Category: Second Cup

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Gold & Blue Holo X-Pattern Nails

After a bit of an impromptu hiatus, I’m back with some new nails! Today I’m showing off these gold & blue holo nails featuring more of the great vinyls from Xroma Polish & Vinyls. 

For this manicure I used: 

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formulas Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • ACO by Ardene La Luna mixed with Nicole By OPI Make A Comet-ment
  • Color Club Dirty Money 
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls ‘X’ Stencil
  • Small dotting tool from Bundle Monster 


First can I mention how much I love this polish combination? ACO by Ardene La Luna is such a pretty cruelly, & it occurred that it would show off some holo really well so I took a risk & mixed it with some of my bottle of Nicole by OPI Make A Comet-ment. & it turned into an absolutely perfect blue scattered holo. I’m kind of in love. So I wanted to create a design that would compliment this colour & I think these x pattern stencils are perfect for that. 


I need to start coaxing myself into wearing colours other that blue. Maybe that will be my goal for June! Although I did just pick up Revlon To The Chapel which is… you guessed it! A pretty baby blue. Haha. But after I wear that it’s going to be a blue free month! Think I can do it? Guess we will have to see. 

What do you think of today’s design? What’s your favourite colour to wear? Let me know in the comments below! 💙

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Saran Wrap Splatter nails. 

There is nothing I enjoy more than discovering new (to me, at least) polish brands!

And my favourite place for finding new polishes is Marshalls/Winners. They always seem to have interesting brands that I’ve never heard of before (and amazing deals on those polish brands I just love!) There is a Marshalls by work that I’m always visiting, and when I popped in a little while ago I saw a nail polish set by a brand called My Beauty Spot, so naturally I had to pick it up to try them out. I liked the polishes so much, that when I dragged the hubby to Winners a few days later I saw another set and decided to pick it up too!

The colours were so bright and vibrant I decided to combine them together in a saran wrap splatter design.

 

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Essie Cabana Boy (base colour)
  • My Beauty Spot colours in pink, lime green, blurple, and teal.
  • Essie Gel Setter.
  • Crinkled up Saran Wrap/Plastic Wrap/Plastic Bag

 

The steps to achieve this design:

  1. Base your nails with your base coat of choice (I love Nailtek 2 and Barielle Nail Rebuilding Protein.)
  2. After your base coat has dried, paint your nails with your base colour (Essie Cabana Boy) and seal in with a quick dry top coat (Essie Gel Setter)
  3. After you’ve let your base colour dry for a couple of minutes, take your Saran wrap and rip up and crinkle four balls. You can also use a plastic grocery bag if you don’t have Saran Wrap. Make sure you have enough for all your colours.
  4. Using one colour at a time, paint you polish onto your crinkled plastic wrap ball and dab onto the nail to create a “splatter” look. I always try to apply to different areas of my nails, only overlapping my colours slightly. Also, if you feel like you’ve applied too much polish to your plastic, dab once onto paper towel before your nail.
  5. Once you’ve applied all of your colours to your nails, and like how everything looks, you can apply your quick dry top coat to seal in your design.
  6. Use a small brush dipped in acetone to remove any polish that got on your skin (or you can apply a peel off around your cuticles before painting to protect your skin!)

 

 

What do you think of these saran wrap splatter nails?

I love creating a splatter look this way, instead of the traditional way (with a straw), because I find it’s a lot less mess to clean up afterwards but still has a very similar effect!

Have a great day everyone!

 

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Another go at Saran Wrap nail art 

Happy Saturday lovelies! Hope you’re having a fantastic start to your weekend. And if you’re  one of those unlucky souls currently in the path of that awful Blizzard, I hope you’re staying warm and safe all tucked in with plenty of Storm Chips!

 

Today I’ve got some Spring-y Saran wrap nails to share with you, which I haven’t posted in quite a while. I love how quick and easy they look. For version of the Saran Wrap nails, I like to paint my polish directly on my crinkled up plastic wrap then dab it on my base colour. It creates a much different look! If you ever want me to create a pictorial tutorial for the technique, let me know and I definitely will (videos still escape me!).

 

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Essie Take it Outside (base colour)
  • Essie Garden Variety
  • Essie We’re in it Together
  • Sinful Colors Endless Blue
  • Revlon Cherries in the Snow
  • Black Nail art Striper from Milani
  • Essie Good to Go

 

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So what do you think of this manicure? I’m feeling the January Nail Art blues hard. I don’t find there anything inspiring about these cold awful days. =(

Bring on February and all the Valentines Days manicures a girl can handle! ❤

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Dry brush nails featuring China Glaze Desert Escape collection. 

   Long time no see! This Summer has been a stressful one which means blogging has been forced to the back burner. I promise to keep trying to post though–and hopefully soon my non-nail life calms down some! 💗
Today I have some dry brush accent nails to share with you featuring a few of the polishes from the China Glaze Desert Escape collection. I found the minis of this collection at my local Sally’s and didn’t hesitate picking it up! And after wearing some of these gorgeous colours I’m so glad I did! 


I create these dry brush accent nails for a friend’s birthday celebrations that were Music Festivel themed (think Coachella). I though the Desert Escape collection would match the theme perfectly. 

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Hard Candy Coconut (white base colour)
  • China Glaze Don’t Desert Me
  • China Glaze Rain Dance the Night Away 
  • China Glaze Meet Me in the Mirage
  • China Glaze Don’t Mesa with my Heart. 
  • QUO by ORLY Striper in black 
  • Seche Vite 

I seriously love how these accent nails turned out. I tried a similar mani a could months ago and my line work was just a mess! In fact, I loved this mani so much I couldn’t bare to take them off even after Don’t Desert Me started to chip! So I took it off and replaced it with Rain Dance the Night Away because it’s a seriously stunning blue! 

 
 And I full mani shot because I think it’s my new favourite. 

  

Have you picked up any of the Desert Escape polishes? Which one is your favourite of the collection? 

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SWATCHES GALORE! (What I’ve been wearing)

again with the unplanned hiatus! I’ve been busy busy busy with work with no time for much else! However, I can never go polish free so I thought I would share a few swatches of the polishes/polish combinations I’ve been wearing the last couple weeks.  

  

Hard Candy Sky (topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust) — I picked up a few of the Hard Candy 20th anniversary polishes at my local Walmart last month and obviously this one had to be in the bunch! Love love love! This polish makes me think of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her pretty pastel nails which is exactly why I feel in love with polish in the first place! Sadly my Fairy Dust didnt want to show up for the camera but looked pretty in person as always. 

CND Vinylux Dazzling Dance—Duochrome! Purple! Holo glitter! 💜 I picked up this gorgeous polish at my local Winners for $3! I’d been watching it for months, and finally realized it was waiting for me to take it home. This was 4ish coats with still visible nail line so next time I’ll add some undies. But even still… 😍  

  

ORLY Mirrorball — I’m kind of on a holo kick lately and Mirrorball is perfection. Just look… Words are not even needed. 🙀 (you will definitely be seeing more of this beauty later 😉) 

  

ACO by Ardene 80s Prom Dress — (layered over China Glaze Seas the Day)  bright fushia pink with camera shy micro glitters. Definitely a perfect Summer colour! Again it’s pretty sheer on its own so undies were a must. I’m curious to try it out with a darker shade. 

  

Nubar Absolute — Blue holo. Seriously I’m holo obsessed right now and need them alllllllll. I tried my best to capture the holo in the sun, but don’t worry in person it cannot be missed! I also realize that I’m going to have to spurlge and pick up a few more Nubar holos because damn they’re so pretty! 

  

ACO by Ardene Crystal Fog layered over Hard Candy Zombie. Zombie is another 20th anniversary release from Hard Candy that the Mr. picked out for me, probably because we’re obsessed with iZombie lately! It’s a gorgeous purple on its own, but add a coat of Crystal Fog by ACO by Ardene and it turns into the most amazing duochrome. I don’t usually wear dark polishes in the Summer but this is definitely going to be an exception! 

 

Joe Fresh Quartz — it was not easy to capture the shift of this polish on camera…. Just kidding!  the above shot says everything you need to know. I literally spent all day staring at my fingers moving them around.  Shifty gorgeous duochrome PERFECTION! I have a few Joe Fresh polishes in my stash but this is definitely my new favourite. It’s just so perfect. 
So what polishes caught your eye the most? Are you team duochrome or team holo? Also what’s your favourite polish to wear when you just don’t have time for nail art? Let me know in the comments below! 💜💜💜