Glam Nails Challenge Dec — Santa Claus 🎅

Hello lovelies & happy Monday! Today we have another round of Glam Nails Challenge with our second prompt: Santa Claus!

For this prompt, I wanted to go a little out of the box with my design. I decided to go a little cutesy with these Santa Claus inspired tips. I thought it would be a fun alternative to the usual Santa Claus designs you usually do — it’s more on the abstract side, but still gets the point across.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Cherry Delightful
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Disco Ball
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

How cute are these? Originally I imagined them with a thinner with tip, but even though it ended up a little more clunky than I initially imagined, I do still love how cute they turned out. They definitely give off that Christmas-y vibe. & I love the little bit of sparkle that I added to the white polish.

What do you think about this Santa Claus inspired French design? Would you rock a holiday look like this?

Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

Glam Nails Challenge December — Jingle Bells

contains PR/gifted items

Hello lovelies & happy December! Yep… that’s right. It’s December! Which means the countdown to Christmas is officially on! & the abundance of Christmas designs can begin! As promised, I’m participating in GlamNailsChallenge for December, as I love a holiday themed nail art Challenge.

& the first prompt for the month: Jingle Bells.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Red It Twice (2021 Joy of Colour collection)
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Gift For Blue (2021 Joy of Colour collection)
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • Essie Muse Myself
  • China Glaze Ever Glaze Cashin’ Out
  • NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper 
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate (no longer available)
  • Small detail brush

How cute did these turn out?

I started over with a base of my two colours which are both shades from the new Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Joy of Colour collection for Holidays 2021, that were so kindly gifted to me from Sally Hansen. I really like the soft grey with sparkle of Gift for Blue against the more poppy brightness of Red It Twice. Next I stamped the bell image onto my nail using my Nailstuff stamper & Starrily Vantablack. I knew that it needed some kind of colour, so with a very tiny detail brush, I went in with my Essie Water-colours shade Muse Myself… which, over the sparkle, totally comes across as gold! I finished with some red & green accents, just to tie everything together, & topped everything with topcoat to seal the look in.

What do you think about this design? Would you wear these Jingle Bell nails? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below! & don’t forget to follow along below with the prompts on Instagram with GlamNailsChallengeDec.

Have a lovely Wednesday!

Vampy Half Moons

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! It’s a snowy Wednesday here in Halifax, which is the first snow of the season for us. Not a lot of snow, granted, but just enough to get those toasty holiday vibes swirling. & my kids were so excited for it this morning. The walk to school was definitely interesting, haha.

Today I’m sharing a design style I haven’t in a while: half moons. These have been a go to classic for me since I first fell in love with nail art, but sometimes with all the other awesome nail art designs I love to do, I forget about this classic look. I was wearing a beautiful fun red last week, & decided I wanted to do some kind of half moon look with it, so I grabbed another shade from the same collection (Sally Hansen 2018 Decadence collection) & paired them in a fun vampy design.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Good Cheer-y
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Garnish Attention
  • Paper hole reinforcements

As I mentioned, this is a favourite easy nail art look of mine. & a great beginner nail art technique! I feel like if you’re new to nail art, this is the perfect way to get fancy nails, without too much hassle. The hardest thing is always just waiting to make sure your base shade is dry enough (which I’m super guilty of being impatient, so definitely make sure you wait!)

This colour combination is beautiful, & I like that it’s not too Christmas-y, although you could definitely swap one of the shades out for a glittery gold, & bam! Christmas party ready.

What do you think about these vampy half moons? Are you a fan of the half moon mani design? Let me know down in the comments below which colour combination you would pair together for a fun moon mani!

Subtle Burgundy Dotticure

Good morning lovelies & happy Friday!

Who else is excited for the weekend. I can’t believe it’s the weekend already. & the first week of November is pretty much over. The shift in the weather is definitely evident. I can feel the Winter slowly approaching. Which means let’s get crazy for jewel tones. I’ve been going through all my old holiday polishes from years past, & getting excited for the season to come.

Does anyone else have these arbitrary rules when it comes to polish? My brain always seems more drawn to darker jewel tones as the weather gets cooler, which summer I’m more likely to reach for brighter, poppy shades.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Frosted Berries
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Garnish Attention
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

I’ve literally been wearing this manicure since Tuesday, & I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. My nails are super short now, so I’m not sure inspired for nail art right now, but I do love a subtle dotticure. I had originally thought about doing some gold dots, but I felt like it might be a bit too Christmas-y, so I went with darker dots.

What nail art are you loving right now during this cooler November months? Which nail polishes would you like to see me feature leading up to the holiday season? Let me know down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Cinna-Snap

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

Today I’m excited because I’ve got some new polish to share. My Fall polish cravings have been out of control, & I recently went on a bit of a polish buying splurge. So I’ve got lots of Autumn shades coming up to share with you — which is perfect because yesterday was the first day that actually felt like Fall was on its way.

The first shade I’m sharing is an Insta-dri shade called CinnaSnap — a beautiful red shade with orange-y brown undertones that invokes all the feelings of Autumn. I recently picked up this polish at my local Wal-mart, as part of the Sally Hansen Insta-dri core collection.

2 coats, no top coat

The formula on this shade is really, really nice. Sometimes reds can be tricky, for whatever reason, but this applied in two easy & smooth coats. The brush in the bottle is also really wide, which makes it easy to cover the whole nail in one swoop (depending on the size of your nail polish) . The polish had a nice opacity to it, so you get full coverage easily.

Gosh, I really love this red.

The colour kind of reminds me of bricks, but in a fashionable way. Like I’ve been saying, I’ve really been craving these Fall shades. I mean, I love red any time of the year, but I don’t (think) I have any super close to this shade in my stash currently.

What do you think about this shade? Who else is feeling the Autumn shades already?

Let me know which colours & collections you’re looking more forward to the next couple months! I have the China Glaze Autumn Spice collection on its way to me already from Beyond Polish Canada, plus some other shades I picked up from Nail Polish Canada so I think I’ll have to do a big nail polish haul post very very soon!