Category: Spring

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#GlamNailsChallengeFeb — Plants 🪴

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday. I’m totally late posting this manicure thanks to a crazy work weekend! But late is better than never.

The next promo for #glamnailschallengeFeb is plants! & I am definitely plant obsessed, so I was excited for this prompt. Plus anything floral or plant related are definitely favourites for me to create on my nails. For this particular look, I decided to go with my pothos & philodendrons for inspiration.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Good to Go
  • Matte Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Matte Top Coat
  • Quo by ORLY Planita
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essence The Green & The Grunge
  • Essie First Timer
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush(COFFEE10 to save 10%)

Oh man, I love a dainty manicure, & I feel like these vine-y leaves are super dainty & beautiful. They were also super easy to do… well relatively easy to do. You just have to kind of work with your brush, & it really makes it easier to create the leave shape.

Also how perfect does this design look against my heart leaf philodendron. It was the perfect prop for my photos! He loves in our living room window in one of my macrame hangers, & gives my morning coffee some serious jungle vibes. 🪴 I love him.

What do you think about this plant design? Do you think I nailed the prompt? Let me know what your favourite plant is down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Check Your Baggage

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. We’ve had some beautiful weather the last few days, so I’ve been soaking in the sunshine wherever I can. So when in at Shoppers recently & saw some pretty Essie shades, I decided I needed to get something bright & sunny for my nails too! & you can’t get more bright & sunny than this beautiful yellow from the Essie Flying Solo Collection: Check Your Baggage.

2 coats + Top Coat

You know, yellow nail polish isn’t always my first choice, but as soon as I saw this bright & cheery shade, I knew I needed to add it to my collection. The formula is really nice, & levels out perfectly with two coats. I added top coat, naturally, which gave it an extra little boost of shine. I’m also liking the new wider brushes that Essie has introduced, because it means less strokes of polish are needed on the nail. My one & only complaint about this shade is the fact that it gives me a bit of red hands, but that’s more the yellow colour itself & has nothing to do with the actual polish.

Oh man, I just have to say sorry about the cuticle/hand dryness. Even with a ton of hand cream & cuticle oil I am hurting. But never the less my nails look pretty, & that’s what is most important — right? Unless of course you have some suggestions to help the dry hand situation, because I am always open to suggestions.

What do you think about Check Your Baggage from Essie? Do you have this beautiful yellow in your collection? Let me know what you think down in the comments below!

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Tropical Florals 🌺

 

Good morning lovelies! & happy Thursday. I hope wherever you are reading this from, that your coffee (or tea, or energy drink, or wine) is strong, & the sun is shining. Today I’ve got a really pretty tropical floral that I did a few weeks back, which I really loved. & I feel like it’s the perfect manicure for this increasingly beautiful weather we’ve been having!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Fiery Island
  • Sally Hansen I ♥ Nail Art Pen in Magenta
  • OPI Suzy Shops & Island Hops
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Fuchsia Fever
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Blacky-O
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essie First Timer
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Terra-Coppa
  • Sally Hansen I ♥ Nail Art Pen in Green
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)

As you guys have seen, I love a good floral but I tend to have a certain trend — it’s mostly roses or a similar style. But lately I’ve been really trying to improve my skill with different florals, which is why I wanted to try out a tropical inspired look. It’s definitely out of more comfort zone, & takes a bit more talent to create, but the end result looks jsut beautiful! & it’s fun to try something I don’t feel like I’m that awesome at. Plus, you know, wearing the same style floral over & over can get a bit monotonous, so it’s nice to switch things up a bit!

Also this look definitely makes me want to pull out my favourite tropical print dress to wear! & since it’s supposed to be feeling very Summery today, that’s exactly what I might do! 

What do you think about this tropical floral? Is the weather feeling like Summer where you are? Let me know down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Bikini So Teeny

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday. I feel like it’s been forever since my last post! So far this month has been fairly busy, but it feels good to be posting. Today I decided to share one of my most favourite nail polishes, which just happens to be perfect for Spring: Essie Bikini So Teeny.

This shade was actually one I coveted for a very, very long time before I finally bought it, & 5(ish) years later, it’s still one of my all time favourite blues. & good news: it’s part of the core Essie collection, so you can own it too!

2 coats + Essie Speed Setter Top Coat.

How pretty is this cornflower blue? The formula is pretty good–you need two coats for perfect opacity, & a coat of top coat will smooth everything okay perfectly. There is a subtle silvery shimmer, but it was hard to capture in the light of my lightbox. I find that you can see it much better in natural light.

I just love love love this blue! It’s so pretty. I think I first bought this blue because I wanted to wear it for my Wedding, but it’s come to be a repeated favourite. This is my second bottle I’ve gone through, & I can’t think of very many other polishes I’ve done that with.

Like I mentioned, Bikini So Teeny is part of the core Essie collection, so you can find this beauty where ever Essie is sold!

What shade was the first you ever really coveted? Let me know down in the comments below! & let me know which shade you’re currently wearing on your nails.

💙

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Pastel Geometric Dry Brush

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday! I hope the weather is more beautiful where you are — here in Halifax we have rain, & clouds & an overall dreary day. Well at least yesterday was beautiful!

How about I brighten things up a bit with some new nails? I actually did this look a few weeks ago, but (again) didn’t get around to posting it. I’m really feeling this coral/purple/turquoise colour scheme right now, & I have been putting out these shades a lot. This look was kind of me just playing around, but it turned out to pretty I decided to wear it!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Malibu Peach
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod!
  • Essie Where’s My Chauffeur? 
  • Essie Play Date
  • Claire’s Matte Sorbet Blue
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Striper Brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)

I’ve been a little bit obsessed with dry brush designs lately, just because they make such a pretty back ground for nail art. I really like how the clean white lines stand out so much against the blurred pastel background. Originally I had thought about doing some more complicated tribal print, but I think the simplicity of a few geometric lines works way better. You see both the background & the graphic lines as well. I like it a lot. Plus it was a great excuse to work on free-handing straight lines, which is definitely something I find tricky.

Please excuse my horrendously dry hands. I’ve been struggling through finding the right hand creams to help under these extreme circumstances! I think I may have found my new favourite one, but I want to give it a couple weeks of real hands on testing before I make any posts about it. It’s actually one my Dad recommended to me. Got to love suggestions from Dad! Haha.

 

So what do you think about this design? Have you ever worn a dry brush design before? Do you like them on their own, or with nail art added on top. Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & for fun, share what hand cream is currently saving your dry hands right now!

♥♥♥