Day Planner Inspired Floral Nails

Hello Lovelies! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend & is all ready for the week ahead. This week, I’ve decided for a fun mani theme: all floral! It’s no secret how much I love floral nail art, so I thought I would share a few of the floral designs I’ve been doing lately. Honestly, if it wouldn’t bore everyone else I’m pretty sure I could wear flowers on my nails non-stop. They’re just so perfect any time of the year.

Today’s design is actually inspired by my day planner! As soon as I bought it, I knew that I was going to need to do nail art inspired by it.  The combination of colours was just screaming to be painted on my nails!

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • OPI Race Red
  • Essie Play Date
  • China Glaze Sun Upon my Skin
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow
  • China Glaze Plur-ple
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Piggy
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac
  • Sally Hansen I ♥ Nail Art pen in Green
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Black Heart
  • Small Detail Brush (Bundle Monster)
  • Dotting Tools (Bundle Monster)

At first I wasn’t sure if this colour combination was going to work for me, but once I had it on it looked so perfect. Obviously my flowers aren’t as abstract as my planner, but I feel like they match close enough for me to be happy. The colour combination also reminds me of a Hawaiian shirt, so I feel like this manicure would be perfect for a beach luau! Or, in my case, hanging out on the couch pinteresting Summer fashion looks because that’s about as close as I’m getting to the beach right now. Seriously, what I wouldn’t give to wear a summer dress & flats–I’m so over boots & jeans, so so so over them. & it snowed yesterday, so now Spring feels even farther away.

Floral always takes so many polishes to do, but honestly the end result is always worth it. I don’t think I’ve ever painted floral on my nails & regretted it. There are so many ways to do them, it just never gets old. & look how well this design twins with the day planner that inspired it! Like I said, mine isn’t as abstract as my planner but the colours are spot on so I’m very happy with how they turned out!

What do you think of this floral design? Are you excited for a whole week dedicated to nothing but floral nails? Let me know your thoughts below!

Matte Greyscale Ring Pattern Nails

Happy Friday!

Today’s nails are definitely matching the weather in Halifax–completely greyscale. Cloudy skies, rainy,  & lacking any colour what-so-ever.

I thought after all that pink & red for Valentine’s, a palate cleanser manicure was in order. Pink is nice, but I don’t think I’m used to wearing so much of it on my nails. I’ve also been doing house planning (figuring out room paint colours & putting together some prints for our walls) & completely obsessed with everything grey. So naturally that means it will end  up on my nails eventually!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by Orly Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: Butter London Matte Finish
  • OPI My Pointe Exactly
  • Essie Cashmere Bathrobe
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls Ring Vinyls
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge

I love colourful manicures, don’t get me wrong! & I really enjoyed wearing all that pink for Valentine’s Day. But sometimes I just want to wear something a little more monochromatic & simple on my nails. Plus any time I get to wear Essie Cashmere Bathrobe–which is my ALL TIME favourite grey–is a good day & matte top coat just makes it look even better. To me, this design is just absolutely perfection.

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I feel like with all the stamping I’ve been doing, I’ve been neglecting my nail vinyls a bit! I’ve been organizing my nail room though, so hopefully I will be starting to use them more often. But not next week… next week I have a special theme planned for all my manicures, but you’ll have to stay tuned to see what it is!

What do you think of this greyscale manicure? What is your favourite palate cleanser manicure or polish? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Chevron & Deer Stamped Design

Hello lovelies! Today I have a really fun design to share with you. Back in early December, I made an order through Born Pretty Store & just recently received my goodies which included 6 new stamping plates! Obviously, I couldn’t wait to play with my new plates, because I’ve been using the same ones I bought in 2014 for ages. Today’s design was semi inspired by all the fun stag head designs that have been popping up on my Instagram feed! Finally I can create my own cute deer designs!

For this design, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: Butter London
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Trouble Maker
  • Quo by Orly Breathable Barely There
  • ACO by Ardene Daydreamer
  • L’Oreal Feeling Kilty
  • Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Black Heart
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Stamper
  • Born Pretty Store Image Plate BP-L006 (item #17924)
  • Born Pretty Store Image Plate BP-L03 (item #23268)
  • Small dotting tool
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier.

Seriously, just how cute is this manicure?! I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t order these in time to get them for Christmas, so I could do cute reindeer nails, but I’m very excited for all the upcoming designs I’ll be able to do. I’m also very happy to have a brand new jelly stamper because mine as certainly seen better days & will need to be retired very soon. Don’t get me wrong, I still love doing freehand/nail vinyl designs, but there is something a little more convenient about stamping–you don’t have to spend an hour trying to paint a design, or worry about having to wait for you base to dry to apply nail vinyls (even with quick dry top coat). It’s taken me a while to finally get the hang of stamping, & while I’m not a pro by any means, I definitely feel like I’m so much better than I used to be!

What do you think of this design? Are you a fan of stamping? Let me know all your thoughts (or tips & tricks!) in the comments below.

Negative Space Floral

We’re currently being bombarded with 25+ cm of snow here in Halifax, which is not so much fun. I’m really not a Winter person (well, once Christmas is over anyways.) So how about some floral nails to cheer us up? I wore this design this weekend, but with a raging Winter storm outside as we speak I kind of need something pretty & Spring-y to cheer me up. Did I mention I’m really, really over Winter?

Did you know it’s 49 days until Spring? Just a fun fact to get you through those long, chilly days ahead. Unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case do you have a spare room because I’m coming to visit!

I took so many pictures of this design. I know every floral manicure is my new favourite, but this one just turned out so well I couldn’t help but take a million pictures of it.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: L’Oréal the Matte Velvet
  • Essie The Girls Are Out
  • OPI My Pointe Exactly
  • China Glaze Ever Glaze Don’t Grape About It
  • Sally Hansen Instadri Petal Pusher
  • Essie Bachelorette Bash
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art Pen in Green
  • Essence The Green & the Grunge
  • Essie Play Date
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow
  • Small detail brush (Born Pretty Store)
  • Small & large dotting tools (Bundle Monster)

So many polishes were used for this design, but it was so worth it. & I think the matte top coat just makes the end result that much more beautiful. This is definitely not a quick to do design, but floral just makes me so happy I don’t even care! 💗 I hope you love floral, because I have a feeling there will be a lot of floral leading up to Spring. Also even though it’s snowing today, I’m totally pulling out my favourite floral romper, since I have no plans on leaving the house today… except to maybe go to Starbucks & get coffee but even then I won’t be leaving the car.

What are your thoughts on today’s floral design? Are you a fan of floral nails? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Winter Chevron Moons

Hello & Happy Tuesday! Sorry for the lack of posts this weekend–it was kind of a rough weekend & my motivation for posting took a hit. (Also I noticed the majority of my last post disappeared & I’ve been too frustrated thinking about having to rewrite it so I’ve been avoiding the blog. My bad.) But today I have a brand new post with something that has been seriously lacking in my life lately: chevron moons!

I’m calling these winter chevron moons because… it sounds cool? The colours just kind of give me that Winter vibe, so I thought it worked. Also I figured everyone might want to see something other than snowflakes.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2 Foundations
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Nubar Queen
  • Essie Parka Perfect
  • OPI My Favourite Ornament
  • URSUGAR Chevron Nail Stencils (I used the inner pieces.)

I love the combination of the pale blue, deep purple & sparkly gold. I thought this colour combo was a nice switch up from all the Christmas-y designs I’ve been doing, & features two of my favourite winter polishes: Essie Parka Perfect & OPI My Favourite Ornament. Every Christmas, this gold has to come out because the sparkle is just so perfect. ✨

For me, Christmas/Winter nails are all about the sparkle. These aren’t your typical holiday nails, but I think they would look fantastic with a pretty dress at a Christmas/New Year’s party, especially if you don’t want to resort to the classic Christmas shades. It’s all about the sparkle that makes it perfect. I’m so obsessed with Christmas party looks right now because I have no Christmas party of my own to go to. I just keep coming up with looks I would wear if I had somewhere to go (& then imagine what fancy dress sitting in my closet I would pair with it.)

What do you think of these chevron moons? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!