some of these items were sent to me for review. However, all opinions are my own. 

Posted on

SWATCH SUNDAY: Finger Paints 

Happy Swatch Sunday lovelies! I was recently in my local Sally’s beauty & noticed they were having a Buy 2 Get 1 Sale on their Finger Paints polishes. I was late to discovering the Finger Paints love, but once I did I fell in love. So when I came across a deal like that, I knew I had to get a couple colours to add to my stash (even though I totally don’t need more nail polish). So I thought I would Swatch my new shades immediately, so they don’t sit in the back of my stash untried for the next year. 

Dimensional Design

Dimensional Design is from the Summer  Chromaticity collection. In the bottle it comes across as a green-ish chrome shade that shifts to a peacock blue in the bottle. For my swatch, I used two coats. Sadly, I couldn’t escape the streaks on application which kind of took away from the chrome like finish. The shift is also much less on the nail than in the bottle which was a bit sad. But overall, Dimensional Design is still a very pretty polish. 

Hues Blue

Hues Blue is part of the Finger Paints core line & this was the last bottle left at my local store & I totally understand why! This gorgeous blurple shade is packed full of pink & blue micro glitters & took two coats to build opacity (although you can see a hint of nail line), but you could also use it as a topper over some undies. & oh my is it pretty–I just can’t even deal with how pretty this shade is! It reminds me a lot of Finger Paints Gorgeous Graffiti which is another favourite from this brand. 

Piece De Resistance

Can we just talk about this deep red shimmer, also part of the core Finger Paints collection? It’s pretty isn’t it? You know how much I ♥️ a good red polish, & even better it only took ONE COAT for these swatches. One coat. I don’t think I own another red polish that takes only one coat & it makes me squeal. The polish has an awesome shine to it which really shows off the lighter shimmer. Such a perfect Fall shade. 🍁🍂


& that’s it for today! Which of the three shades is your favourite? Let me know your thoughts (or your personal favourite Finger Paints shade!) in the comments below.