September Monthly Mani Favourites


Crazy to think that another month has gone by! & that means itโ€™s time to round up my favourite Fall manicures from the last month. This month saw lots of Fall designs & colours & Fall coffee drinks. 

Did your favourite manicure from the last month make the cut? Itโ€™s always so hard for me to narrow down my favourites, but I have to admit Iโ€™m really in love with how my coffee nails turned out! 

Now onto the October (& Halloween ๐ŸŽƒ) designs! 

Happy National Coffee Day Nails! โ˜•๏ธ


You know I love a good excuse to celebrate a holiday & what better holiday to celebrate than National Coffee Day! I joined my girls in #thenailartsquad for some caffeine inspired manicures in order to celebrate this day in style! 

Obvious if weโ€™re doing coffee inspired nails, I had to do something Starbucks inspired! I also thought I would pull out some of the acrylic paints I recently picked up for my freehanding details. 



For this design, the products I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Diamond Flash
  • Essie Mochacino
  • Essie Cocktails & Coconuts 
  • Sally Hansen Hard To Get
  • Acrylic Paints (black, white, brown & green)
  • Silicone Mat
  • Tiny dotting tool 
  • Small Detail Brush

I had this idea of how I wanted this design to turn out, & it turned out exactly how I imagined in my head… I love when that happens! I used my pink silicone mat to create my โ€œlatte artโ€ drag marble decals which (I think) turned out really good. I also tested out my acrylic paints for the first time, & they were so easy to use for nail art! I definitely understand why they are such a popular option for nail artโ€”I would have had a much harder time creating my little Starbucks cup using just regular nail polish. Now I want to buy even more colours to test out designs! 

What do you think of these coffee nails in honour of National Coffee Day? Whatโ€™s you favourite coffee drink of choice? Obviously I love pumpkin spice this time of year, but if weโ€™re picking favourites I absolutely canโ€™t wait for Gingebread lattes to return! 
Donโ€™t forget to check out the hashtag #thenailartsquad to see all the coffee themed designs, as well as our past collaborations! 

Saran Wrap Splatter–Summer Edition!

It’s officially Summer, & even though the weather here in Halifax is being less than agreeable (go away clouds), I just want to wear pretty dresses & sandals & enjoy the sunshine. In the meantime, I decided some bright Saran Wrap splatter nails would be appropriate. Maybe it will even encourage the sun to stick around longer than a few hours! 


For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: L’Orรฉal All in One Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Hard Candy Coconut
  • Sally Hansen Boho Blue
  • Ardene Whacky
  • Maybelline Color Show Fiery Tulip

I seriously love how these turned out–the blues & purple work so well together. My barista even complimented me on my nails, which always makes me feel good when someone other than my husband notices. I am just never disappointed when I pull out the plastic wrap for this design! Sometimes it can be messy, but always easy to clean up (way easier than cleaning up a classic splatter manicure!) & the end result is just so much fun. 

What do you think of my Saran Wrap design? What’s your favourite Summer manicure design?  Let me know in the comments below! 

Fairy Dust-ed Half Moonsย 


Happy First Day of May! I hope the weather wher you are is more beautiful than the cloudy grey skies covering Halifax. 

I recently refreshed my bottle of China Glaze Fairy Dust & I’m obsessed all over again. I’ve been adding it to all my manicures because the sparkle is just so pretty. I realized I hadn’t done any half moons in quite a while so it felt like a good time for some. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • OPI Two Timing The Zones 
  • OPI Lost My Bikini in Monoloki
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust
  • Paper Hole Reinforcements

So pink & purple is definitely my favourite half moon colour combination. I’ve done it a lot, but it just pairs so well together. ๐Ÿ’œ๐Ÿ’— & adding the holo glitter of Fairy Dust just improves it even more. 

 Feel a gradient coming on featuring these colours, with Fairy Dust of course. All gradients just need Fairy Dust, it’s pretty much a requirement. 


What’s is your favourite glitter top coat? Obviously my #1 is Fairy Dust but if I had to pick another I would say the Quo By ORLY Matte Glitter Topper or Essie Shine of the Times. If there is one thing almost as beautiful as holo glitters, it’s definitely flakies. 

Let me know your top picks in the comments below! 

Desert Sunset inspired nails

Coachella is finishing up this weekend, which means lots of festival inspired nails have been popping up in my feed! I’ve never been to Coachella, but I DO know it takes place in the desert so I thought these desert sunset gradient nails would be perfect to channel my inner festival goer (instead of what I’m actually spending today doing which is cleaning my bedroom & putting away way too much clothing while simultaneously trying to convince the baby to nap.)


For this design, I used:

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • Color Club Almost Famous 
  • OPI Where Did Suzy’s Man-go?
  • Essie Play Date
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Sally Hansen I โ™ฅ๏ธ Nail Art pen in Black. 
  • Latex Free cosmetic sponge 
  • Born Pretty Store Liquid Latex Peel Off Tape

My bottle of top coat is reaching the bottom which lead to some weirdness & shrinking. Never the less, I really love the colour combination of this gradient with the desert landscape. I could totally see these fitting in at Coachella, or another similar music festival! ๐ŸŒ„ all I need is a flower crown & some cut off denim shorts & I’d fit right in! 

I think I’ve rediscovered my obsession with gradients, clean up be damned. (Thank goodness for Liquid latex.) & I think I’m slowly getting better at them! They make me happy. This colour combo worked out so well, I just can’t stop staring! Even my husband commented how wicked these were (& without asking even!)

What do you think of this design? Let me know in the comments below!