GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE SEPTEMBER (2024) — Sunflower 🌻

Good morning lovelies & happy Wednesday! It’s a beautiful & slightly chilly day here on the the East Coast — very Fall-like. Makes you want to snuggle up in your favourite cardigan & sip on pumpkin spice!

Today we have another Glam Nails September look to share, for the prompt Sunflower. This one I’m very excited about because I feel like it turned out so beautifully, & it’s embodies Autumn vibes to a tee!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base 
  • Base Coat: LA Colors Mega Grow Treatment 
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Dimension Nails Amazonian Manatee (c/o: NailStuff.ca)
  • Starrily Nails Magma (c/o: NailStuff.ca)
  • Essie Fall for NYC
  • China Glaze Autumn’s Up
  • Essie Expressie Cold Brew Crew
  • China Glaze The Snuggle Is Real
  • Essie Willow in the Wind
  • China Glaze Loves ‘Em & Leaves ‘Em
  • Nailstuff.ca Mermaid Tail 7mm liner brush

Okay, how perfect is this colour combination? I’ve been wanting to apply Starrily Magma over a dark green for a while now, & I think it turned out so beautifully. It really reminds me of a leaf, mid change in the Fall. I’m obsessed.

Secondly, I just love these little sunflowers turned out. The colours compliment the base so perfectly, & they just look so perfect. 🌻 I couldn’t have asked for it to turn out more perfectly, & I honestly never wanted to take them off. I could have worn them for weeks… if I didn’t have other manicures to complete this month!

What do you think about my cute little sunflowers? Do you love this look as much as I do? Oh man, I always forget about floral for Fall, but it is beautiful! 🧡

Are you following along with the other nail art designs for this month’s Glam Nails Challenge September? Don’t forget, you can check out #glamnailschallengesept24 on Instagram, & see all the other beautiful designs being shared!

Happy Wednesday!

🖤

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Sleeping Under the Stars 🌌

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! It’s a surprisingly sunny day considering it was full on torrential rain yesterday. today, I dug deep into my stash to pull out a favourite Fall nail Polish to share with you for this week’s Swatch Sunday — this is China Glaze Sleeping Under the Stars from the Fall 2015 The Great Outdoors collection.

1 coat (!) + top coat

This beautiful dark navy blue really comes alive in the sunshine to show off the beautiful shimmer scattered throughout. But, sadly, it is much more hidden than it appears in the bottle which is a bummer.

Nonetheless, this shade is still an Autumn favourite & you can definitely amp up with the shimmer with a fun topper like Essie Shine of the Times or Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Moonlight top coat. Plus the fact it only requires one smooth coat really makes it a shade I love.

For those curious, this beauty is still available on the China Glaze website, so I’m guess maybe it’s transitioned into the core collection — although I haven’t checked to see in person if it’s available where they usually sell China Glaze, but it does seem to be available at quite a few online retailers.

What do you think about China Glaze Sleeping Under the Stars? Do you have the Autumn beauty in your collection? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below.

Happy Sunday 🖤

GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE SEPTEMBER (2024) — Pumpkin

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Can you believe we’re already mid-week for our first week of September. I promise, the allure of Autumn will not be all I focus on… although with these cute nail art prompts for this month, it might be hard! Today though, we have the second prompt of Glam Nails Challenge September & it is pumpkins! Now, with the exception of my beloved pumpkin spice, I tend to relate pumpkins more with October but I did a little Pinterest perusing, & came up with a cute pumpkin look that isn’t too Halloween-y.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base 
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • China Glaze Instant Chemistry
  • Color Club Poppin’ Bottles
  • ‘Ard As Nails Not Your Mama’s Pumpkin Spice
  • Essie Souq Up the Sun
  • Essie Cliffhanger
  • Claire’s Matte Nail Polish 75192 (shimmery emerald green)
  • Nailstuff.ca Mermaid Tail 7mm liner brush

When I say I’m obsessed with these — I’m freaking obsessed with these! & I think the fact that my nails are a smidge shorter now actually makes this manicure look better! But these just turned out so cute, & I love the little pumpkins, & I love the shimmer & sparkle. I love everything! Considering I went into this manicure prompt not 100% sure what I was going to end up with, I’m so, so in love with the final result.

The cutest little pumpkins ever!

What do you think of my little glittery Autumn pumpkins? Do you like what I did with this prompt? Would you wear a design like this on your nails? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

& I always love knowing what you’re wearing on your nails right now too!

Enjoy your Wednesday

♥︎

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Home Sweet House Music (Summer 2015)

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! A beautiful, warm (humid) sunny Sunday. It’s also the first Swatch Sunday of August, which is kind of crazy because the Summer is just speeding by very quickly.

Today’s pick is a China Glaze shade originally released for Summer 2015. This is Home Sweet House Music.

3 coats + top coat

First thing I noticed about the formula on this polish was that it’s thin, & streaky. The second noticeable thing (after looking at other swatches online) is that this shade has definitely faded over the years, because it’s much more yellow than other pictures I see online. Which, considering it’s been tucked away in a dark drawer & shaken well, is disappointing. However, I do still quite enjoy the colour is is which is like a marigold yellow, & I think it’s great for this time of year. & it perfectly matches the brown eyed Susans in our garden.

It is a pretty sheer formula, which again I don’t know if that has anything to do with the aging of the polish, but I did need 3 coats for full coverage.

It’s a very pretty shade — it’s just not the shade it was, which makes me sad. However, polishes age & it’s interesting to see the effect time has on our polishes. 99% of my polishes have not had this issue, that I can see, so I wonder why this one changed so much on me. It’s kind of strange.

Again, being a 9 year old shade this guy is no longer available in current rotation. China Glaze does have a Gelaze version of this polish on their website (in the original intended colour!) for those who are gel polish fans.

What do you think of this polish? Do you have any nail polishes in your stash that has changed colour due to time? Let me know if you’ve experienced this too!

Happy Sunday ♥︎

Emoji Inspired Nails 💋💗🌈🌸 (Easy Nail Art)

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday! It’s hot, sunny & beautiful lately & feels just like the kind of Summer days I like.

Today I’m sharing a new manicure & a bit of a nail art hack. I’ve posted before about my absolute love of nail art stickers.

Recently I was in my local Dollarama & found these massive sheets of small foil emoji inspired stickers for $1.25 & thought they would be perfect for stick on earrings for my daughter. But then I realized they were the perfect size to potentially work for nail art stickers & so naturally I bought 2.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Here to Stay
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely
  • China Glaze Everglaze Optimal Opal
  • Dollarama Small Foil Emoji Stickers

Okay I’m really really impressed with how easily these stuck to my nails, & adhered to my already dry base. They were fairly flexible & easy to stick on the nail, or adjust slightly if needed. I used tweezers to pull them from my sheet, & attach them to my nails, & most of the stickers I picked were easy to apply.

For removal, it was just as easy to take off. I did have a few stickers which were lifting by the end of the day, but that could be avoided with a thicker top coat.

Over all, I think these stickers were perfect for easy nail art at a great low price. Obviously, I want to support small businesses that sell nail art stickers, but times are tough right now, & I think everyone deserves to have beautiful nails so if you can find cute stickers to use on your nails at an affordable price — you should totally take advantage of it!

Would you want me to do a post featuring other Dollar Store items I’ve found for doing your nails? Let me know down in the comments below!

Happy Thursday!