Category: throwback

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze High Hopes

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! I feel like it’s been a while since I did a Swatch Sunday post, even though it’s only been 2 weeks. Today I dug deep deep into the stash for a bit of an oldie shade: China Glaze High Hopes.

2 coats + top coat

According to Google, this shade was originally released as part of the Spring 2010 Up & Away Collection. I believe I purchased this bottle myself circa 2013/2014, although I’m not 100% sure. It’s been in my stash a while though.

Formula on this beauty is smooth & easy to apply. The colour is a beautiful vibrant coral that was a smidge hard to photograph accurately. But I feel like these photos capture it most accurately.

The bright colour feels perfect for Summer, but would be easy to transition into Fall by pairing it with a deep burgundy. Yes, my mind is going there. I’m trying my best not to start thinking about Autumn, but our local Dollarama has Halloween already popping up, & Halloween is my favourite season!

But back to High Hopes! This shade is lovely & the colour is a great alternative to my usual go-to red manicure that I love so much.

I did find a few listings online for this shade — Sparkle Canada has it listed for sale, as well you can find the Gelaze version on the China Glaze website. I also found an Amazon listing, but I’m not sure if it’s a secondhand seller or not. However, there are definitely a few listings floating around for this fun vibrant shade!

What do you think about this beautiful vibrant coral shade? Do you have China Glaze High Hopes in your nail polish stash?

Let me know all your thoughts, & what shade you’re currently loving this week!

🖤

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Miracle Gel 90s Collection (& new Miracle Gel Top Coats)

•contains pr/gifted product•

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! I hope you’re ready, because I have quite the swatch heavy post ready for you today. As I’ve previously mentioned, I was gifted part of the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel 90s collection, & I’m really excited to share these shades with you!

As a child of the 90s, this collection hits me right in the nostalgia. So I was pumped to be able to share these shades with you. The actual collection contains 8 funky 90s inspired shades, & I have 5 of them to share today! I was also lucky enough to receive two of the new Sally Hansen Miracle Gel special effects top coats, to add a little extra sparkle to your manicure.

These limited edition 90s shades can be found wherever you buy Sally Hansen. I’ve found them at my local Shoppers Drug Mart & Walmart stores — both in special edition displays.

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Miracle Gel 90s Collection (& new Miracle Gel Top Coats)”
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SWATCH SUNDAY — Icing Stores Starlight

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. It’s a rainy, grey, & extremely blah day here on the East Coast — & it’s starting to feel like we’ll never see the sun.

I needed some cheering up after this blah, blah week so I started digging through my Claire’s/Icing drawer & found this old school beauty! & I just knew that I had to pick it for this week’s Swatch Sunday.

This is Icing Starlight.

3 coats + top coat

The formula on this beautiful jelly glitter is thin thin thin, but it builds to nice coverage. & because the formula is so thin, each coats dries down quickly before you apply the next one. It also means you can see each & every silver & holo glitter suspended in the base, which I love.

Truthfully, I could have applied a forth coat for a bit more opacity, but with the exception of my tips (where it shows of a bit of my natural yellowing from my nail polish obsession) I really love how this looks. & that could easily be corrected with a colour correcting base coat. Or, by using it as a topper over another blue polish.

In the bottle it reminds me a bit of China Glaze Dorothy Who? but the base is much thinner leaving the colour on the nail much, much lighter. However, it has those beautiful holographic glitters that really show up, so I can’t be mad about it. It’s a beautiful shade all on its own.

Sadly, this colour is long long out of circulation. If I had to hazard a guess, based just on the bottle shape, I would say I purchased this bottle somewhere between 2009-2011. The brand has gone through quite a few bottle changes since then, but I’m happy to see even a decade later, this shade applies & wears beautifully.

& sometimes it’s just fun to take a walk down nail polish memory lane with a shade you haven’t seen in a while.

What do you think about Icing Starlight? Do you have any oldies in your stash you haven’t pulled out in a while? This Sunday is a great day to find a shade you haven’t worn in a while, & pull it out!

Have a lovely day! 🖤

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Throwback Floral (Using Just a Dotting Tool)

Hello lovelies & happy Friday! I hope it’s a beautiful day wherever you are. It’s supposed to be sunny, & slightly warm today, so I’ll take it.

Today I’m sharing a design which is a recreation of a design I did many moons ago—like… 2013 at the beginning of my nail art journey & before this blog. I just always love revisiting old designs, & when this one popped up on my Facebook memories, I knew I needed to do an updated version!

2013 version
2023 version

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Londontown KUR Nail Hardener & Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive Fast Dry Top
  • Essie Peach Side Babe
  • Essie Worth the Tassel
  • Essie Blanc
  • Essie Turquoise & Caicos
  • Small & Large Dotting Tool (NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio)

I didn’t have a list of the original polishes I used for my design, so I tried to go with what looked the closest to the colours — which was hard because my original photo is pretty poor quality. I think, though, I did a pretty good job on recreating the original look!

I know that was my first jump into “real” nail art after getting my first dotting tool. It was an Essence brand one that I found at Shoppers Drug Mart, & I got very excited to find something to do legit nail art.

What do you think of this floral nail art recreation? Do you remember what nail designs first got you into nail art? Let me know down in the comments below!

Have a fantastic Friday!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Too Too Hot ❤️‍🔥

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

It’s been a beautiful balmy week this week (at least in terms of our usual April days) so I’m feeling all the Summer vibes I can handle. I even broke out my favourite holo sandals. So with these beautiful Summery days, I felt like switching gears from pastel vibes to full on Summer with a classic Essie shade: Essie Too Too Hot.

This shade was originally released circa 2011 as part of the Braziliant Summer 2011 collection ( found swatches online of the full collection here).

3 coats + Seche Vive Top Coat

I ended up with 3 coats of polish for my swatches, which I feel like was a bit too much, but I the formula was a bit on the thinner side, so I found I needed to do a lot less polish on the brush to avoid flooding my cuticles.

The colour is this beautiful mix between a bright tomato red, & a coral, although in my photos it’s definitely leaning more towards the red side. That could also be due to the fact my skin tone leans more on the yellow/olive side, so I feel like that brights out the red tones more.

We all know I love a good red nail polish, & I love an Essie red even more! It’s actually surprising how few Essie reds I have in my stash, so I think I need to fix that.

This shade is beautiful though, because I find it would be pretty universally flattering on a lot of skin tones. It reminds me a bit of Sally Hansen Cherry Delightful from their RED/ESIGN collection from a few years ago, which was designed to compliment everyone. So this definitely seems like a red that anyone could wear.

Sadly, this shade has been discontinued from the Essie core line, which makes me really sad because I think everyone needs a classic flattering red in their collection. Red nails make everything better (which is why I spent the majority of my early 20s rocking some shade of red.) So I would totally be down with championing a petition for Essie to bring this beauty back to their core line!

What do you think of this beauty? Do you own Essie Too Too Hot in your nail polish stash? What is your favourite Essie red? Let me know in the comments below.