Category: Sparkles

Posted on

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Blue Iguana (& some bonus sparkle ✨)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! The first Sunday of November, if you can believe it! Sadly, I’m starting off November with some extra short nails thanks to a bad, bad break at work on Friday.

So I wanted to make my nails feel extra pretty, so I dug through my stash & landed on this sparkly old school China Glaze shade. This is China Glaze Blue Iguana.

2 coats + top coat

Blue Iguana was originally released as part of the 2011 Summer Island Escape collection. It has an electric blue foil finish with a great micro shimmer. The formula was fairly thin, but I had adequate coverage in 2 coats. It also appears lighter on the nail than in the bottle, which was kind of a bummer — but maybe an extra coat or two would have fixed that. I also wish you could see more of the purple duochrome flash on the nail, as much as you can see it in the bottle. But it’s still beautiful regardless.

I was feeling like my short, stubby nails needed a bit more sparkle, so I pulled another oldie (released around the same time) from Icing to add a little pizazz: Icing Radio Super Star.

1 coat over Blue Iguana + top coat

I was actually really impressed with how closely the blue glitters in Radio Super Star matched Blue Iguana. It has a clear base with blue micro glitter, fuschia hex glitters & these fun silver star glitter. What you see above is just one coat over my base — & I had great luck with getting the star glitters onto the nail with minimal fishing.

It gave me exactly the sparkle I was craving to cheer myself up!

How are you feeling up these two fun polishes both together & apart? I feel like it’s just a smidge too early for holiday polishes (although I’m keeping my eyes open!) but I may see what glitter shades I can pull out for this month.

Have a happy Sunday!

Posted on

Batty Thermal Halloween Nails 🦇

Hello lovelies & happy Halloween! I couldn’t not try to sneak at least one more quick design in before Halloween was over. After all, Halloween is my most favourite holiday.

This look is a quick & easy one, using those Dollarama nail art stickers I’ve been gushing about all month. I had this idea of doing dark bats over a thermal polish — & I just love how they turned out!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essence Colour Grip Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Cadillacquer Nostalgia
  • Dollarama Halloween Nail Art Stickers

This is a super simple Halloween look — the thermal effect of Cadillacquer Nostalgia really does all the work. It’s been particularly cold recently, so I had to rest my hands against some hot coffee in order to show off the shift between colours — & you can kind of see how it transitions back to cold in these shots which is cool.

I hope everyone has a happy, happy Halloween! I’m looking forward to trick or treating with my kids tonight, & soaking in every last minute of my favourite holiday. & there will definitely be some sour patch kids enjoyed this evening!

♥︎ Stay safe & have fun!

Posted on

New Years Eve Golden Dotticure ✨

Hello Beauties & happy New Years Eve! I told you I would sneak in one more manicure before the year was over. Obviously, it being New Years Eve, I needed to give it my all, & decided to go with gold, silver & black for the full effect.

I also didn’t want to go too crazy because I am still exhausted from working through Christmas, & honestly by 10pm I’m just wrecked. So I decided to go with a classic dotticure… but with a NYE twist.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat
  • OPI Rolling in Cashmere
  • Essie Hors d’Oeuvres
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • Dotting tool (I always use mine from NailStuff.ca — Dotting Tool Trio)

I like how I flipped the colours I would usually do. Normally, I would go with black (or another darker colour) as my base, & use the lighter colours as my dots. But I thought I needed more gold & silver, so I decided to use it as my base instead, & use black as my accent… & I love how it turned out! Very glam, with a hint of glitter. Perfect for New Years Eve celebrations, both over the top, & simple.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has visited this blog, liked my designs, & especially commented this last year! You make it worth it to keep posting, & make me excited to keep posting — especially as other social media changes so much! 2022 was a fantastic year for me, albeit challenging & full of change, but this blog was my happy place to come to, & I’m very excited to see what 2023 has in store!

Have a happy New Year Lovelies! Wishing everyone peace, calm, & joy.

♥︎

Posted on

Glam Nails Challenge December—Fireworks 🎆

Good morning lovelies & happy Wednesday! I can barely believe it, but it is the last prompt of Glam Nails Challenge December! We’ve made it to the end. Which means.. it’s almost the end of December… & the end of 2022! So let’s celebrate with something fun.

Today’s prompt is Fireworks! I was inspired by a previous design I did with the same prompt, but decided to go with a blue/silvery colour theme. Giving me all the New Years Eve vibes.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • China Glaze New Year, New Boo
  • China Glaze December to Remember
  • China Glaze Blue Iguana
  • China Glaze 2NITE
  • China Glaze Dancing & Prancing
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Nail Brush Trio (11mm Liner Brush)

Not going to lie, these nails are giving me some Snow Queen/Elsa vibes on top of fireworks. Definitely the blue on blue on blue. Could also be the fact my 3 year old spent most of Christmas running around the house scream singing “Let It Go” at the top of her lungs. Haha.

It definitely took some serious layering to get this design to look the way I imagined in my head, but with the combination of colours & glitter, it really gives you the effect of watching Fireworks explode in the sky. I love them.

What do you think about this Fireworks inspired design? Are you all ready for this year to be over? It’s definitely been an interesting year, full of a lot of change, so I’m interested (& hopeful) to see what 2023 will bring! Hopefully nothing but good things.

Thanks for following around with another month of Glam Nails Challenge! I had so much fun this month, & it was a great way to end the year. Don’t forget, all the designs for this month can be found on the Glam Nails Challenge December hashtag on Instagram.

Posted on

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Ugly Sweater Party

Hello my loves & Happy Sunday! This is the second Sunday of December, so I’m keeping with the Christmas-ish polish tradition, & trying to share shades that are related in some way to the holiday!

This past week I did a poll on my Instagram asking if people would rather see China Glaze Ugly Sweater Party (Holiday 2015) or OPI Bring Out The Big Gems (Holiday 2022) this week, & with an overwhelming majority, Ugly Sweater Party was the winner!

2 coats, No Top Coat

China Glaze Ugly Sweater Party is a pink jelly formula, packed tightly with an assortment of glitters, including holographic. The formula is a tad on the thick side, but with a little bit of patience, I easily covered my whole nail in two coats. You could probably sponge on the glitter for a denser packed glitter effect, but I much prefer it applied this way as I like the overall finish.

Truthfully, I don’t know if I can remember ever wearing this shade as a full manicure like this before. I originally bought the polish because I loved the name, & glitter is my weakness, but I think I’ve truthfully only used it in glitter gradients, or maybe as a single accent nail, which makes me sad.

I was also surprised I had never swatched this shade previous Decembers, so I was happy. to do both for todays post! This is definitely a fun glitter shade, & just screams Christmas party to me! My Christmas party days are long behind me, but to be honest if I were every invited to one — & didn’t have time for a full nail art look — this would be my #1 polish pick for such an occasion.

Do you remember China Glaze Ugly Sweater Party from its original 2015 release? Did you have this sparkly shade in your stash, or do you still have this glitter on rotation? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!