Category: Sally Hansen

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Fall Inspired Abstract Nails

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Good morning lovelies! Hope you’re enjoying the beginning to another beautiful week. Also how is it possible we’ve passed the middle of September & it’s creeping (quickly!) towards October?! It feels like just yesterday I was dreaming wistfully about pumpkin spice, & now it will be Halloween before we know it!

Today I have a really, really fun design to share with you that I had an extremely hard time figuring out what to call. It has a little bit of everything in it: negative space, polka dots, colour blocking, abstract lines. This look was partly inspired by a few of these looks I’ve seen popping up on Instagram & partly inspired by my daughters new soothers. But I am 100% in love with the end results!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Gel overlay
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Wet N Wild 2% Milk
  • Essie Fall For NYC
  • Essie Bobbing for Baubles
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod!
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

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This look is super easy to do, even though it comes across as more complicated & fancy. Basically the hardest part is figuring out how to layer your lines of colour, but because they’re “abstract” you don’t have to worry about making them perfectly straight. & then just go in with a small dotting tool for some extra dots, & you’re finished! I originally was going to add a few random lines as well, but was worried about kiddos waking up (I literally did these at 6am while everyone was asleep) so I went the safe route. Definitely want to try them again & see if I can get even closer to my inspiration! This was a fun first attempt though!

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Love love loving this look! Seriously, it feels so good to paint my nails, & even if it means waking up earlier than I might want, it’s so worth it in the end. Painting my nails is what keeps me feeling like me, & it’s important to have that “thing” that makes you feel like you, especially when you’re a new Mom.

I know I get asked a lot how I have time, with two young kids, to keep doing my nails & the honest answer is: I just make the time when I can. It’s not always easy, & sometimes it takes into the next day to finish a manicure, but sometimes that’s what you have to do. We’ll see what happens when my maternity leave is up & I go back to work, but I will keep trying as much as possible to keep the routine going & finding my times to paint & create.

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What do you think of this nail art look? What kind of manicures would you like to see next? Share down below your favourite nail art look!

🧡

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VACATION NAILS — ocean inspire Saran Wrap splatter.

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Hello lovelies! Still on vacation, but even though I’m on vacation that doesn’t mean I’m not painting my nails! Like I wrote in my last Swatch Sunday post, visiting my parents means I get to take advantage of my Mom’s massive nail polish collection she uses for her jewelry. So I decided to take a few of her polishes to create an ocean inspired design perfect for an East Coast vacation!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvacote
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen CSM A Bleu Attitude
  • Quo by ORLY April Showers
  • Santee ACO6433
  • China Glaze Cattle Drive Me Crazy
  • Crinkled up Plastic Wrap

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Obviously, being away from my own nail polish stash & supply, I’m not going to attempt to crate one of my more complicated designs–like floral– which is why something like a Saran Wrap splatter is such a perfect design! Easy to do, minimal clean up, but still looks fancy & fun! & obviously because my nails were inspired by the ocean I had to take pictures of this look right on the beach! 🌊

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Looking at these close up, I realized how much these look like the mussel shells we used to collect off the beach as kids! This colour combination is definitely one of the best versions of this design I’ve done, but I find that happens whenever I do anything in shades of blue! They always just turn out so beautiful!

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What do you think of this look? What do you do about your nails when you’re on vacation–do you still paint them, or go with something like soak off gel that lasts 2+ weeks!

Let me know your vacation nail routine down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure A Bleu Attitude

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Good Morning lovelies & Happy Sunday! I’m currently writing today’s Swatch Sunday post from my parents place in New Brunswick, but a little vacation won’t keep me from painting my nails!

For today’s post, I decided to borrow from my Mom’s vast nail polish stash — Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure A Bleu Attitude. I knew I had to shade this gorgeous polish with you, so I crafted a makeshift lightbox just so I could take pictures of this polish to share!

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According to my Internet Research (aka Google), this shade was released as part of Sally Hansen’s CSM Fall 2016 collection. There is something about Navy that just screams Fall to me. As I’ve said probably a million other times, the first hint of Pumpkin Spice & you have me craving deep, dark polishes.

For my swatches, I applied one (!) coat of polish for full opacity, & finished it off with glossy top coat. Any time I can get away with a one coat polish, I am going to be happy–I love painting my nails, but sometimes I am short on time. So a beautiful one coater like A Bleu Attitude makes my life so much easier. & that makes me very very happy.

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Seriously, can you believe that is only one coat?! How amazing is that? I’m seriously tempted to sneak this bottle into my suitcase to take home, but my Mom did give me her bottle of (original) Pacific Blue, I feel like stealing this beautiful polish from her wouldn’t be the nicest move. So I’ll just have to search out my own bottle online (I did find it on Amazon.ca for sale) & if that doesn’t work, I’ll just slap it on my nails next time I come to visit.

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What do you think of this navy blue? Do you have Sally Hansen CSM A Bleu Attitude in your nail polish collection? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below! & stay tuned, because I have some fun nail art featuring this shade to share soon!

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City Sunset 🌇 for #glamnailschallengeAug

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Hello lovelies! & happy Monday.

We’ve got two more prompts left for #glamnailschallengeAug, & I’m going to be honest… I wasn’t sure I was going to get this prompt done! Not only was I a bit stumped on inspiration, but I’ve had a busy last week so I haven’t been able to get my nails painted like I usually can. But thanks to some late night Pinterest-ing & a cooperative baby, I pulled out a last minute nail art success!

& I’m so super in love with the end result!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: fraken base coat combination
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Essence Indian Summer
  • Essie Flowerista
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Trouble Maker
  • Essence Black is Back
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in white
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Nail Art Brush Trio (7mm size)

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I started off this design with what I’m going to call a “rustic” gradient — I didn’t go your typical route where you blend all your colours together at once, but instead sponged my layers on top of each other which kind of created the pinky cloud effect. I then brushed my top coat over & over to smear the layers together a bit. This created the perfect background because I really feel like it looks more like what you see when you see a sunset. & it reminds me a lot of this sunset I captured not that long ago (which was also kind of my inspiration for the colour combo I went with.)

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I’ve done a few of these sunset with background designs, but this is definitely the most unique. (Usually I do mountains & cacti, or something similar) but with the pinky sky & the buildings it really does feel like a city sunset, maybe even my own city.

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What do you think of this design? Can you believe we only have one more prompt left for this challenge… how crazy is that?

Don’t forget to hop over to Instagram & check out #glamnailschallengeaug to see everyone’s amazing city building manicures!

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Purple Quatrefoil Pattern Accent Nails

Hello lovelies! I’ve got another fun design to share with you. I felt a bit like I was getting a little too premature with the Fall colours, so I decided that I needed some bright & more Summer-like colours in my life again.

Today’s design is a fun quatrefoil design using some vinyls from What’s Up Nails, which I haven’t pulled out in a while. In fact, after going through my stash of vinyls I’m definitely going to need to order some more soon because I’m starting to run out of my favourites!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Strengthening Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Couture
  • Sinful Colors Amethyst
  • Essie Play Date
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Bourbon Belle
  • What’s Up Nails Moroccan Nail Vinyls

I thought this look turned out really unique, although using a white base might have made the pattern pop even more.

Also I would have loved to have done this on all my fingers, but like I said I’m starting to run low on my Moroccan nail vinyls so I have to use them sparingly until I order more of them. But I do think the three accent nails look really neat! & the bright polishes I picked are a little bit more Summer-y than a lot of my nail art has been lately.

What do we think about how this look turned out? Would you try out this design? Let me know in the comments below!