Category: throwback

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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.

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Sunday Funday

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

It’s a beautifully sunny, albeit freaking chilly, Sunday here on my part of the East Coast. Winter seems to be lingering now. So I thought I would remind myself of better, warmer days with an old favourite Essie shade for this week’s Swatch Sunday post — Sunday Funday.

It was originally released as part of the Summer 2013 Naughty Nautical collection.

2 coats + Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat

For a polish which has been in my stash for (I think) at least 8 years, she applied like a dream. I needed to shade my bottle a bit, since it had settled leaving the colour weird, but I found it had no effect once it was on the nail — you can see in the bottle there is still some colour separation showing.

The polish itself is a beautiful pinky coral, with a gold glass shimmer. It gives it a nice sparkle. I had a bit of trouble with photographing, as everything was photographing really yellow, but I think that’s a phone camera issue rather than a polish issue. These pictures are definitely as colour accurate as I could get.

As mentioned, this shade was originally released in 2013. It was part of the core collection for a while, I do believe, but Essie lists it as no longer available on their website sadly. I did find a listing for it on Sparkle Canada, but I’ve never bought from them so I’m not sure how legit that is. Obviously, if it’s a shade you need to have, Ebay always might have it, as well as any nail polish clearance bins.

What do you think about this punchy Essie shade? Are you are ready for Spring & Summer shades as I am ready to share them? Let me know what you think of Essie Sunday Funday! & I hope you have a Sunday Funday (that’s just fun to say) too!

♥︎

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Dorothy Who?

Hello beauties & happy Sunday! I hope everyone’s week was lovely, & not too cold. Our weather has been very up & down — one day it’s sunny & feels like Spring, the next day we get freezing rain snowstorms. Winter is so much fun.

But I’m actually really excited for today’s post, because I’m sharing a polish that has been in my stash for long, long time, but in all honesty I don’t think I’ve ever actually worn it: China Glaze Dorothy Who?

2 coats + Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

This beautiful jelly blue is packed full of blue & silver micro glitters. Because of the jelly base, I was worried about how many coats I would need for opacity, but two was the perfect amount. The glitters are definitely densely packed, which helps with creating opacity easily. I applied top coat though, because I did find that it had a rough finish from the glitter, & I just really wanted more of a smoother finish.

Look how beautiful. Based on the name, I’m guessing this is like the sister shade to China Glaze Ruby Slippers & they were both released as part of the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection circa 2009 but then became part of the China Glaze Core collection. I’ve worn Ruby Slippers a lot over the years — in fact my bottle is getting pretty empty — & I can’t believe I let this beauty slip by for so long!

There are a few places I’ve found online (through Google) you can purchase this beauty:

As well as a whole bunch of others that pop up when you type “China Glaze Dorothy Who?” into Google. I would imagine China Glaze’s website would be the best option as it’s the most legit, but I’m not sure where their shipping reaches.

What do you think about this beauty of a polish? Do you love this beautiful sapphire sparkle? Let me know down in the comments below, & if you own this shade in your stash. Also let m know if you enjoy seeing this older released polishes! I definitely have a ton from over the years, & I’m realizing how many I’ve never swatched, so I’m having fun documenting them.

Have a lovely Sunday!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Barielle Shades Secret Encounter

Hello beauties & happy Sunday! It’s an absolutely frigid day here in Halifax — this whole weekend has been in the negatives. I’m not a fan of the cold, mostly because I’m a petite person who wears multiple layers in October. Also, the cold absolutely wrecks havoc on my nails, so we’re back to some serious shorties… again!

But you know what makes short nails so much better? A pretty polish colour. & today’s beautiful shade is also one I had to dig super deep into the stash to find: Barielle Shades Secret Encounter.

2 coats + Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

I’m actually surprised that when I looked up this shade in previous blog entries, I haven’t posted about it! I picked up this shade in 2015, on clearance at Winners (where else). But according to the internet, this shade was originally released as part of the 2008 Fall Affair Collection. So she goes back a few years.

The colour itself is this beautiful deep cranberry with metallic shimmer. I needed two coats for full coverage but the formula was easy to apply. The brush was definitely on the thinner side, which made cuticle line application a little more difficult, but that was the trend for most bottles of nail polish back then.

I was looking for something kind of Valentines-y to wear, & I think this is a great option! Like I said, this shade is one of the older ones in my collection, but she’s held up quite well over the years. I do believe Barielle is still making nail polish, although I haven’t seen any in my neck of the woods in a long time. However, according to their website, this shade is no longer in rotation.

What do you think of Barielle Shades Secret Encounter? Do you like this throwback shade as a Valentine’s Day option? I had originally planned on doing a little heart accent on this guy, but didn’t quite have enough time. Either way, I think it’s a beautiful polish colour all on it’s own.

Happy Sunday loves!

♥︎