Category: Summer

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Easy Groovy Floral with Essie!

Hello lovelies & happy sunny, beautiful Thursday! I’m finally feeling excited about Summer — because it’s finally starting to feel like Summer! & what is more summery & fun than an easy floral look using some very Summery shades?

On Tuesday, for National Nail Polish Day, I was invited to participate in a Zoom event with Essie Canada with Rita Remark, who is Essie’s global lead educator. This was my first opportunity participating in an event like this, & it was super fun to hear about Summer trends, & polish shades, manicure tips, & even follow a live tutorial on how to create a very cute (& very easy!) floral look created by Rita. They even sent each one of us who attended a selection of polishes so we could follow along while we watched!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Tangerine Tease
  • Essie Pucker Up
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Essie Blanc

How seriously adorable are these colours together? Two shades (Tangerine Tease & Pucker Up) are from the Summer 2021 collection, & the other two (Mint Candy Apple & Blanc) are core shades, but all 4 go so beautifully together to create this fun, groovy, poppy nail art look. I really love it!

In fact, I can already picture some more Summery nail art looks that I’ll be creating using these shades. I need some brightness in my life.

What do you think of this super cute, super easy nail art look? This was my first time following a live tutorial, & I think it turned out really awesome! Also stay tuned, because I’ll be sharing swatches of Tangerine Tease & Pucker Up! this weekend.

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Neon Chevron Moons (Happy National Nail Polish Day!)

Hello lovelies — happy June 1st! & happy National Nail Polish Day!

Here we are, almost at Summer! Can you believe it?

I feel like May has really, really sped by. Which is crazy, considering we spent it in lockdown here. But it’s officially June, things are finally starting to open up, & it’s also National Nail Polish Day. So far, everything about June is looking up!

In honour of my new favourite holiday, I decided I needed to do one of my favourite designs, in some bright crazy colours. It’s been ages since I wore any kind of chevron moon, so it was long overdue. & who doesn’t love some neon!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • China Glaze Shocking Pink
  • China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy
  • Beyond The Nail Half Chevron Vinyl Nail Guides

Hello brightness, my old friend. It’s been ages since I wore anything this neon, & it’s been way overdue. Also it gave me a reason to test out my new half chevron vinyls I picked up from Beyond the Nail a few weeks back. I’m actually really loving the shape of them, because I feel like they give me a really good chevron shape — sometimes I get frustrated with vinyls that are a bit more rounded, & you end up with more of a half moon than a chevron moon. These look great though, & we’re super easy to use!

What do you think of my mani pick for National Nail Polish Day? Do you have plans to celebrate today? I do—but they’re top secret! I promise I’ll be able to share soon though!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Color Club Evolution

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

It’s another start to the week (& almost another month!) so that means another edition of Swatch Sunday! We’ve been having some beautiful sunny weather, so I was feeling something bright & colourful. I decided to go through my stash & settled on an oldie: Color Club Evolution.

2 coats, no top coat

As you can see, like so many of my Color Club polishes, I scored this beauty on clearance at my local Lawton’s. According to my Google research, Evolution was originally released as part of their Spring 2013 Kaleidoscope collection.

For my swatches, I only needed 2 coats of polish for full opacity. I loved how easily the polish applied on the nail — it also dried down very smoothly, even without top coat, which I always appreciate.

I’m really, really loving this shade. It’s very vibrant, which is perfect for this beginning of Summer time. I do love a good blue polish, & I feel like I’ve been wearing it a lot lately. It’s nice because it brightens things up quite a bit. It reminds me a bit of Essie In The Cab-ana, which has always been a favourite of mine. It’s not quite a dupe, I don’t think, but it’s a nice alternative.

I found this shade on nailpolishcanada.com for sale (& at a discounted price) so if you need this shade in your life that’s always an option. I’m not sure if it’s in Color Club’s regular rotation, so it might be harder to find in store.

What do you think about Color Club Evolution? Would you wear this bright vibrant blue? Let me know what you think down in the comments below!

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Mermaid Gradient Nails

Good morning lovelies & happy Thursday!

How is it almost the weekend again? I’m not complaining, it’s just crazy how this weekend is speeding by. & it’s Victoria Day weekend here in Canada, which has always felt like the kick off to Summer to me! Of course it’s going to be a rainy mess all weekend here in Halifax, but you can’t win them all.

Today I’m sharing some very fun, very Summer-y nails. I’ve been saying forever that I needed to order some new mermaid nail vinyls, so when I placed my Mother’s Day order at Beyond The Nail, I made sure to include some mermaid nail guides in there!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter + Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Shiny Top Coat
  • Beyond the Nail Blazing Blush
  • Beyond the Nail Honeymoon
  • Beyond the Nail Auburgine
  • Beyond the Nail Mermaid Scale Nail Guides
  • Latex free make up sponge (I buy mine from Dollarama)

Okay, so I know I call pretty much every manicure I do my favourite, but seriously just look at this design. I’m obsessed!

I decided to go all out with a gradient (another look I haven’t done in a while) for my scale base, then added my Aubergine over top. & I am so freaking in love with how these three polishes look together. Seriously— I wore this design for three whole days, before I snapped my middle finger nail clean off. Plus the combo totally matches my current hair colour combo.

I can’t even begin to explain my love for this look. I also really like the mermaid scale guides because they were super easy to use, & they’re quite large so I managed to split them so I could use one guide per 2 nails. That makes me so happy!

What do you think about these bright & colourful mermaid nails? Does this design scream Summer to you? Have you done mermaid nails in a while? Let me know down in the comments below!

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Dainty Spring Floral with the Sally Hansen Rainbow Lights Collection

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Morning lovelies & happy… Tuesday? I think it’s Tuesday anyways. I feel like May is actually going by at Turbo speed, which is nice when you’re whole city is in lockdown, but hopefully the Summer isn’t gone in a flash as well.

Today I’m excited because I have a super pretty design to share using the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Rainbow Lights collection I share for Swatch Sunday last week. Looking at those colours, all I could think was floral 🌸, so that’s what I went with!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Shiny Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Crying Out Cloud
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Tutu The Ballet
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sweet Pea
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sun-shower
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

First off, please excuse the raindrops — I took my picture when it was just beginning to rain.

Second, how cute is this floral? The colours are so perfect for a floral design & I love the dainty subtle muted shades all together. This is a very Spring-y design, & I really like it. It also is giving me late 90s vibes — maybe I’ve just been watching too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Also I totally didn’t realize until I was done that I used Crying Out Cloud as my base shade, but I did say it was favourite!

What do you think about this dainty floral look? Do you like this combination of colours? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments, & if you’ve picked up any of the Rainbow Lights shades yourself.