SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie For The Twill Of It

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Hope everyone is having a lovely start to this new month. Today I decided to pull an old favourite from my stash & one of the first Essie shades I ever owned: Essie For The Twill Of It. This polish was originally released as part of the Fall 2013 collection & I picked it up back then in a set of 4 minis at my local Marshall’s.

Now I have featured this shade before in my original China Glaze Choo Choo Choose You Post, but it’s long overdue for me to give this gorgeous polish its own spotlight!

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For my swatches, you’re looking at 2 coats of polish over my usual base coat. I skipped top coat for my photos so you could see For The Twill of It in its natural state. There are a few bumps in the polish once dried, but that could be chalked up to this polish being A. 6 years old & B. being a mini bottle, which I always find let’s to the polish getting gloopy or dried up faster. However, a nice coat of thick top coat (like Essie Gel Setter) will smooth any issues out.

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Look at the silver to fuchsia & green/turquoise shift… how gorgeous! Depending on the light it can be very apparent & pops off the nail! I also really love the tiny micro shimmer that is almost Holo-esque in the sunshine. It really gives this polish an amazing dimension that is unlike most other grey metallic polishes I own. I saw someone refer to it as an “oil slick” nail polish, & that really is the perfect description.

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For once, I picked a Swatch Sunday polish that was still available for purchase! You can find For The Twill Of It available in a few places like…

If you don’t already have a bottle in your stash, I definitely recommend picking one up. Also who else thinks that this shade would be the perfect base for an over the top glitter gradient? Holiday party ideas are brewing!

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What do you think of Essie For The Twill Of It? Do you own this beautiful shade? Let me know down in the comments below!

Autumn Floral 🍂🌼

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Hello lovelies & happy Friday! I hope everyone had a safe & fun Halloween, & is not too far deep into a sugar coma quite yet! (Remember, leftover Halloween candy goes 50% off today!)

I’m sad that Halloween month October is over, but excited for a brand new month. November is one of those weird nail art months where Halloween is over, but it’s too early to think about Christmas, so I get stuck on what to do on my nails. I think this month I’m going to challenge myself to try one new nail art look/technique a week to see what new designs I discover. But before we just into that, how about a tried & true Coffee & Nail Polish design: floral.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Cliffhanger
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Troublemaker
  • Sally Hansen CSM Pat on the Black
  • Sally Hansen CSM I Lilac You
  • Sally Hansen CSM Cherry Cherry Bang Bang
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Jelly Belly Bubblegum
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essie First Timer
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm liner brush (from Mermaid Brush Trio)
  • NailStuff.ca dotting tool trio

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It feels like ages since my last floral, even though it really has only been a month or so (if you don’t count my little floral accents in my sugar skull look). Like I said, the beginning of November always leaves me at a loss for designs–too early for Christmas, too late for Halloween. I still have yet to do a classic Fall leaves look, so I will definitely have to add that to my list. But definitely the hardest time of year, aside from maybe January, to decide on designs. I might have to go through blog posts from Novembers past to find some nail art inspo!

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What do you think about this Fall inspired floral? What nail art is your favourite to do during the pre-Christmas season? Share down below what nail art you’d like to see me try!

GlamnailschallengeOct—Eyeballs

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Hello lovelies! It’s time for another prompt for #glamnailschallengeOct: Eyeballs! This look was actually inspired by an old design by Chalkboard Nails, that I found via Pinterest. I thought her look was equal parts cool & creepy, so it would be the perfect look for today’s prompt. 👁

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea Bamboo Strengthener
  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sinful Colors Leather Loose
  • Sally Hansen MG Get Mod
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue
  • Essie First Timer
  • OPI How Great Is Your Dane?
  • Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. Jelly Belly Bubble Gum
  • NailStuff.ca dotting tool trio
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

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This look was a little time consuming but still a super easy look to achieve. I went through a few different ideas on what I wanted my eyeball design to look like, & this one seemed the most fun (& creepy!) I also was super pumped to pull out Sinful Colors Leather Loose again, because it is such a fantastic Fall shade that I had kind of forgotten about a little bit. That brown with the shimmer–oh boy is it beautiful! & my eyeballs really popped against it.

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Totally creepy, am I right? I probably could have done a few more eyeballs on my design, but I was painting against the clock & wanted to make sure I got this look done!

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What do you think of this look for today’s prompt? Would you wear this creepy eyeball look? Can you believe we only have TWO more prompts left before the end of #glamnailschallengeOct?

 Keep following along with #glamnailschallengeOct on Instagram & don’t forget to check out all the other awesome (& creepy!) eyeball looks!

Halloween Patchwork Nails (recreated from @thelittlecanvas!)

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Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday! Today I have some more Halloween nails to share with you, this time a recreation of a design by Alaina aka @thelittlecanvas! If you follow her, you might have seen she recently recreated my ghost design, as well as my candy corn dotticure , so I really wanted to recreate one of her past Halloween nail art designs! & I found the perfect look in this patchwork design from 2 years ago!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea & Bamboo Strengthener
  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • China Glaze Be More Pacific
  • Essie Flowerista
  • Sally Hansen CSM Fiery Island
  • Black Acrylic Paint
  • NailStuff.ca 11mm Liner Brush

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Oh my gosh you guys, this look is so fun & so easy! I started with a base of white, because it was easiest to make colours pop, & then created my blocks of colour. I did my green & orange first, & then filled in the middle with my purple. You don’t have to be too concerned with perfectly straight edges because you’ll be adding the black stitching, so I didn’t see the point in using tape. Then to finish my design, I took black acrylic paint & one of my NailStuff stripers, & added the black stitching along the edges. Finish off with top coat, & your nails are all ready for Halloween!

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This patchwork look is perfect for a variety of different Halloween costume ideas, & you can definitely change up your colours depending on needs–this would be perfect for a Bride of Frankenstein, Zombie, Scarecrow, etc. Lots of fun ideas, but super easy to do, even for a nail art beginner. & using acrylic paint for your lines vs nail polish also makes things a little easier, because if you mess up you can erase the lines without wrecking your whole nail.

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What do you think about this nail art look, recreated from @thelittlecanvas? Did I live up to the original? & hop over to Alaina’s blog today to see her version of another one of my nail art looks!

GlamnailschallengeOct—Skeletons 💀

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Hello lovelies & Happy Monday! The Halloween countdown is officially on, & I have another spooky design created for GlamnailschallengeOct! The next prompt on our list is skeletons, which is not an image I’ve ever attempted on my nails before, so I was really excited to give it a shot! & honestly, I think this is my favourite manicure of the challenge so far!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Leggy Legend
  • China Glaze Pathological Liar Liar
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Black Acrylic Paint
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm liner brush (from Mermaid Brush Trio)
  • Born Pretty Store Classic Patterns stamping plate BP-L006 (item #17924)

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This nail art look was built in layers. First I started off with my base, which is Pathological Liar Liar layered over Leggy Legend — I definitely need to do two coats of PLL next time, but I definitely love it a lot more when it has some undies.

Next I decided to use this skull & cross bones image from my classic patterns stamping plate from Born Pretty Store, mostly because I was unsure about free handing skeletons. On its own, the image was a little meh, so I took a risk & outlined the stamp with black acrylic paint & my mermaid tail brush from NailStuff. & that’s when this mani came to life! The outlining made the image pop on my nail & I am absolutely OBSESSED with it. I also did a few polka dots around it to fill in the space. It almost looks like nail art stickers, which is super cool. I literally didn’t even want to take these off after I put them on.

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I really like how the stamping & outlining almost looks slightly cartoon-y. Going with black & white over the coppery orange base was definitely the way to go.

I feel like if 17 year old me was into nail art like this back in the day, this is a design I would have rocked in a variety of background colours… while listening to the Ataris on repeat & writing angsty journal entries. Works for Halloween & non-Halloween alike.

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What do you think about my skeleton nails? Would you wear this design? What do you think about combining freehanding & stamping in the same manicure? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below! & don’t forget to keep following along with  #glamnailschallengeOct on Instagram for all the nail art looks!