Category: Seche Vite

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Beachy Gradient Nails

Happy Thursday lovelies! Who else can’t believe this week (month… year…) is speeding by as quickly as it is? Seriously, wasn’t it just Easter?

Today I’m sharing a recent gradient that is giving me beachy vibes! 🏝 The colours for this design was inspired by a recent trip to David’s Tea (for my mid-afternoon matcha fix) & their Spring colour scheme. I was loving all the gradients & the beautiful shades that I knew I had to create a gradient on my nails ASAP.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Bourbon Babe
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sweet Tea
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Babe Blue
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Royal Hue
  • Icing Stores Mermaid Mint Shimmer
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier

Seriously, how fun are these? I loved the gradient just on its own, but adding the shimmer from Icing Mint Mermaid Shimmer really brought it over the top. Also I’m so happy with how the blend turned out in this design. Considering how awful my beginner gradients just to look (mostly because I was terrified of having to clean polish off my hands!) I’m really, really happy with them now.

Also these totally make me want to go to the beach. Hopefully it will be warm enough for those days soon enough!

What do you think of this design? Does it remind you of the beach? What are your favourite gradient tips & tricks? Share all your thoughts down in the comments below!

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Purple Dry Brush Quatrefoil Nails

Happy Friday & almost Easter lovelies! I’m off today with Good Friday & ooooooh do I have so many blog things to do! This has been a crazy week & I’m still trying balance working Full Time & keeping to my blog posting schedule. Thank goodness I’m going at multitasking! Today I’m showing off some pretty purple nails I did forever ago but didn’t have a chance to post yet. 💜 These nails were inspired by a make up bag I saw at Marshall’s.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essie Go Ginza
  • Essie Play Date
  • Essie The Girls Are Out
  • China Glaze Grape Juice
  • Sally Hansen Hard To Get
  • Random clear nail polish
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper
  • Born Pretty Store stamping plate BP-L003 (item #17921) — quatrafoil image

I’m digging all these purples together. I thought about creating a sponge mani, but didn’t have any sponges so a dry brush was my next option! I really wanted the colours to blend together, kind of like a gradient. So I used a random bottle of clear polish (literally it has no label & I no idea where it came from) and smeared the brush strokes together by brushing the clear polish over it over & over again. The cheaper & random the clear polish, the better things will blend. You don’t want to use a quick dry top coat because it dries to quickly. The whole point is to smear all the shades together.

It feels like ages since I played with my stamping stuff. This is definitely one of my favourite images from this particular plate. It just makes doing Moroccan/quatrefoil designs just so, so easy (& definitely quicker than nail vinyls!

what do you think of this purple design? What design are you rocking for the weekend? Comment down below! 💅🏻

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Mermaid Nails featuring Claire’s Mood Nail Polish

Happy Friday lovelies! Who is excited for the weekend to be (almost) here? I’m working all weekend but that’s okay! There is a Cheer Expo in town so that always makes it busy which in turn makes work speed by. I also just got a new smart watch & I’m so curious so see how many steps I get in on a busy day!

Today I’m showing off some mermaid nails! I actually can’t remember the last time I used my mermaid vinyls, how sad is that? Who doesn’t want to be a mermaid 🧜🏼‍♀️ after all? For this design, I decided to pull out a few of my thermal polishes! Sadly I forgot to get any pictures of it in the hot state (which isn’t often–I’m always cold!) but I did get a whole bunch of before shots!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Claire’s Mood Nail Polish Blue
  • Claire’s Nail Polish Mermaid
  • Layla Cosmetics Thermo Effect No. 01
  • Layla Cosmetics Thermo Effect No. 04
  • What’s Up Nails Scale Stencils
  • Pearl stud from Icing.

Gosh I love thermal/mood nail polish, even if the only time it changes is when my hands are warm first thing in the morning. I always run cold, so I feel like the effect gets lost on me a little… but I still adore them! In fact, I just bought a few more of the Mood nail polishes from Claire’s (in Spring colours) which I’m very excited to show off. I also definitely need to get my hands on some of the Indie thermals, because Indie brands make some of the most beautiful thermals I’ve EVER seen. & now that I’m back to work, I will definitely be adding them to my “must buy” list.

However I do really enjoy the fact you can find thermal nail polishes while out shopping at the mall. I’ve written before I feel in love with these polishes in early 2010 when Claire’s first released them, & I keep going back & buying more because they are just as awesome to me as they were back then! Hoping they come out with some new shades soon, maybe some neons!? That would make me so happy!

What do you think of these mermaid nails? Do you have a favourite thermal nail polish or thermal polish/brand suggestion? Share all your thoughts in the comments below!

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Matte Floral for the First Day of Spring!

The day has finally come… it’s the first day of Spring! Well as of 1:05pm or something. It’s definitely been a long Winter, even if we didn’t have a super snowy Winter this year. I am so absolutely excited for Spring days & floral dresses & warmer days. So in honour of Spring finally arriving, & to encourage Mother Nature 🌸 a little, I figured some more floral was in order.

I’m not going to lie, these nails took me a while. A whole episode of Vanderpump Rules & then some. What’s the saying? You can’t rush perfection? Well these are definitely perfection to me.

For this manicure, the many, many polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Matte Top Coat
  • Wrenn Polish Passionfruit Pink
  • China Glaze I Got A Blue Attitude
  • Wet N Wild Haze of Love
  • China Glaze Life is Rosy
  • L’Oréal Jardin des Roses
  • Essie Flowerista
  • YSL Beauty Vert D’Orient
  • Quo by ORLY Second Hand Jade
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Green
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Turquoise
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Purple
  • Nail Art brush from Bundle Monster

It’s definitely the matte top coat that makes these nails so perfect. They were pretty shiny too, but they were just another floral. Adding the matte just brought this mani to a whole other level that I’m quite honestly obsessed with. Also this is my first time matte-ifying Wrenn Polish Passionfruit Pink & oh my god! It completely transforms it to a whole other level. I’m kind of obsessed.

So who else is so excited about the first day of Spring? I’m choosing to ignore the fact we have a snowstorm apparently coming tomorrow/Thursday & chiding to concentrate on the fact it’s going to be sunny today & I’m going on a thrift store adventure today to expand my Spring wardrobe.

What do you think of these florals? What are you doing to celebrate the beginning of Spring today? Share you thoughts in the comments below!

💗

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St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Nails ☘️

Happy Saturday Lovelies… & happy St Patrick’s Day! It’s been quiet on the blog this week, & if you follow me on Instagram you’ll know I had a bit of an accident involving my son where he scratched my cornea with his nail leaving me temporarily blind Wednesday. It was a little difficult to try & do my nails & write a post so I took a bit of a hiatus but I still wanted to try & do something fun in honour of St. Patrick’s Day, so I can up with a fun shamrock design.

Green is not a usual colour choice for me. I own quite a few greens, but I usually save them for either Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day so I was excited to pull a few out to play with.

The polishes I used for this design were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by Orly Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Wrenn Polish I Know Quac is Extra
  • OPI That’s Hula-rious
  • China Glaze Be More Pacific
  • Essence The Green & The Grunge
  • YSL Beauty Vert D’Orient
  • URSugar Nail Vinyls — shamrocks (item #AUB39877)

I started off with a dry brush base using all my greens but YSL Beauty Vert D’Orient & let it dry completely. Then I added the shamrock vinyls over top my design & painted over the whole nail with Vert D’Orient & immediately removed the vinyls revealing my dry brush shamrocks. I think it was a cute way to use a whole bunch of greens & a great design for St Patrick’s Day!

What do you have planned for your St Patrick’s Day? Mine will be spent working & the only green things I’ll be drinking with be green kombucha & matcha lattes… but that’s okay with me! Hope you have a fun (& safe!) St. Patrick’s Day whatever you get up to. 💚 Also head over to my Instagram later on for a bonus nail art look featuring these Shamrock vinyls from URSugar! 🍀☘️🍀