Category: Pink Nails

Posted on

SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Stop, Drop & Shop

6D11F351-974B-4EA7-9677-9B6E9ECF3151

Good morning lovelies! Hope you’re having a beautiful day wherever you are. Today is my favourite day of the week: Swatch Sunday! & today I’ve shopped my stash to bring you another order polish perfect for Fall: Essie Stop, Drop & Shop from the Fall 2018 collection.

49A7C307-C508-4013-ACD7-A289C33ECAB0

FFDE95C8-0CB5-42B6-8291-E919C00A7C75

This collection was released last year & I remember seeing Mani Geek’s swatches & falling completely in love with the whole collection, but at the time I only bought Fall for NYC. I actually found this bottle in the clearance bin at Shoppers Drug Mart for only $3, & knew I needed this shade in my life!

& I was totally right!

3AD50188-9B71-4453-BC8B-0322211CD1DD

7F4C5A66-BF2F-4A08-96DA-AB9999296565

For my swatches of Essie Stop, Drop & Shop, I did two coats of polish over my base & finished everything off with Essie Gel Couture Top Coat. The formula was easy to work with & the new thicker brushes make me so happy.

The colour itself is such a nice dusty berry & reminds me a bit of OPI Aurora Berry-alis from the 2017 Iceland Collection, only a bit darker & more red toned. Honestly, this is a fairly unique shade to my collection, which makes me happy. It gives me another reddish option to grab–as red polish is one of my favourites to wear just on its own–but is more unique than a lot of my other red polishes. & I love that.

90752FAF-26FF-4F86-B011-0C870FAC628D

E8292DC7-1313-46F8-9CE2-C5CF9C4582D7

Do you own any of the polishes from the Essie Fall 2018 collection? Which one was your favourite? I find Essie does Fall shades really, really well. I don’t think I’ve ever not liked one of their Fall collections.

Ever!

C4F542DA-2537-4848-B41E-2D932EB6E5A9

8121A0A2-FCF5-420A-B580-AB8C5CD83205

I must say, going through all these shades is making me very excited for all the Fall 2019 collections coming out! Which one is on your list right now?

Let me know down in the comments below!

Posted on

Fall Themed Colour Block

536C50B7-EFAA-4BF6-B01D-7C917B14369A

709A2630-C450-4975-904E-B89EE0044BD1

Good morning lovelies! As much as I’m loving doing the Glam Nails Challenge for August, I thought it would be nice to break it up a bit with some other nail art! So today I have a fun colour block design to share with you, using a couple amazing polishes from past Essie Fall collections.

I swear, I’ll try to wear some neon soon… but in the meantime, how about some fun rich Autumn nails?

6324D36B-2342-4C98-A558-E87B99DD935D

C6D6BBCE-BD0E-4BBA-9169-1462B557FC5E

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Couture
  • Essie Stop, Drop & Shop
  • Essie Leggy Legend
  • Essie After School Boy Blazer

C6B22755-FE60-4C25-A842-40A7E650CEFD

DFF3296D-AD14-4ACA-83EC-6200D8763CB9

This design was surprisingly quick, all things considered. I like freehanded my colour blocking, so there no need to wait for my base to try before painting on my blocks of other shades. & the result looks awesome!

I also really like how well these colours went with each other. Some of my absolute favourite polishes have come from past Essie Fall collections, including these 3 polishes. Essie After School Boy Blazer is definitely my #1 favourite Navy blue of all time. It’s just perfection.

E5A7F1E5-2FC9-48AF-A8C1-5900DAA5E525

A643F025-71F9-422A-9C2A-128F2F9C6B8D

Are you already thinking about Fall nails? Do you have a favourite Fall collection from years past?

Mine is probably the Essie “For the Twill of It” collection from Fall 2013, which After School Boy Blazer is a part of, as well as my all time favourite grey Cashmere Bathrobe.

🍁

Posted on

Gradient Desert Scene

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday!

Today I’m doing sort of a throwback Thursday post as today’s manicure is one I did a while back but never shared. I was scrolling through my phone last night, & stumbled across this design & knew I had to post it! Especially because I have no idea what I wouldn’t have shared them in the first place. Thankfully I kept a list of the polishes I used, so even though these were done a while ago, I could still share exactly what I used to create this look!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essie Parka Perfect
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Rose to the Occasion
  • Essence Black is Back
  • Sally Hansen CSM Let’s Snow!
  • Nailstuff.ca mermaid tail detail brushes
  • Edge Perfection cuticle barrier
  • Latex free make up sponge (I buy mine at Dollarama)

I love love love doing these landscape gradient nails. It’s kind of like a galaxy nail, but less work. & of course I added cacti in the distance, because they’re my favourite.

Seriously, I cannot understand why I never shared this design when I originally did them. The gradient looks nice, my freehand work isn’t awful. Maybe I was just saving it for right now (without realizing it?) Either way I’m happy to share this look with you now!

What do you think of this gradient landscape look?

Would you like to see more of these designs on the blog?

Hit like if you’re into this kind of nail art & share down below what else you’d like to see me do!

Posted on

Blast from the Past — Crackle Nail Polish

I’m sure if you’ve been a part of the nail polish community for any amount of time, you’ve seen quite a few nail polish trends come & go: feather nail polish, magnetic nail polish, textured nail polish & of course… crackle nail polish.

For those who don’t know what crackle nail polish is, it was a kind of topper you would apply over already painted nails, that would crack as it dried, revealing the base colour underneath. I was first introduced to crackle nail polish back with the Katy Perry Teenage Dream collection from OPI, & though it was the most genius idea, so naturally my obsessive brain had to own as many crackle polishes as possible! Thankfully, even nail polish company & their friend seem to come out with their own version of crackle so it was easy to get my hands on a whole slew of brands, colours & finishes!

Most of my shades have long since dried up & are pretty much impossible to use, but every so often I get the urge to pull out one of my bottles still holding on & play around with it. Thank you nostalgia.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Bamboo & Green Tea Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • My blues from my cobalt blue comparison post
  • Icing Shatter nail polish Electric Graffiti

As you can see, even though this polish is about 7 years old, it still works semi well in terms of the crackle effect (minus my pointer finger… I have no idea what happened there!) Like I said, I collected quite a few of these shades during the heigh of their popularity, but only a few of them still work to this degree. & now that my nail art techniques have improved over the years, I don’t really grab these shades like I once did.

& just for fun, I wanted to share the very first mani I ever did using this fun polish. Please excuse the awful quality in all regards (painting, photography, ect)

As you can see, the actual cracking abilities of Electric Graffiti has dwindled over the years, but for a polish way past prime, I’m impressed I can still get any crackle out of it. I feel like because the formula has thickened up a lot, that’s the reason the shatter is different. A thinner application would definitely give me a reaction much more like my throwback manicure… wondering if adding a bit of thinner to the bottle would revive it. I’m curious to find out.

what are your thoughts on the crackle/shatter nail polish trend from years past? I know some people have very strong feelings about these polishes (& how much they hate them). Let me know if you’re team crackle or hate it?

Posted on

SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Gel Couture Princess Charming

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! I’m super excited to share brand new swatches with you of a new polish! & yep I changed my nail shape again. Round/almond nails just work so much better with newborn life.

Today’s polish pick a new to me shade which was actually gifted to me by my Mom as a gift after having our baby girl: Essie Gel Couture Princess Charming. 🌸

This pink neutral has an amazing formula which goes on in easy coats. It is almost a one coaster, & you could quite possibly apply in one if you were super careful (my pinky only needed one coat). I did two with thin coats, & everything levelled down perfectly, even before I added my top coat (Essie Gel Setter).

This link is such a nice neutral shade, which boarders on almost a nude. This is definitely a great Office appropriate shade that you could wear everyday. There is a hint of mauve to this shade as well, & I really like the duskiness of it. It would also make a fantastic base for nail art.

This is only my second ever Essie Gel Couture shade, but I must say if all of their polishes are like this I’m definitely going to need to change that! I am beyond impressed with the formula & how smoothly it applied. Not only that, but it seemed to dry quickly before I even applied my top coat. I’m definitely curious to see how well the polish holds up for me & how long it lasts on my nails before chipping.

Do you have a favourite Essie Gel Couture shade? Do you own Princess Charming in your own stash? Share all your thoughts on this polish down below.