Category: Spring

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Classic Marble Nails

{GIFTED}

Good morning lovelies & happy Tuesday! Here in Halifax, we’ve been having a surge of almost Spring like weather, which leaves me feeling refreshed & hopeful! I’m totally going to ignore the Winter storm heading our way in a couple days, & just pretend that Spring is on it’s way.

Today’s look feels very refreshing & Spring like as well. I decided to wanted to try & create a “classic” looking marble.

For this manicure, the polishes I’m wearing are:

  • Base Coat: Essie Treat & Colour Gloss Fi
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Ballet Slippers
  • White Acrylic Paint
  • Black Acrylic Paint

For this look, I started off with a base of Ballet Slippers, & then watered down some acrylic paint & brushes it along the nail using my skinner brush. If I felt like my lines were too harsh, I’d take my round clean up brush, dip it in water, & water down the paint on my nails (or remove it completely, which is the benefit of using acrylic paint!)

& then obviously I needed some gold. & these gold flakies from NailStuff are kind of my new obsession. They’re so beautiful!

What do you think about this look? What is your favourite technique for creating marble nails? Let me know in the comments below!

Some items were gifted in exchange for content. All opinions are genuine & my own.

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Secret Per-wink-le

Happy Sunday lovelies! Is anyone else seriously craving Spring?

Today, I thought it would be nice to get a little Spring-y & share one of my favourite Spring nail polishes (& blue shades in general) — China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le. According to my internet, this shade dates back to 2008, & was part of the China Glaze Operation Color collection, or at least that was the earliest post I could find.

For my swatches, I did 2 coats of polish & finished with top coat.

This shade & China Glaze Fancy Pants are probably my two all time favourite blue shades ever — Fancy Pants to me is more a Fall-ish shade, & Secret Peri-wink-le is definitely perfect for Spring! It’s no secret I love, love, LOVE a good blue & this shade is no exception. I love the formula isn’t too thin, I love that it applies easily (even though my bottle is over five, maybe six, years old), & I love that whenever I wear this colour I just instantly want to start wearing all my favourite Summer dresses, regardless of how much snow may be on the ground.

Ah, it’s just so pretty! Seriously, like how can you not love a blue polish like that?

So, according to my internet there are a few places that this polish is available, although I’m not sure if you can still find it in stores (I looked it up on the Sally Beauty website, but no listing.) However, there are a few places you can find it, such as:

I have no doubt there are probably a few Ebay listings for it as well!

So what do you think about China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le? Are you already craving Spring, like me, or do you think it’s just too soon? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below! & let me know what shade you always pull out when you start feeling like you need a little Spring in your life!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Garden Variety

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Hope everyone is excited for the LAST week of January! It’s also our last Swatch Sunday of January, which means we’re that much closer to Spring. & oh boy am I ready to get into Spring. So that means it’s time to dive into my nail polish stash & start pulling out my favourite blues!

I did an Instagram poll yesterday on my Instagram stories — @coffeeandnailpolish — & asked which of two Spring-y blue polishes people wanted to see for today’s post, & with a 58% of the vote Essie Garden Variety was the resounding winner!

2 coats

Essie Garden Variety was originally released as part of the Spring 2015 collection, but has stayed on as part of the permanent collection. It has the most incredibly smooth formula, so it applied in just two easy swipes. This is pre-top coat, but still super glossy & shiny & perfect.

Now this is definitely a very difficult polish to capture on film — it can lean really blue at time which is hard to avoid. It’s definitely a little bit darker than you’re seeing in my pictures, but I tried not get the photos to show as close to reality as possible because it really is one of the prettiest teal-y blues that I own. & I don’t have anything else quite like it.

Just look at that beauty — it’s perfect! Oh man, doesn’t it just make you think of Summer dresses & sunglasses & the beginning of flowers budding in the garden. I know we’re only at the end of January, but I need to dream of Spring days to get me through these dreary snow filled grey days. It gives me something to look forward to! (Like the days when I don’t have to worry about layering as many pairs of tights under my jeans as I can fit… & wearing something other than layers of sweaters.)

Like I mentioned, Garden Variety is part of the permanent Essie collection, so you can find the beauty whenever Essie is sold. For those who don’t feel like venturing out to the store, but need this bright beautiful shade in your life there are a few online places you can purchase Essie:

What do you think about Essie Garden Variety? Do you have this shade in your collection? What is your favourite Spring-y blue? Let me know down in the comments below!

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QUO Spring 2019 Limited Edition Make Up Collection

{PR sample}

Good morning lovelies! Today I have a fun post to share with you that is a little out of my comfort zone, but I am super excited about! I was recently contacted by Quo about their Spring limited edition make up collection that is cactus themed & I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to say yes!

The collection contains two eye shadow palettes, Desert Rose & Desert Sun, two face palettes, Sand Dune & Badlands, two Cream lip stains, Mariposa & Apache, a Luxe Buffing Brush & a cactus themed sponge. I was lucky enough to receive an eyeshadow palette, a face palette, a cream lip stain & that very adorable cactus sponge.

Continue reading “QUO Spring 2019 Limited Edition Make Up Collection”

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Color Club Almost Famous

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday. I thought I was brighten things up a little for this week’s edition of Swatch Sunday & bring out the sunshine with my colour pick. Today’s polish pick is Color Club Almost Famous! This shade was originally released as part of the Poptastic Spring 2010 collection, & (I do believe was) eventually was added it to the permanent collection. I picked up my bottle a few years back at Lawnton’s in their permanent Color Club display.

For today’s swatches, I did 2 coats of polish plus top coat. I did have to go back & touch up the streaky spots though, where I hadn’t applied enough polish. The formula isn’t the greatest, but that is a universal yellow polish problem for me. The colour, however, is so much fun! I love the brightness of it — it’s the perfection transition shade from Spring to Summer!

Oh hello Sunshine, I’ve missed you. ☀️

If you’re looking to add this shade to your collection, I found a few links: Amazon.ca, Nailpolishcanada.com, & Amazon.com. Sadly it’s not listed on the main Color Club website, so I’m thinking the shade may have sadly been retired–& truthfully I haven’t seen it in my local Lawton’s display, so it would make sense.

Do you have a favourite yellow polish? What is your go to yellow? I’m always looking for shades outside my usual purple/blue/pink wheelhouse, so share your favourites down in the comments below!