SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Peppermint To Be & Don’t Get Elfed Up (Holiday 2015)

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Crazy to believe we’re already celebrating the second Sunday of December! I thought I would keep the holiday polish trend going by sharing two of my favourite holiday themed polishes from collections past: China Glaze Peppermint to Be & Don’t Get Elfed Up! from the 2015 Holiday Cheers collection. The original collection contained 12 beautiful metallic & glittery shades (plus one cream!) I bought 6 of the shades in a mini set from Marshall’s, & a big bottle of Ugly Christmas Sweater (which I feel like I need to share in a post all its own.)

For today’s post I decided to share the two polishes I seem to gravitate to most: Don’t Get Elfed Up which a is deep dark teal-y metallic shade with super intense turquoise shimmer & Peppermint To Be which is a vibrant pink toned red, again super shimmery.

So onto the swatches!

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Peppermint To Be & Don’t Get Elfed Up (Holiday 2015)”

GlamnailschallengeDec — Candles

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Good morning lovelies & Happy December 2nd! I thought since December is one of my favourite times of year for nail art, it would be fun to join in another round of GlamnailschallengeDec. I’ve had a ton of fun joining in on these challenges, & I thought this would be a fun way to come up with some new & creative holiday looks!

The first prompt for this month is Candles! At first I was a little stuck on what I wanted to do for this prompt, but after some Pinterest stalking I saw this manicure & decided to use it as my inspiration!

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  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea & Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Maybelline Color Show Auburn Ablaze
  • Acrylic paint
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (use COFFEE10 to save 10%) {PR sample}

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This was my first time attempting a design like this–maybe aside from a birthday candle look forever ago–so I was a little nervous about how they would turn out. But you know what… I absolutely am obsessed with how they turned out. The dark base colour reminds me of the early darkness that comes as we approach Christmas, & the glow of the candles in the window. It really gives me all the fuzzy feelings just staring at my nails.

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What do you think about this look? Are you excited for another month of prompts for GlamnailschallengeDec?! Don’t forget following along with all the designs by checking out #glamnailschallengeDec on Instagram to see all the fun & festive designs to come!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Icing Stores Santa Baby

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! & happy December 1st as well! The countdown to Christmas is officially on, so naturally it’s time to get SERIOUS about all things holly & jolly. This month, I’m going to be dedicating all my Swatch Sunday posts to polishes of Christmas past, which are my favourite to pull out during the holidays.

First up, I chose a shade that’s a few years old but is probably one of the most Christmas-y shades I own: Icing Stores Santa Baby. For those who don’t know what Icing is, it’s a accessories store owned by Claire’s–basically Claire’s big sister store–& during holidays like Halloween, Christmas, or Easter, they always come out with themed collections. This bottle of polish was originally released as part of their 2015 Christmas collection, & I’ve been pulling it out ever since!

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Santa Baby is a glitter topper — the base is clear, & it is packed full of an assortment of glitters in red, green & white, all ranging from tiny micro glitters to medium sized bar glitters. But the coolest part about this polish is that it is scented like peppermint/candy canes once dried, & it comes through even with a nice coat of glossy top coat to seal it in. Seriously… the barista at my local coffee shop commented on how cool this polish looked on my nails, & I literally was like “you have to smell them! It smells like candy canes!” I’m a little weird sometimes.

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For my swatches, I applied one coat of Santa Baby over Essie Wrap It Up, & sealed everything in with Essie Gel Setter to level my nails out. This is one of my favourite ways to wear this polish & the best option for showing it off in all its glory. Second to that, this shade makes for the most perfect glitter gradient which I’ve shown off in years past. I’d love to try to sponge it on someday, & maybe I will as like an accent nail with some peel off base coat if I’m looking for a one night kind of manicure. I’d be really curious to see what it looks like all sponged on.

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As you can see, it’s like Christmas-y confetti on the nails. How amazing is that? I just adore the different range of glitter styles packed into one bottle. It always makes me feel festive whenever I put it on, even if I’m feeling more Grinch-y than Elf-y! Instantly it is like my holly & jolly levels will begin to rise, no rum spiked egg nog needed at all.

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Sadly this polish is 4+ years old, so it’s no longer in production. I even checked online to see if there was a similar product available, but there doesn’t seem to be any Christmas nail polishes at all this year by them. So this is definitely one of those lock it in the vault kind of shades if you happen to have it as part of your collection, because it really is special.

Do you have any special to your Christmas polishes you pull out every year? Let me know what yours are, & stay tuned because I have more Christmas themed nail polishes to share with you this month!

Christmas Penguin accent nails!

Good morning lovelies! I’m back again, & I have another Christmas-y design to share… after all it’s only 3 more days until Christmas. (When did that happen?) Today’s look is a surprisingly easy look that I’ve done & redone over the years & always come back to.

I actually did this nails last weekend, but anyone else who works in retail this time of year probably understands the craziness which is my life right now… barely any time to breathe, let alone write a blog post… just counting down the days to my two days off over Christmas. It’s going to be GLORIOUS!

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Essie Grow Stronger
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Couture Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sprinkled With Love
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Make It N-ice
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Let’s Snow
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Good Cheer-y
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Fiery Island
  • Small dotting tool
  • Small nail art brush (obsessed with my collection from www.nailstuff.ca

First I started off by laying Make It N-ice over Sprinkled with Love for a little extra sparkle…. because tis the season. & then I freehanded my little penguin over top on both my ring fingers to make my look more festive. I first saw this look on Pshiiit Nails (via Pinterest) & just loved how it looked so I needed to recreate. & obviously I had to add a little a festive Christmas-ness with some Santa hats!

My only complaint is that my top coat smeared my penguins a little. I’ve been testing out the Essie Gel Couture Top Coat & while the lasting power is amazing, it’s not my favourite top coat for putting over nail art because it does seem to smear designs. Guess I’m still on the hunt for the perfect one!

what do you think of this penguin design? Have you figured out what you’re wearing for Christmas? Let me know down below!

More Christmas Tree Nails!

Okay, so I think I’m obsessed with Christmas tree nail art. 🎄 I seriously can’t get enough of them. This time I created some Christmas tree stamped nails using a design I didn’t even know I had! I was trying to create something new, & discovered on this plate I reviewed from the Summer that there was this cute tree pattern–perfect for Christmas nails! So obviously it meant I needed to try it out.

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is manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald
  • Essie Tuck It In My Tux
  • Morgan Taylor Dreaming of Gleaming
  • Morgan Taylor Silver in my Stocking
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate BPL015
  • Clear Jelly Stamper (also from Born Pretty)
  • NailStuff.ca reindeer studs

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I really, really love how these turned out. i think they’re just so pretty. I tried out my hand at double stamping using silver under the green, but it’s very subtle. However it did make Emerald Fitzgerald pop a lot more, since it’s a little thin for stamping. Also, can we talk about these ADORABLE reindeer studs from NailStuff.ca? I used a whole lot of top coat to attach them to my nail & they lasted a whole day easily. Also they’re the cutest studs I’ve ever seen.

what do you think of this Christmasy design? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!