Category: What’s Up Nails

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Tropical Leaves! 🌿

Happy Friday loves! Still feeling like Winter here in Halifax (yesterday was the worst) so I’m feeling like embracing Spring on my nails as much as possible. Tropical leaves have been popping up on my Instagram feed a lot lately (shout out to @nailsbyharlig & @thebasecoat for each of their pretty designs!), so it felt like a good time to pull out my tropical leaves stencils from What’s Up Nails.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • OPI My Address is Hollywood
  • YSL Vert D’Orient
  • China Glaze In The Limelight
  • What’s Up Beauty Tropical Leaves Stencils
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier

The green against the pink base is such a pretty combination. I adore the look of tropical leaves, but I could never imagine trying to freehand them… yet! Thankfully, nail vinyls makes it way too easy to create the look. 🌱🌿🍃

Anyone else love the tropical leaf look that’s been so popular on Instagram lately? I’ve been obsessed with all the greenery (a reaction to the lack of Spring in my life, I’m sure) so it’s fun to see everyone’s version of the look! Also it gets me excited for a month or two when it finally feels like Spring is really here.

What’s your favourite Spring nail art look right now? What are you obsessed with? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Mermaid Nails using NailStuff.ca Aqua Collection Flakies

Happy Saturday! Today I’m sharing one of the prettiest designs I think I’ve ever done–a mermaid design using the Aqua Collection flakies from NailStuff.ca. It felt like ages since I created mermaid nails, & those flakies were just sitting there staring at me, waiting to be used. I couldn’t decide which colour to use so I decided why not use all three! & the end result is pretty much the prettiest nails I’ve ever worn!

For this manicure, the products I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essie After School Boy Blazer
  • Fingerprints Peel Off Base Coat
  • Nailstuff.ca Aqua Collections flakies (Mermaid, Lagoon & Abyss)
  • What’s Up Nails Scale Vinyls
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier

These were surprisingly easy to do–I applied my base colour (Essie Under the Twilight) & my top coat & let it dry completely. When my base was completely dry, I applied my vinyls to each nail & then went over top with Fingerpaints Peel Off Base Coat. I’ve found that using it helps adhere the flakies best. Without waiting, I then dipped my sponge (that comes with the flakies) into each pot & rubbed the flakies over top in certain spots. I then repeated it again using the other two pots of flakies. When I felt like I had filled in the vinyls enough, I removed them immediately, & finished off the design with top coat.

Just look at that macro! It looks like jewels on the nail. I’m seriously in love. My only regret is that I didn’t think to top it with matte top coat before I removed them. Can you imagine how pretty they would have looked matte?

what do you think of this design? Do you see mermaid nails or dragon nails? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

*PR SAMPLE* Some of these items were sent to me for review. However, all opinions are my own.

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Graveyard Nail Stencils with NailPolishCanada (& how to score your own set of vinyls for free!)

We’re over halfway to Halloween, which it’s time to get serious about Halloween nail designs! & what is more Halloween than spooky graveyard nails! Thanks to What’s Up Nails & Nail Polish Canada, I had a quick & easy time creating the spookiest of nails! 🎃 

The polishes used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Go Ginza
  • OPI Auroa Berry-alis 
  • China Glaze Sleeping Under the Stars
  • Essence Back to Black 
  • What’s Up Nails Graveyard Stencils c/o: Nail Polish Canada 

These graveyard vinyls are great because they have multiple ways you can use them—my favourite is to use them as a stencil & paint in the design. I found it worked best by sponging on the black using a tiny piece of make up sponge. You could also apply the stencil to your nail & paint over top or you could use the vinyl itself & seal it all in with top coat. Each sheet of Graveyard vinyls comes with 20 vinyls (inner & outer) in small & large size which means you have a ton of graveyard nails to do in the lead up to Halloween. 

I’ve been lucky enough to team up with Nail Polish Canada to share a code for TEN of my readers to score their very own graveyard vinyls just in time for Halloween! You can click here & enter the code E75337KJX9A1B in order to claim your own set of vinyls. 

What do you think of these graveyard nails? What Halloween design are you most excited to wear this year? Let me know in the comments below. 🖤

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Happy Birthday Canada Day Nails 🇨🇦

Happy Canada Day! 🇨🇦 Today is an important birthday for my country–it’s the 150th birthday of Canada’s Confederation. & in honour of the occasion I created these festive nails using maple leaf stencils I received in honour of the occasion free from Nail Polish Canada (& thanks so a discount code @jennieshaw posted a few weeks back). 

For this manicure I used:

  • Base Coat: L’Oréal All In One
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Essie Too Too Hot
  • China Glaze Ruby Slippers
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard To Get
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls Skinny Waves Vinyls
  • What’s Up Nails Canadian Flag Nail Stencils c/o: Nail Polish Canada

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Canada Day (& it’s not too rainy where you are!) Myself & the baby are heading on vacation tomorrow so we’re keeping our plans low key today since he’s a little too young for fireworks this year. We are however having a fun Canada Day supper with my inlaws before we leave. Whatever your plans are today, I hope it includes a little red & white (& maybe something maple flavoured). 

How are you celebrating Canada’s 150th Birthday?! Let me know in the comments below! 

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Mani Monday Mermaid Nails

Who doesn’t love a good mermaid manicure? 

When I made my What’s Up Nails order I knew I needed to stock up on some of their scale stencils so I could create mermaid nails. They just make me so happy! I just can’t stop playing with my vinyls. 

For this manicure, I used: 

  • Base Coat: Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie All Access Pass 
  • Icing Breakfast At Tiffany’s
  • China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla
  • What’s Up Nails Scale Stencil

I really wanted an excuse to pull out my bottle of Sand Dolla Make You Holla. Sadly my bottle has seen better days, & I’ve been trying to bring it back to life with polish thinner, but it’s not going well. Anyone else have trouble saying goodbye to old polishes at the end of their life, or is just me? I find it especially hard with polishes that are discontinued because you know you can’t get go out & buy a new bottle easily. I mean, yeah there is EBay but I feel weird buying polish off of EBay. Guess I will just have to hope & pray I come across it at Winners or Marshall’s one day soon. 

What do you think of this mermaid mani? What polish do you keep even though it’s seen better days? Let me know in the comments below!