Category: PR Sample

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Aurora Borealis Inspired Dry Brush Featuring OPI Iceland Collection 🌌

Good morning & Happy Friday Eve! Anyone else super excited for the weekend to almost be here? 

Today I’ve got some pretty nail art to share with you featuring some of the OPI Fall/Winter 2017 Iceland Collection. The first design I saw when I looked at these polishes was dry brush! I wanted to create something that would bring to mind the beauty of the Aurora Borealis.

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Base Coat
  • Top Coat: OPI Top Coat
  • OPI Less Is Norse
  • OPI Aurora Berry-alis 
  • OPI One Heckla Of A Color!
  • OPI Reykjavik Has All The Hot Spots
  • OPI Check Out The Old Geysirs

A couple tricks to a good dry brush:

  •  have to have a light hand & only apply small spots of colour. I find it’s good idea to only choose a few shades for your dry brush. I tend to stick to about 4 polishes to avoid my dry brush ending up muddied. 
  •  make sure you don’t have too much polish on the polish brush. I like to keep a piece of paper towel (or regular paper would work too) beside me to brush your polish on first to steal any excess. This also keeps you from gunking up the neck of your bottle. 
  • Use a clear polish or non-quick dry top coat to brush over your dry brush a few times to blend the edge of the colours together. (I do this with gradients & sponge manicures too!) 

What do you think of these Aurora Borealis inspired dry brush nails? It’s been a while since I played around with dry brush, but as always I love the look. Also I think I was (semi) successful channeling my inspiration! I’m having a lot of fun playing around with these OPI polishes, so stay tuned for lots more nail art to come! 

All of these lovely polishes were all gifted to me by OPI as part of the #PreenMeVIP program. 

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OPI Fall/Winter 2017 Iceland Collection Part 2


Okay so I somehow managed to get the second half of the OPI Fall/Winter collection swatched (even with a baby who has decided he doesn’t like bedtime) so if anyone feels like bring me cupcakes or a really large coffee you are more than welcome to! & for you I have 6 more shades to share from this gorgeous collection, dipping into the darker & richer shades from this trip to Iceland OPI is sending us on. 

All of these lovely polishes were all gifted to me by OPI as part of the #PreenMeVIP program, as well as OPI’s natural base coat & top coat which I used for all swatches! 

Less is Norse

I like this shade, I like it a lot! OPI named this the Hero Shade of the collection, & I get it! Two coats for opacity (although it could potentially be a one coater if you’re really careful) & it goes on really smooth. The formula is just great which I like in a navy blue. & the underlying dust dusty-ness of the shade makes it just a little bit different than other Navy shades I own. 


Turn On The Northern Lights

If you’re looking to buy one shade from this OPI collection, personally I think this is the shade you need. It’s beautiful. Two coats gives you this shimmery indigo that just glows on the nail. You get that hint of fire-y red/pink/gold shimmer coming through & it makes me so excited. & the fact the shimmer shows up just as well on the nail on the bottle gives it even more points. The only thing I didn’t love was it’s weird smell–it smelled kind of skunky going on–but for this gorgeous colour I’m okay with that! 


This Isn’t Greenland

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this shade was “interesting” because as you know, I’m not much of a green polish kind of girl. But once I put it on, I really kind of liked it. This is two coats of this pistachio shade & I really needed three because I’ve got some streaks happening. I could definitely see this myself wearing this for a nice fresh punch of colour when I’m not in the mood for my usual blues or purples. & I think it would make an awesome base for some Fall leaves nail art! 


That’s What Friends Are Thor

I don’t have many brown shades in my massive stash, but brown in a Fall/Winter collection makes a lot of sense. & this chocolate-y brown is actually quite pretty. The Formula was great, only 2 coats, & dried down quite nice. It dries down slightly darker than in the bottle, but not in a way that changes the colour too much. 


Krona-logical Order

Yep, another brown! This shade however is much more dusty with grey undertones. This was two much needed coats (coat one was extremely streaky). Its a nice shade, although not really my usual go to, but I could definitely see myself grabbing it if I was needing something a little more dark & vampy on my nails. It works really well for this collection. 


Suzi & The Arctic Fox

& last but not least in the collection we have a surprise favourite shade for me! This dark grey, with blurple understones, took two coats for full opacity. It looks quite dark & grey but once you put it on & look at it under lighter circumstances you see that blurple coming through. It’s reminds me of a darker version of OPI Miss You-niverse which is one of my all time favourite OPI shades! Love love love it! 


& that’s it! What do you think of OPI’s Fall/Winter 2017 collection? Are there any shades which stood out to you from the collection you just have to have? For me I know I’ll be wearing Aurora Berry-alis, Turn On The Northern Lights & Suzy & the Artic Fox a lot this coming season! Let me know all your thoughts on this collection down below. 

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SWATCH SUNDAY: OPI Fall/Winter 2017 Iceland Collection Swatches Part 1!

Good Morning lovelies. It’s my favourite day of the week (& not just because the Mr takes Little Bubs to watch cartoons so I can sleep in!)… it’s Swatch Sunday. & it’s so exciting that I actually had to break it up into two days because I have the entire OPI Fall/Winter 2017 Iceland Collection to share with you. I’ve been obsessing about Fall shades for a few weeks now, so it makes me so excited to get to show off some finally! 

All of these lovely polishes were all gifted to me by OPI as part of the #PreenMeVIP program, as well as OPI’s natural base coat & top coat which I used for all swatches! 

 Icelanded a Bottle of OPI

Okay I’ll be the first to admit this kind of shade is not my usual go to polish grab, but once I put it on I really liked it. & as far as a Fall shade, this taupe-y brown is perfect. This was two coats, & the formula dried down really nice. If someone was looking for a great neutral shade that was office appropriate but not a simple nude, this would be a great choice for them! 


I’ll Have a Gin & Tectonic

Oooooh this pink leaning peach shade is very pretty. & it definitely brings out the yellow/olive undertones in my skin. It took 2 coats to opacity & top coat is a necessity to avoid any streakiness. It’s a gorgeous shade, although I do think more Spring than Fall when I see it. Paired with one of the darker shades in the collection in a half moon or chevron moon & I bet it would look lovely & more Fall appropriate!


Reykjavik Has All The Hot Spots



Hello frosty pink rose gold perfection. Whatever you want to call this shade, it’s very pretty! It’s also 3 coats which I’m okay with because of the end result. There are some streaks but I feel like that’s part formula & part my lack of carefulness. This one definitely feels very Fall to me & even though it’s been forever since frosted polish was part of my collection, I can definitely see myself featuring this shade a lot this season! 


Aurora Berry-alis

You know sometimes when you see people posting swatches of a shade & you think it’s so pretty but figure it can’t possibly look that beautiful in real life? Well this berry shade is actually as gorgeous as it looks. It’s slightly dusty but rich at the same time. I used 2 coats for my swatches below. It’s juicy & the formula is flawless & I never wanted to take it off. Expect to see me wearing this shade a lot this Fall! (Definitely going to need a back up bottle!)


Check Out The Old Geysirs

Now this shade screams Iceland! For my swatch, I needed 2 coats of this greyed blue for full opacity. I was quite impressed the shimmer showed up on the nail as well as it showed in the bottle. It gave a little extra pop on the nail! You know how much I love a good blue shade, & this shade was very very pretty. Reminds me of icicles! 


 One Heckla of a Color!

& finally for today’s swatches we have this 2 coated purple creamthat as you can see dries slightly darker than the bottle colour. OPI describes this shade as a “frosty purple” on their site which I would necessarily agree with the frosty part, but it does have that little bit of underlying dusty-ness to it that a lot of these shades have that works really well to bring the whole collection together. 

& that’s it for today? What do you think of the OPI Fall/Winter collection? Any favourites you see already that you have to have? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

I hope to have part 2 of the collection (the much darker shades!) up either tomorrow or Tuesday! 

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SWATCH SUNDAY: Wrenn Polish! 

Good Morning & happy Sunday! Today I’ve got a really exciting swatch Sunday post for you featuring three very gorgeous shades from Wrenn Polish. You have no idea how excited I was when my package from Alissa showed up on my door step, & I couldn’t wait to swatch these gorgeous shades to show off to you! 

A little preemptive warning–this post is going to be long & full of pictures of these stunning polishes. 

Wrenn Polish is a subset of Shop Wrenn which encompasses both these beautiful 5-free vegan & cruelty free nail polishes & their hand made Druzy stone jewelry which inspires it. I was lucky enough to receive three shades for review: Passionfruit Pink, Peri*twinkle* & A Pirates Life. 


Passionfruit Pink

Passionfruit Pink is a dusty dark blush shade that is infused with the most vivid gold shimmer. For my swatch, I had perfect opacity in 2 coats. As soon as I painted Passionfruit Pink on my nails, I knew this was going to be a go to shade for Fall. The pink on its own is a lovely, girlie shade but with the gold shimmer it becomes so much more. & unlike a lot of other nail polishes, this shimmer does not hide on the nail. As you can see from my pictures, it’s in your face & just as present on the nail as it is in the bottle! You can easily understand how these are inspired by Shop Wrenn’s beautiful stone jewelry. 

Peri*twinkle*

Peri*twinkle* is a blurple beauty that took three thin coats for full opacity. The formula on this shade was a little bit thinner than the other two, which was the reason for the extra coat, but I feel like if you were just looking for a sheer polish to add a little shimmer to your nails, one coat would be perfect for you. Depending on the angle, you can get flashes of pink, purple or blue & it’s so distractingly beautiful. I also would be very curious to see what it would do layered over some dark undies! The flash of different colours just makes this shade so beautiful & unique. I thought it might be similar to Quo by ORLY Sweet Dream, but Peri*twinkle* has a much more vivid shift & is much more blurple. 

A Pirates Life

A Pirates Life, the final shade I received for review, is absolutely my favourite. That’s two coats for opacity & honestly they went on like a dream. The formula on all these polishes are incredibly smooth & easy to use & A Pirates Life is the most perfect of the three I tried. The flash of turquoise shimmer just makes it the perfect beach blue–you can’t help but think of Caribbean waters when you stare at it (which makes the name very fitting). You can easily see how these shades are inspired by the Caribbean Druzy stone. 


Now I couldn’t not pair all these shades together, so after failing at a gradient I decided my next best option was a colour block! & oh boy did it turn out pretty. I used Essie Sweet Soufflé for my base (because of its own underlying shimmer) & the straight vinyls from Xroma Polish & Vinyls to mark off my blocking. 

All three Wrenn Polish shades went on easily & levelled well even before top coat. The shades are unique & it is so easy to see where they draw their inspiration from! If you’re interested in picking up these shades for yourself, you can buy them from the Shop Wrenn Website. & don’t forget to check out her gorgeous jewelry designs to compliment your nails! 

What do you trying of these Wrenn Polish colours? Which shade is your favourite? Let me know in the comments below! 

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

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Diamond Pattern Accent Nails

I keep telling myself “It’s Summer! Wear Summer colours!” & then immediately reach for some questionably Fall tones. That’s what August does to me–the calendar flips to August & I start thinking about Fall, & pumpkin spice & sweater weather & it’s always reflected in my polish choices. 

For this mani, I tried to go Summery… but they ended up feeling Fall-like anyways. For this mani I grabbed a bunch of shades that I won from Essie Canada thanks to their Suddenly Summer contest! (I won 10 Essie shades & a very cool InstaMax 9 Camera!) These nails remind me a lot of argyle… I used the diamond pattern vinyls & if you added a couple thin lines overtop I think it would make for some great argyle pattern nails. Going to keep that in mind for some future Fall nails. 

For this mani, the polishes I used are:

  • Base Coat: Cutex Brittle Nail Fix
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Flowerista
  • Essie Wrap Me Up
  • Essie Bikini So Teeny
  • Essie Pool Side Service
  • Essie Splash of Grenadine
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls Diamond Stencils (applied sideways) 


When do you start feeling a craving for Fall? I’m used to retail life so it’s usually end of July, early August when all the back to school shopping starts popping up in store (& when all the Fall polish collections start coming out). 

Let me know what you think of this mani by leaving a comment below & let me know what Fall polish shade (or collection) you’re looking forward to the most!