Category: Pictures

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Freehand Ikat Chevrons (Happy Birthday Coffee & Nail Polish! 🎈🎉)

Happy Thursday! & happy 4th birthday to this little nail blog of mine! It’s so crazy to me that I’ve been posting here for 4 years already. From the early days when I hadn’t yet discovered cuticle oil (& majority of my nail polish came from the clearance bins) to now it’s been quite an exciting journey. I thought I’d mark the special occasion with one of my favourite styles & some beautiful nail polishes I was recently gifted from Sally Hansen Canada!

Music Festival season is just beginning (Coachella starts next weekend) & this nail design would fit right in… you know, if I wasn’t in chilly Nova Scotia currently dreaming of sunny days & summer dresses!

For the design, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Little Peony
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Lilac Insomniac
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Orchid-ing Around
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sweet Tea
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sugar Fix
  • Bundle Monster detail brush.

I just love how these turned out. I also love that even though I freehanded my chevrons, they actually look fairly even! I guess practice really does make perfect. 💗 also I’m completely in love with these new Sally Hansen Miracle Gel shades from the Travel in Colour collection. I’ve been playing around with them since I received them late last week & they are just so perfect for Spring. Makes me wish I had somewhere fancy to wear them rather than just while I’m putting out stock at work. Definitely one of my favourite Spring 2018 collections I’ve seen this season so far. & don’t worry I’ll have swatches of the whole collection up on the blog soon!

I just want to take a minute to stop & just say THANK YOU to everyone who reads this blog, who leaves comments & likes my posts. When I started this blog years ago, I did it because I loved nail polish & I just wanted a place to be able to share my silly designs with other people. 4 years later, things have certainly changed & grown & improved, but when it comes down to it this blog is still here for the same reason: I love nail polish & I love connecting with others who love nail polish. & those people are the reasons why this place just feels like home for me.

So thanks for joining in on the fun & here’s to years & years more of this blog sharing the nail polish love.

💗💗💗

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Vintage Florals & Stripes

Happy Tuesday lovelies! I hope everyone had an amazing Easter holiday/long weekend full of chocolate eggs & family fun. We had a huge Egg hunt for our little guy & all his cousins & it reminded me of the excitement of being a kid & finding those chocolate eggs on Easter morning. Plus, who doesn’t love chocolate!

Today I’m sharing more florals with you–because I just can’t stop! This design is a recreation from a few years ago. This time, though, I decided to go with blue as my base colour.

The polishes I used for this design were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • China Glaze Boho Blues
  • Art Club Nail Art Striper in Blue Paisley
  • Quo by ORLY Nail Art Striper in White
  • Sally Hansen CSM Killer Heels
  • Sally Hansen CSM Red It Online
  • Sally Hansen CSM Rose To the Occasion
  • Sally Hansen CSM Blush Against The World
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in green
  • Quo by ORLY Second Hand Jade
  • Bundle Monster detail brush

Ugh these roses make me so happy. In real life, I’m not really a red rose kind of girl… but when it comes to nail art I can’t get enough! I just love the love of red roses against a contrasting background colour. & it’s been forever since I pulled out my bottle of China Glaze Boho Blues, & I forgot just how pretty of a colour it was. I love it.

It also is a beautiful base colour for Florals.

Is it starting to feel like Spring where you are? We just had a few days of Spring-like weather (which meant I got to wear my new Spring jacket!) so I’m very, very excited.

what do you think of this design? Are you sick of the floral designs yet? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 💙

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Mermaid Nails featuring Claire’s Mood Nail Polish

Happy Friday lovelies! Who is excited for the weekend to be (almost) here? I’m working all weekend but that’s okay! There is a Cheer Expo in town so that always makes it busy which in turn makes work speed by. I also just got a new smart watch & I’m so curious so see how many steps I get in on a busy day!

Today I’m showing off some mermaid nails! I actually can’t remember the last time I used my mermaid vinyls, how sad is that? Who doesn’t want to be a mermaid 🧜🏼‍♀️ after all? For this design, I decided to pull out a few of my thermal polishes! Sadly I forgot to get any pictures of it in the hot state (which isn’t often–I’m always cold!) but I did get a whole bunch of before shots!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Claire’s Mood Nail Polish Blue
  • Claire’s Nail Polish Mermaid
  • Layla Cosmetics Thermo Effect No. 01
  • Layla Cosmetics Thermo Effect No. 04
  • What’s Up Nails Scale Stencils
  • Pearl stud from Icing.

Gosh I love thermal/mood nail polish, even if the only time it changes is when my hands are warm first thing in the morning. I always run cold, so I feel like the effect gets lost on me a little… but I still adore them! In fact, I just bought a few more of the Mood nail polishes from Claire’s (in Spring colours) which I’m very excited to show off. I also definitely need to get my hands on some of the Indie thermals, because Indie brands make some of the most beautiful thermals I’ve EVER seen. & now that I’m back to work, I will definitely be adding them to my “must buy” list.

However I do really enjoy the fact you can find thermal nail polishes while out shopping at the mall. I’ve written before I feel in love with these polishes in early 2010 when Claire’s first released them, & I keep going back & buying more because they are just as awesome to me as they were back then! Hoping they come out with some new shades soon, maybe some neons!? That would make me so happy!

What do you think of these mermaid nails? Do you have a favourite thermal nail polish or thermal polish/brand suggestion? Share all your thoughts in the comments below!

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Matte Floral for the First Day of Spring!

The day has finally come… it’s the first day of Spring! Well as of 1:05pm or something. It’s definitely been a long Winter, even if we didn’t have a super snowy Winter this year. I am so absolutely excited for Spring days & floral dresses & warmer days. So in honour of Spring finally arriving, & to encourage Mother Nature 🌸 a little, I figured some more floral was in order.

I’m not going to lie, these nails took me a while. A whole episode of Vanderpump Rules & then some. What’s the saying? You can’t rush perfection? Well these are definitely perfection to me.

For this manicure, the many, many polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Matte Top Coat
  • Wrenn Polish Passionfruit Pink
  • China Glaze I Got A Blue Attitude
  • Wet N Wild Haze of Love
  • China Glaze Life is Rosy
  • L’Oréal Jardin des Roses
  • Essie Flowerista
  • YSL Beauty Vert D’Orient
  • Quo by ORLY Second Hand Jade
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Green
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Turquoise
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Purple
  • Nail Art brush from Bundle Monster

It’s definitely the matte top coat that makes these nails so perfect. They were pretty shiny too, but they were just another floral. Adding the matte just brought this mani to a whole other level that I’m quite honestly obsessed with. Also this is my first time matte-ifying Wrenn Polish Passionfruit Pink & oh my god! It completely transforms it to a whole other level. I’m kind of obsessed.

So who else is so excited about the first day of Spring? I’m choosing to ignore the fact we have a snowstorm apparently coming tomorrow/Thursday & chiding to concentrate on the fact it’s going to be sunny today & I’m going on a thrift store adventure today to expand my Spring wardrobe.

What do you think of these florals? What are you doing to celebrate the beginning of Spring today? Share you thoughts in the comments below!

💗

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St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Nails ☘️

Happy Saturday Lovelies… & happy St Patrick’s Day! It’s been quiet on the blog this week, & if you follow me on Instagram you’ll know I had a bit of an accident involving my son where he scratched my cornea with his nail leaving me temporarily blind Wednesday. It was a little difficult to try & do my nails & write a post so I took a bit of a hiatus but I still wanted to try & do something fun in honour of St. Patrick’s Day, so I can up with a fun shamrock design.

Green is not a usual colour choice for me. I own quite a few greens, but I usually save them for either Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day so I was excited to pull a few out to play with.

The polishes I used for this design were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by Orly Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Wrenn Polish I Know Quac is Extra
  • OPI That’s Hula-rious
  • China Glaze Be More Pacific
  • Essence The Green & The Grunge
  • YSL Beauty Vert D’Orient
  • URSugar Nail Vinyls — shamrocks (item #AUB39877)

I started off with a dry brush base using all my greens but YSL Beauty Vert D’Orient & let it dry completely. Then I added the shamrock vinyls over top my design & painted over the whole nail with Vert D’Orient & immediately removed the vinyls revealing my dry brush shamrocks. I think it was a cute way to use a whole bunch of greens & a great design for St Patrick’s Day!

What do you have planned for your St Patrick’s Day? Mine will be spent working & the only green things I’ll be drinking with be green kombucha & matcha lattes… but that’s okay with me! Hope you have a fun (& safe!) St. Patrick’s Day whatever you get up to. 💚 Also head over to my Instagram later on for a bonus nail art look featuring these Shamrock vinyls from URSugar! 🍀☘️🍀