Purple & Gold Leopard Print (Recreation from 2014)

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! We’re officially mid-week, which means we’re just days away from October… how crazy is that? Wasn’t it just January?

I’m super excited though, because October is one of my all time favourite months for nail art, so I’m excited to get started on all sorts of spooky season nails. In the meantime, though, I have a fun nail art look which is a recreation of a nail art look I did all the way back in 2014. You know me, I love a good nail art recreation.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Belle of the Ball
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Ski Bunny
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Five Golden Blings
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio
  • NailStuff.ca 4mm Micro Detail Brush

I’ve actually been planning on recreating this nail art look (which was originally inspired by perfectlynailedUK) for a while, but I was just waiting for the right moment. This colour scheme is very much an Autumn colour scheme. Also, I switched things up slightly for my recreation, but I think I’ve captured the overall essence of my original manicure quite well! & I love being able to look back on old designs & see how far my nails have come.

Leopard print is just such a fun design to wear, no matter the season. But the combination of gold & purple is perfect for this late September, pre-Halloween nail art season. & now that I’m (more or less) feeling back to myself, I’m excited to get back into all the fun nail art designs I love to wear this time of year! & plan for those spooky season manicures to come.

What do you think about this nail art recreation? Do you like how I updated this old design? Do you ever recreate nail art looks from the past to see how your nails have improved? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

Happy Wednesday! ♥︎

SWATCH SUNDAY — Layla Pro Nail Polish SG31

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. It has definitely been a while!

This is actually the first time I’ve painted my nails all week after surviving covid. & I won’t lie — it was a rough week for sure. I have never felt so sick in as long as I can remember. But I’m back, slowly & surely, & ready to share a fun nail polish for this week’s Swatch Sunday.

Once again, I went shopping in my own nail polish stash, & found a beauty I’ve owned for quite a while. This is Layla Cosmetics Layla Pro Nail Polish in SG31.

2 coats + top coat

I actually have a couple polishes from the Layla line I’ve picked up over the years in my local Lawton’s clearance bins. &, truthfully, I have two difference bottles for this particular shade; this bottle, titled Layla Pro & the Ceramic Effects line which is the exact same polish.

According to what I read online, the Pro line was released for nail polish professionals, in bigger bottles than their other shades. I picked up this bottle a few years ago for the very affordable price of $3.25 on clearance. What drew me initially to this shade is it’s very close to the original version of Color Club’s The Uptown — although not a direct dupe.

For my swatches, I did two easy coats. The first one applied fairly thinly, but the second one I applied a bit more generously. The flakies are very densely spread through the formula, so you get a lot of coverage. It’s a beautiful polish, with the perfect shift for Autumn weather.

I’m already kind of on a purple kick, & flakie kick, so it’s giving me the best of both worlds. I love the shift between orange, gold & green depending on how you move your hand. I also, obviously, had to top it with some matte top coat

Have you ever tried Layla Cosmetics polishes? Do you love a good flake polish? I feel like you don’t see shades like this as much anymore — outside the Indie polish world. I kind of miss when unique shades like this would pop up in mainstreams store. Can we petition for 2024 to be the year of the mainstream flake polish?

Have a fantastic Sunday!

Freehand Metallic X-pattern Nails

Hello loves, & happy Wednesday. It’s mid-week, & back to school is tomorrow! How exciting is that? I’m kind of sad Summer is over, but also there are so many fun Halloween & Autumn decorations popping up in store, I’m not too sad.

Today I’m sharing a fun freehand design I am very proud of. I was trying to come up with something fun & unique to share, & ended up creating these x-pattern nails. I do have nail vinyls with this pattern I could have used, but I really wanted to see if I can do it completely freehand.

& I did!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Top Coat
  • Milani Nail Polish Deep Thoughts
  • Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Scarab
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Liner Brush

I found this old clearance Milani in my stash, & realized I’d never worn it, so I decided to give it a try. Right now I’m just loving deep, dark purples. Also, I’m kind of sad this was my first time ever trying this shade out as I’ve owned it quite a while. Now that I should have a smidge more free time, I think I need to officially go through my nail polish stash & check out all those untried nail polishes I’ve collected over the years.

Also, I’m so so so happy with how this x-pattern design turned out. My thumb ended up slightly off centre, but I more or less had all the nails pretty even. I’m really proud of how these turned out, & I think the beautiful teal shimmer over the deep purple looks incredible. It really pops! & it was such a fun design to wear.

What do you think of these freehand x-pattern nails? What colours are you loving right now? Right now, I’m all about dark nails, which I’m loving. Especially shades with just a little bit of shimmer to keep things interesting.

Have a lovely Wednesday! ♥︎

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Glamcore

Hello my lovelies, & happy Sunday. The first Swatch Sunday of September. The mornings are cooler, the humidity is non-existent, & I’m really for some darker nail polish.

I dug through my nail polish stash, trying to decide on what shade of should start off the Autumn vibes with, & found this beauty from China Glaze. Glamcore is a beautiful deep dark purple shimmer, originally released as part of the Fall 2017 Street Regal collection.

1 coat, no top coat

If you’re looking for a beautiful Autumn shade, this is definitely the vibe. In the bottle, it’s a bit of a different shade with this kind of dusty blue that doesn’t really translate onto the nail. But the colour you do get, this dark & vampy purple, is spectacular.

The formula on this shade is also great — it’s thick in the coverage department, but easy to apply, so I only needed one coat. The brush on this baby is the only downside — it’s very skinny, which can make application, especially around the cuticle line, more difficult. You get kind of see where I struggled a bit for clean cuticle application (although I think I did a not too bad job!)

Is this not a stunning polish? We all know next to a good red, I love a good purple. & this is prime purple season, so expect that you’re probably going to see a few over the next couple months. Also, China Glaze Fall collections have always been my favourite collections, & I have quite a few on here from over the years that I don’t think I’ve shared on here.

Sadly this shade is 6 years old, so it’s no longer in rotation. I score this shade a few years later at my local Winners (hence the label) so the possibility exists that it could pop up again at one of those stores in limited released.

What do you think of China Glaze Glamcore? Do you remember the 2017 Street Regal collection, or own any of the shades from it? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & what current Fall/Autumn 2023 Nail Polish collection you’re obsessed with!

Negative Space Purple Gold Shatter Accent Nails

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday. It’s a rainy one here on the East Coast.

Today I’ve got some brand new nail art to share with you, that was inspired by a design my coworker showed me from Pinterest! I loved the negative space with gold foil, so I decided I recreate it with a more me colour — purple!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Glossy Top Coat
  • OPI Suzi and the 7 Dusseldorfs
  • Essence Steel-ing the Scene
  • Dotting tool (NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio)

How fun is this look?

It was actually super easy to do, which make me happy. I decided to go with a gold shard glitter, instead of gold foil, but I think the overall look hits the same! & I was excited to pull out this purple shade, because it’s been a really, really long time since I last wore it. I forgot how pretty it was!

What do you think about this fun negative space accent look? Where do you get your nail art inspiration from? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!