Category: Purple Nails

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Wet N Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! The first Sunday of October… aka the beginning of Spooky season, aka my favourite Month! Who else is excited?

Today I’m starting off with a fun polish that I’ve had for years, that I can’t believe I haven’t shared for a Swatch Sunday yet: Wet n Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer. I’ve been rewatching Buffy (yes, again) so it felt like an appropriate shade to share, especially at the beginning of Halloween month.

2 coats + Seche Vive top coat

For a bottle of polish that is 8 years old, the formula on this shade is pretty darn good. The polish itself has that shimmer that can sometimes be hard to apply without streaks, but applying top coat flattened everything beautifully.

As for the colour, it’s a lovely — the purple is vibrant, & the shimmer adds a little something extra that gives it a beautiful underlying glow. Without top coat, it dries down to a matte finish, but I think I prefer it with a glossy finish.

Check out that macro shot — you can really see the varied shimmers. Pink. Blue. Purple. They’re such a beautiful combination, & gives the shade that glow that I’m kind of obsessed with.

Sadly these shades are no longer in production, which makes me sad I didn’t at least pick up a back up bottle. I love purple, & I love Buffy, so this is the perfect combination for me! It also works great for a pre-Halloween polish pick.

What do you think about this Wet N Wild shade? Did you pick up any of these Fast Dry shades during their original release? Let me know down in the comments below!

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Purple Metallic French Tips

Hello lovelies & happy Monday… it’s been a while! Sorry for my bit of an absence—this last couple weeks have been a little crazy, & I was trying to accomplish too many things at once, & my head ended up not in a great place. So I decided to pause doing the challenge for this month, & take a little breather.

I did miss posting my nails though.

I did these easy metallic French tips last week, when I needed an easy to do look. I used to love French manicures circa 2002 — inspired by Kaley Cuoco on 10 Rules… who always rocked a classic French manicure on the show. The classic French still remains too boring for me now (sorry) but I have been loving the updated versions I’ve been seeing on Instagram, so I wanted to try them myself! Of course, we had to give it an updated Fall feel.

& easiest part was no tools needed.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essence Arabian Nights
  • Zoya Devin

Oh man, long nails look so good with these kinds of designs. This was pre-me breaking a few nails last week & needing to trim my claws back. I really adore how this looks so I’ll definitely be doing it again in a variety of colours when I need an easy go to nail art look — a nice change from my usual dotticure. & again, this look was so so easy to do, with no tools needed. I just carefully used the brush from Zoya Devin & ran it along the tip of my nail ever so carefully.

Of course, if you were feeling uneasy about trying to freehand this look, you could definitely use French tip guides, or my favourite: paper hole reinforcers.

What do you think about this nail art look? What are your feelings on this new version of the French manicure? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & which colour scheme you would love to see next!

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Glam Nails Challenge August — Grapes 🍇

Hello lovelies & happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. We’re currently experiencing a big time heat wave here on the East Coast, but thankfully my work had the air conditioning cranked which kept my from completely melting into a big puddle. I love heat, but man the humidity is not my friend.

Today we’ve got the next prompt for Glam Nails Challenge August is grapes! I decided to go with a darker grape inspired look & created my grapes on my two accent nails.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Pat on the Black
  • Sally Hansen CSM Trouble Maker
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Feelin’ Grape
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacy Lilac
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essence The Green & the Grunge
  • Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Thyme is Money
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

How cute are these grape accent nails? I actually love how they turned out! I was inspired by this Pinterest design I found, originally done by @nailsbydaniellet. I (think) hers were supposed to be blackberries, haha, but I didn’t realize until after she inspired by grapes. I do think they turned out super cute, & all my coworkers knew exactly what they were, so I’ll take that as a win!

What do you think about this grape inspired look? Are you following along with #glamnailschallengeaug on Instagram? Let me know what you think of the designs so far this month. I can’t believe we’re already half way through the month — that’s crazy!

Have a great day lovelies!

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Glam Nails Challenge August — Coconut 🥥

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Hope everyone’s week is off to a lovely start, & not nearly as ungodly humid as it’s been in Halifax lately. Today we’re sharing another fruit inspired design for GlamNailsChallangeAugust.

Today’s prompt is coconut, which I’m going to be honest was a prompt I was super nervous about. Even browsing Pinterest was not super useful, as mostly what popped up with some kind of nail art stickers. But I did find this pretty coconut look originally done by @Nailstorming, & I thought it would be a fantastic look to give my own attempt to.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Violet Voltage
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • OPI How Great Is Your Dane?
  • Sally Hansen Good. Kind. Pure Almond Tan
  • Kosmic Colours Brown (no name)
  • OPI A Great Opera-tunity
  • OPI Just Can’t Cope-acabana
  • Cosmetics Arts Lime Green (no name)
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Beatnik
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

I’m not going to lie, a lot of polishes went into trying to create this coconut. & I thought I used a lot of nail polishes when creating floral!

But, you know — it was to totally worth it because my coconut drink turned out awesome! It totally looks like something you can sit back & relax, drinking on some tropical beach. Or, what I picture someone would sit back & drink on a tropical beach, as the closest I’ve come to a tropical vacation is lounging in an inflatable kiddie pool in my backyard.

But you know what I mean.

What do you think about this coconut nail art look? It was fun going from a more abstract interpretation to a more literal one, even if I didn’t think I was going to be successful haha. Are you following along with #glamnailschallengeaug on Instagram? I hope you’re enjoying seeing all these looks as much as I’m enjoying doing them!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Grape Juice

Hello beauties & happy Sunday! & happy first day of August!

How is everyone’s weekend — is it a long weekend where you are? It is here in Nova Scotia, & (I think) most of Canada? It also always feels like the beginning of the end of Summer. I know that we still have 4 weeks left, but man, there is something about August which always gets me in an Autumn mindset.

Today’s polish pick for Swatch Sunday still feels Summery enough though! & it was originally released as part of the China Glaze Summer Days (2009) collection: China Glaze Grape Juice.

2 coats

This polish went on easily in 2 coats, although the formula went on a little thicker for coat #2. The colour is a really vibrant, although slightly darker, purple with a beautiful silvery shimmer — I also saw some flecks of blue in there too.

You can really, really see all the shimmer in the macro shot. It’s very densely packed, which I really like! I also can’t believe I haven’t featured this yet for Swatch Sunday! It’s been in my stash for years, but with the exception of nail art, I haven’t worn it a to. Which is actually a travesty, because it is such a fantastic colour! It’s also just dark enough to keep me from full out craving Autumn, while also keeping bright-ish for Summer.

Sadly, it looks like this shade has been discontinued, but I did find a few listings online for it like Sparkle Canada but I don’t think it’s an easy find. However, if you do happen to come across it, you should totally pick it up because it’s such a lovely shade.

What do you think about China Glaze Grape Juice? Do you have this purple beauty in your stash? Which shades are you loving as we inch towards Autumn? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to know what you’re wearing right now.