SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Santa’s Side Chick

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. December is in full swing, & the Christmas vibes are… starting. Haha. Truthfully, I’m still not 100% feeling Christmas yet this year, especially because the weather outside is warm & not December-y at all. But all the more reason to pull out my Christmas polishes from years past.

Today’s Swatch Sunday pick is a oldie from China Glaze The Glam Finale Holiday 2017 collection: Santa’s Side Chick.

I originally picked this shade up at Winners, in a two pack with Slay Bells Ring, post holidays. I think it was something crazy silly like $5 for the whole thing, which was an awesome deal! But I’ve never actually worn this shade before, so I was excited to pull it out this year!

2 coats.

First thing I noticed about this shade was that it dries down to a beautiful satin matte. Seriously, I love a good matte nail polish. The polish itself is a beautiful bright berry, with this stunning underlying shimmer.

The formula was pretty easy, only needing two coats for full coverage. Like I find most reds, it’s a bit more jelly, but still had great coverage on the nail. It also dried really quick, which is always nice! & it dries really evenly, which I always appreciate in a matte polish.

Check out that close up (minus the cat hair, haha 🙈) — such a pretty shade, & finish. I

’ve actually been wearing this shade for the last three days — both matte, & with glossy top coat. You know how much I love a good red nail polish, so I’m glad I finally put this one out! Plus the name just makes me laugh so much. Best nail polish name ever!

What do you think about this beautiful Christmas red? 🎄 When do you pull out your holiday collection shades — just around their intended holidays, or anytime of the year?

Let me know in the comments below.

Dainty Snowflakes

Hello lovelies! & happy Monday. It’s beginning to look a lot like… December. & a green one at that. But I really, really wanted some snowflakes on my nails — even if the weather feels more like October than a month before Christmas, that doesn’t me I can’t pretend!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Quo by Orly The Boulevard
  • OPI Pirouette My Whistle
  • China Glaze ChillinWith My Snow-mies
  • Essie Bobbing for Baubles
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping plate BP-L032 (item #23268)
  • NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper (COFFEE10 saves you 10%!)

First up, I created a jelly sandwich for my base using Quo by Orly The Boulevard, OPI Pirouette My Whistle & China Glaze Chillin’ With My Snow-mies. I thought it was the perfect dainty base for some snowflakes overtop. Also, I so rarely pull out Chillin’ With My Snow-mies, & it’s kind of sad. It was one of those polishes I bought simply because the name made me laugh, but I should definitely pull it out more.

I was also super, super happy with how my snowflakes stamped. They turned out so opaque, it made me so happy. Nothing worse than going to stamp an image, & it barely picked up, or the polish is just too thin & it looks like a shadow.

What do you think about these snowflake nails? Do you have snow where you are? Let me know in the comments below!

Abstract Colour Blocking (& covering up a chipped mani!)

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday. This week is speeding by quickly, isn’t it? Crazy! Today I’m showing off a fun look I did earlier this week.

Full disclosure: I had painted my nails, went to work, chipped the hell out of them, & had ever intention of repainting them. Then I fell asleep at 7pm. When I woke up the next morning, I didn’t want to go to work with still chipped nails, so I thought of the easiest way I could cover up the “damage”, & decided to create this almost abstract colour blocking. & I think it turned out pretty cool for something that was painted on the fly. Haha.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Seche Vite
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Frosted Berries
  • China Glaze Glamcore
  • Essie Mosiac On Down
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in Silver

The colour choices — especially that silver — is giving me a bit too much of a holiday vibe, but I really do think this is a fun quick design. It was way easier than taking everything off, & repainting from scratch.

What I did was paint some base coat on the sections that a chipped, to protect the naked parts of my nails, then swiped the polishes over to cover up the chipping. I also used my bottle of Seche Vite, because I wanted to make sure they dried quick. & it turned out pretty neat! Also, in a weird way in kind of reminds me of argyle, or at the very least makes me want to do some argyle sweater print nails ASAP. Already playing the colour combination in my head as we speak.

Also, we totally got hit with a early winter storm, so I’m in full winter knit sweater nail mood when it comes to my nails. So that is your early warning there will probably be A LOT of sweater inspired nail art to come!

Have you ever tried to save a manicure or cover up some chipping to extend your nails another day? Any tricks you want to share? Let me know in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Don’t Let The Dead Bite (Halloween 2014)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Today I thought I would pull out a Halloween oldie from my polish stash for this week’s Swatch Sunday! This is China Glaze Don’t Let The Dead Bite from the China Glaze Apocalypse Of Color 2014 Halloween collection.

Don’t Let The Dead Bite is a milky jelly pinky polish that is packed full of multi sized & shaped red glitters.

2 coats + top coat

I am a sucker for a good Halloween collection, so I remember being very excited about finding this shade on clearance a few years ago. If I remember correctly, I bought this shade for Valentine’s Day, because I thought the glitters would be perfect for that.

My bottle has definitely changed a bit over the years, with the glitters bleeding a bit & making the base darken. It’s still a beautiful shade, but not quite in its original form. The formula, however, remains just as easy to work with as when I first bought it, which I appreciate.

I really like this shade, & to be honest, I kind of forgot I owned it until I was looking for something Halloween-y to adorn my nails with! I can’t believe October is almost over! How crazy is that?!

Do you remember this China Glaze collection from 2014? Did you get your hands on any of the shades? What is your favourite Halloween polish collection? Let me know down in the comments below!

#GlamNailsChallengeOct — Pumpkins 🎃

Hello lovelies & Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I had Saturday off work, so the whole Fam took a trip to visit the Zoo. It was an awesome little adventure & the kids loved seeing all the big animals including lions & tigers!

Today I’m joining in on the GlamNailsChallenge for October! You might remember last year I participated a few times, & I kind of missed the challenge, so I figured what would be better than jumping in on the October challenge — after all, I knew it would have lots of spooky & fun prompts.

Our first prompt? Pumpkins! 🎃 Very fitting for October.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Wet N Wild Beauty Buffy The Violet Slayer
  • Sally Hansen CSM Fiery Island
  • Essie Spice It Up
  • China Glaze Stoked To Be Soaked
  • Sally Hansen CSM Pat On The Black
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essie Cliffhanger
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush(COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

Not going to lie, I’m seriously obsessed with these nails.

First I’m wearing Buffy The Violet Slayer which is fitting as I’ve been rewatching Buffy again. Second, how adorable did these pumpkins turn out? This is reminiscent of a design I did, like, 5 October’s ago, & I think they turned out too cute! You can never have too much pumpkin in your life… including on your nails! 🧡🎃 also I totally adore the combination of pumpkin & orange together. It just looks so good!

What do you think of my version of pumpkin nails? Are you excited that I am participating in GlamNailsChallengeOctober? Let me know which prompt you’re excited to see, & check out the other nails by clicking on the #glamnailschallengeoct hashtag on Instagram!