Tag: Blue

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SWATCH SUNDAY—Essie Dive Bar

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. I’ve been enjoying a lovely, although a tad rainy, weekend off from work. Today, though, I’m all about Swatch Sunday, & this classic Essie shade from my stash: Dive Bar.

This shade has been in my stash a long time — I’m pretty sure I found it on a good deal at Winners, as I do a lot of my shades. Dive Bar was originally released as part of the 2012 Spring collection, also named Dive Bar.

2 coats + Essie Speed Setter

This colour is so gorgeous! It’s a deep navy blue base, with a striking teal shimmer. It just screams Fall to me — so I was surprised when I learned it was released as part of a Spring collection. It also reminds me of Space, so I feel like it would be an incredible base for galaxy nails because it has a great depth to it!

The formula is also still really awesome, which is good after all these years. I’ve own this bottle since at least 2015, so it’s going on 7 years old. It does have the original skinny Essie brush, which means you do have to be careful with application. I managed to get opacity in 2 thicker coats, but you could definitely do one coat over a black as well — it probably wouldn’t be as shimmery, but it would save on coats.

What do you think about this Essie oldie? Do you have Dive Bar in your stash? Do you love these deep shimmery blues as much as I do? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below.

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Blue Shimmery Chevron Accent Nails

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday! The weekend is almost here — who else is excited? Today I’m also excited because I have some fun & funky chevron accent nails to show off! It feels like ages upon ages since I pulled out my nail vinyls, but after a coworker gifted me a few beautiful polishes — including this lovely shimmery blue, Sally Hansen InstaDri Cosmic Blu — I knew I needed to pull out some vinyls for some fun!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Essence Colour Shine Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Cosmic Blu
  • Essie Suite Retreat
  • The Base Coat Vinyls Chevron/Zig Zag (Wide)

How pretty is Cosmic Blu paired with Suite Retreat? I feel like my nails have been so boring lately — still painting frequently, but at least 60% of the time, I’m just sticking with single colours/no nail art. It’s partially a time thing, but also I think life has just sucked lately, so my inspiration is lacking. I need to find my inspiration again, & that’s been the hard part.

& I won’t even get into how disappointed the Instagram algorithm leaves me. Ugh.

Never the less, I am still painting my nails, & this nail art brings me back a few years, to when I was nail art obsessed. That’s the nail art obsession I need to find again. Also, maybe a super fast drying top coat will help too.

What do you think of these blue shimmery chevron accent nails? Do you love how well these two colours paired together? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & if you’d like to see me creating more fun nail vinyls look again!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Quo Beauty Tint of Mint

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

My first Swatch Sunday post in a while. Last weekend was a bit of a sad week in our house as we lost our beloved cat. So this last week I just wasn’t feeling the blogging vibes. But it’s a new week, & I’m excited to get back into my blogging routine.

& we’re starting that off with a new Swatch post. Today’s pick: Quo Beauty Tint of Mint.

2 coats + Essence Colour Shield Top Coat

Quo Beauty is a Canadian brand, sold through Shoppers Drug Mart, as well as Loblaws stores. I picked up this shade a few months back at my local Superstore on a really good sale (I think like $4 each?).

Obviously, I was first attracted to the colour. I sound like a broken record at this point, but we all know I love a good pastel Buffy Season One-esque polish.

Formula on this one wasn’t too bad, although I did end up adding top coat to smooth things out a bit. The formula is a bit thin, so two coats is necessary. But it built nicely, & after a little swipe of top coat, everything looked perfect. Although, I will say: the colour seems to lean a bit more of the blue side than on the mint side.

This particular polish is from the Quo Beauty Breathable line. Like the Quo by Orly shades that Shoppers Drug Mart previously sold, they also have a few different lines: Breathable, Flash Dry, & Extreme FX.

I decided that since I was on a roll with my Quo Beauty, I should pull out another one of their shades that I recently found in the clearance for only $1. Quo Beauty Xtreme FX Shimmer & Shine. I thought the shimmery gold was a nice touch over this pale mint. I do love a nice touch of sparkle, especially when I’m wearing just nail polish & not nail art.

Also I’m already dying to apply this over a pretty burgundy/wine shade I own from Quo that’s been sitting in my stash, just waiting for the end of August/early September.

As I mentioned, Quo Beauty nail polish can be purchased at Shoppers Drug Mart & select Loblaws stores across Canada. I believe the regular price is normally around $11.99 (CAD) but I find they’re always having awesome sales, & you can find quite a few fun shades in the clearance, especially during seasonal shifts.

What do you think of the Quo Beauty brand? Have you tried out any of their nail polishes? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — LA Girl Color Addict in Extreme

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! & happy Mother’s Day to all those Mums, step-Mums, GrandMums, & Dad’s doing double duty out there… & anyone else celebrating today.

Today I’m digging deep deep deep into my stash for a polish I’ve had quite a long time: LA Girl Color Addict in Extreme. This brand used to be sold at my local Lawton’s, & I added quite a few shades to my collection over the years — especially when they were on clearance!

Today’s pick is one I don’t think I’ve ever worn! But I thought the pretty colour would be perfect for this Spring-y weather, & I really wanted to see what it looked like on the nail.

2 coats, no Top Coat

The shade itself is really interesting. It’s a periwinkle blue, that has a beautiful golden shimmer. The formula was really easy to work with — it was two easy swipes for full opacity, & this was pre-top coat, but still had a beautiful shine on its own.

The colour is very beautiful. The gold shimmer gives me icy vibes, which gives me Frozen vibes. But the periwinkle colour feels very Spring-y to me. & we all know how much I love blues on my nails, especially frosty blues like this.

Sadly I haven’t seen LA Girl nail polish in my area for a long time, & could only find listings for this shade on eBay, but LA Girl cosmetics do still exist & you can find other shades by them on their website.

What do you think about this beautiful periwinkle blue polish? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below & tell me any experiences you’ve had with LA Girl Nail Polish.

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Glam Doll Electronica

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

There is nothing more that I love than discovering a new to me nail polish brand! It’s quite exciting, like finding buried treasure or something. Truly, it’s very exciting to be perusing a store & stumble upon a polish brand I’ve never discovered before.

That’s what happened last week when I stumbled across this pretty bottle of polish while checking out a pharmacy I never go to. & I couldn’t be more excited to share it with you, especially because my Google research couldn’t find much at all about this nail polish brand.

2 coats over a base of Essence Take Me To Heaven

The second I saw those beautiful glittery shade, I was smitten. The formula is pretty a pretty thin cruelly, with a lot of pf glitter crammed in. There are metallic fushica micro glitters, slightly larger neon green & blue glitters, & then larger cobalt blue hex glitters.

I chose to apply it over some baby blue undies, to cut down on coats I needed to apply, but I would assume you would need 3 or 4 coats for full-ish opacity. You could also get away with one coat over a blue base, if you were feeling a less concentrated glitter look. For me, 2 coats over some undies was perfect

This polish seems very Spring-y & fun. It reminds me a bit of the Nails INC Sprinkles collection that was released around 2012. In fact, when looking them up online it is awfully similar to Pudding Lane — which of course was the only one from the collection that I didn’t find back then so I can’t do a proper comparison. But from looking online, I’d say they’re pretty darn close.

What do you think about this polish? Have you ever heard of the brand Glam Doll before? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & if you’re a fan of this summery glittery polish pick?