Category: Summer

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Summer Vibes Magazine Spread & My Summer Inspired Nails

You may remember back in December, Sarah from @25sweetpeas created the most amazing holiday magazine. While once again she has gathered together some of her blogger friends to create another awesome magazine, this time focusing on all things Summer. There are recipes, pretty nails, & even a travel guide!

The magazine has been broken up into two parts for you — part one, which holds the recipes (including 2 of mine) & pretty nails! Part two has some awesome fun things including places to travel this Summer & other bonus goodies!

You can click below to go to the PDF & download!

For my nails, I decided to create a pretty & bright tropical leaf pattern design which was inspired by a mix-n-match bikini I saw few months back (& didn’t buy sadly). Once if my favourite things about Summer is the colour! I love pulling out all the colourful clothing that has been sitting way back in the depths of my closet, waiting for sunnier days.

Continue reading “Summer Vibes Magazine Spread & My Summer Inspired Nails”

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Rustic Floral Pattern Nails

Can you never have too many floral manicures in your life? Personally, I don’t think so. We all know how much I adore flowers–from clothes, to shoes, to cellphone cases to my nails, I can never have enough! Recently I found a Rifle Paper Co. phone case at Winners on payday, so I decided to attempt to recreate said pattern on my nails.

My attempt definitely turned out a little more rustic than its inspiration, but I think that is why I love the end result so much!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Boho Green Make Up Moonlight
  • Quo by ORLY Breathable Pep in my Step
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Piggy
  • Sally Hansen MG Pretty Peony
  • Sally Hansen MG Off the Shoulder
  • Essie A-List
  • China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
  • China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin
  • YSL Vert D’Orient
  • Sally Hansen Insta-dri Thyme is Money
  • Essie First Timer
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pen in Black
  • Bundle Monster detail brush

I’m kind of excited for Summer because it means I can change up my backgrounds & use outside. How lush does this design look with green grass in the background? Definitely throwing my pictures back to my pre-light-box days with these photos & I’m loving it! Seriously, staged photos are awesome but something about natural light makes your manicures look that much better.

If that doesn’t say Summer, I don’t know what else does! Also I’m never, ever going to get sick of doing floral. Never. How could you ever get sick of something so pretty! Hence why I keep filling my closet with more & more floral clothing pieces. The obsession continues! 🌿🌼🌱

what do you think of this design? Are you feeling Summery? Leave a comment down below & let me know!

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Quick & Easy Summer Nails

Happy Summer lovelies! & Happy Friday! I hope everyone is as excited for sunny days as I am! ☀️ seriously, the last few months has felt like a never ending Winter with a little fall thrown in for good measure. I’m very excited for sunshine & beach days… even if I spend most of my time hiding out within the walls of the Mall.

I just got over a very busy couple of weeks, which meant my nail designs needed to be fairly simplistic (since I had no time to do my nails!) That means I’ve been wearing either solid colour nails or going with simple accent nails. I’ve had these nail stickers from Icing in my nail art collection for a few years now, but I felt like I haven’t worn them in a while. I really wanted to have a contrasting colour to my base shade, so I decided to pick one of these turquoise starfish stickers as my accent.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea + Bamboo Strength
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Sunday Funday
  • Deborah Lippmann Make Someone Happy
  • Icing Stores Nail Art Stickers (beach themed circa 2015/2016)

Originally I was planning on just wearing Essie Sunday Funday on its own with the starfish sticker, but it really felt like it needed something extra which I why I added the glitter gradient on my other nails…. & I LOVE how it turned out. Like, seriously love. It gives the design that Beachy feel I was hoping for without too much work. Like I said, it’s been a CRAZY few weeks with a lot of late nights at work, so nail art has taken a bit of a back seat. Thank goodness I have a huge back stock of nail art stickers & decals & other goodies to make doing my nails so much easier!

I think coral & turquoise is going to be one of my favourite colour combinations for Summer. After seeing them together here, I’m definitely going to need to do a half moon design featuring them… like now! (Or whenever I recover enough to actually function for nail art haha.)

what do you think of this simple design? Do you use nail art stickers to fancy up your nails? Share your thoughts down below!

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Neon Saran Wrap Splatter

Happy Tuesday lovely… a very rainy, gross Tuesday (again).

I thought it would be a good day for some more bright & colourful nails, featuring one of my favourite easy to do designs–Saran Wrap Splatter! This is a design I do a surprisingly amount–which you may have noticed–because it’s easy to do, doesn’t require any specific nail art tools & truthfully is not too messy to clean up. & the colour combinations are endless.

For this design, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea + Bamboo Strength
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Find Me An Oasis
  • Essie Strut Your Stuff
  • China Glaze Purple Panic
  • Plastic Bag (I used a plastic grocery bag that I cup up into smaller pieces.)

Please ignore the chip on my middle finger above–I keep forgetting to take pictures of my nails until after work, which leads to the above situation. Thankfully the design is so busy you barely notice the little chip at the tip. Also I’m loving the combination of this fuchsia & blues–the colours go really well together over the pale blue.

What do you think of this nail art design? What colour combination would you like me to try in a Saran Wrap splatter next? Share your ideas down below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — OPI I Eat Maine-ly Lobster

Happy Sunday my loves. & it really is a Sun-day today! We’ve had a run of beautiful Summer like weather so naturally that means I needed to pull out a Summer colour for today’s Swatch Sunday post. Today’s pick is OPI I Eat Maine-ly Lobster which is a vibrant pinky coral with just a hint of shimmer. This shade was originally released as part of the OPI Touring America collection circa 2011 but I scored my bottle on clearance at my locals Lawton’s.

For my swatches, I did two coats + top coat (Essie Gel Setter). I probably could have done 3 coats for more coverage, but I feel like it’s not terribly noticeable unless you’re a nail polish addict. The colour itself is just perfection & even though it was originally a Fall collection release, to me it just screams Summer! I mean, who doesn’t like a stunning coral polish?

Seriously, how gorgeous is this polish? I had been coveting it for a long time & finding it for only $4.99 at Lawton’s was the best scored ever! I don’t know about you–but when I want to but polish, I want a deal. I don’t like to pay full price for nail polish (& to be honest, I rarely do). So a much desired OPI for less than $5? Yes please! The best kind of nail polish find.

Look how closely it matches my moon cactus? Oh man, if this shade doesn’t scream Summer, I don’t know what does. I’m just obsessed with it! & as you can see from below, it’s the perfect compliment to my newest Summer dress find. It’s a gorgeous pop of colour.

What do you think of this week’s Swatch Sunday pick? Do you have a favourite coral polish? Let me know down in the comments below!