Essie – Page 66 – Coffee & Nail Polish

September 17, 2019September 13, 2019

Fall Inspired Abstract Nails

Good morning lovelies! Hope you’re enjoying the beginning to another beautiful week. Also how is it possible we’ve passed the middle of September & it’s creeping (quickly!) towards October?! It feels like just yesterday I was dreaming wistfully about pumpkin spice, & now it will be Halloween before we know it!

Today I have a really, really fun design to share with you that I had an extremely hard time figuring out what to call. It has a little bit of everything in it: negative space, polka dots, colour blocking, abstract lines. This look was partly inspired by a few of these looks I’ve seen popping up on Instagram & partly inspired by my daughters new soothers. But I am 100% in love with the end results!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

Base Coat: Gel overlay
Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
Wet N Wild 2% Milk
Essie Fall For NYC
Essie Bobbing for Baubles
Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod!
NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

This look is super easy to do, even though it comes across as more complicated & fancy. Basically the hardest part is figuring out how to layer your lines of colour, but because they’re “abstract” you don’t have to worry about making them perfectly straight. & then just go in with a small dotting tool for some extra dots, & you’re finished! I originally was going to add a few random lines as well, but was worried about kiddos waking up (I literally did these at 6am while everyone was asleep) so I went the safe route. Definitely want to try them again & see if I can get even closer to my inspiration! This was a fun first attempt though!

Love love loving this look! Seriously, it feels so good to paint my nails, & even if it means waking up earlier than I might want, it’s so worth it in the end. Painting my nails is what keeps me feeling like me, & it’s important to have that “thing” that makes you feel like you, especially when you’re a new Mom.

I know I get asked a lot how I have time, with two young kids, to keep doing my nails & the honest answer is: I just make the time when I can. It’s not always easy, & sometimes it takes into the next day to finish a manicure, but sometimes that’s what you have to do. We’ll see what happens when my maternity leave is up & I go back to work, but I will keep trying as much as possible to keep the routine going & finding my times to paint & create.

What do you think of this nail art look? What kind of manicures would you like to see next? Share down below your favourite nail art look!

🧡

September 14, 2019September 13, 2019

Bestie Twin Floral Nails

Happy Saturday lovelies! Did everyone survive Full Moon Friday the 13th okay? Today I’m sharing a fun design that has been in planning for a while–bestie twin floral nails that I did with my girl Victoria over at @nailstuffca!

We’ve been talking about doing some twin floral nails for absolutely ages, so I was really excited that we finally managed to come together to create our matching looks! The inspiration for this floral comes from my favourite place for inspiration: Pinterest! I found this pattern while browsing for Fall floral & that was where we started for our manicures.

The polishes used for this manicure were:

Base Coat: Gel overlay (trying to grow out some damage on my tips)
Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
ORLY Plum Sugar
Essie Stop Drop & Shop
Acrylic Paints (set purchased from Dollarama)
Nailstuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio
Nailstuff.ca Mermaid Tail Brush Brush Trio (I used the 11mm liner brush)

This was my first time using acrylic paints to create a look like this (floral) & I was a little nervous at first, but it was actually pretty easy to do! I still had to use polish for the pinky roses, as the set of paints I bought didn’t have any red. But other than that, I was pretty impressed that a $2 set of acrylic paint could create such beautiful art on such a teeny canvas. I don’t think I’ll use paints every time I go to do nail art, but for a design like this that is supposed to be a bit rustic, I think they worked perfectly!

Ahhhh, how pretty did these turn out? Considering I was definitely feeling rusty since I hadn’t created any floral since before our baby girl was born, I feel really good about the end result.

What do you think about these floral nails? Don’t forget to hop over to @NailStuff.ca & check out Victoria’s version of this design & give her some love!

September 4, 2019September 3, 2019

VACATION NAILS — ocean inspire Saran Wrap splatter.

Hello lovelies! Still on vacation, but even though I’m on vacation that doesn’t mean I’m not painting my nails! Like I wrote in my last Swatch Sunday post, visiting my parents means I get to take advantage of my Mom’s massive nail polish collection she uses for her jewelry. So I decided to take a few of her polishes to create an ocean inspired design perfect for an East Coast vacation!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

Base Coat: Duri Rejuvacote
Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
Sally Hansen CSM A Bleu Attitude
Quo by ORLY April Showers
Santee ACO6433
China Glaze Cattle Drive Me Crazy
Crinkled up Plastic Wrap

Obviously, being away from my own nail polish stash & supply, I’m not going to attempt to crate one of my more complicated designs–like floral– which is why something like a Saran Wrap splatter is such a perfect design! Easy to do, minimal clean up, but still looks fancy & fun! & obviously because my nails were inspired by the ocean I had to take pictures of this look right on the beach! 🌊

Looking at these close up, I realized how much these look like the mussel shells we used to collect off the beach as kids! This colour combination is definitely one of the best versions of this design I’ve done, but I find that happens whenever I do anything in shades of blue! They always just turn out so beautiful!

What do you think of this look? What do you do about your nails when you’re on vacation–do you still paint them, or go with something like soak off gel that lasts 2+ weeks!

Let me know your vacation nail routine down in the comments below!

August 26, 2019August 25, 2019

City Sunset 🌇 for #glamnailschallengeAug

Hello lovelies! & happy Monday.

We’ve got two more prompts left for #glamnailschallengeAug, & I’m going to be honest… I wasn’t sure I was going to get this prompt done! Not only was I a bit stumped on inspiration, but I’ve had a busy last week so I haven’t been able to get my nails painted like I usually can. But thanks to some late night Pinterest-ing & a cooperative baby, I pulled out a last minute nail art success!

& I’m so super in love with the end result!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

Base Coat: fraken base coat combination
Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
Essence Indian Summer
Essie Flowerista
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Trouble Maker
Essence Black is Back
Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in white
NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Nail Art Brush Trio (7mm size)

I started off this design with what I’m going to call a “rustic” gradient — I didn’t go your typical route where you blend all your colours together at once, but instead sponged my layers on top of each other which kind of created the pinky cloud effect. I then brushed my top coat over & over to smear the layers together a bit. This created the perfect background because I really feel like it looks more like what you see when you see a sunset. & it reminds me a lot of this sunset I captured not that long ago (which was also kind of my inspiration for the colour combo I went with.)

I’ve done a few of these sunset with background designs, but this is definitely the most unique. (Usually I do mountains & cacti, or something similar) but with the pinky sky & the buildings it really does feel like a city sunset, maybe even my own city.

What do you think of this design? Can you believe we only have one more prompt left for this challenge… how crazy is that?

Don’t forget to hop over to Instagram & check out #glamnailschallengeaug to see everyone’s amazing city building manicures!

August 23, 2019August 13, 2019

Purple Quatrefoil Pattern Accent Nails

Hello lovelies! I’ve got another fun design to share with you. I felt a bit like I was getting a little too premature with the Fall colours, so I decided that I needed some bright & more Summer-like colours in my life again.

Today’s design is a fun quatrefoil design using some vinyls from What’s Up Nails, which I haven’t pulled out in a while. In fact, after going through my stash of vinyls I’m definitely going to need to order some more soon because I’m starting to run out of my favourites!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

Base Coat: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Strengthening Base Coat
Top Coat: Essie Gel Couture
Sinful Colors Amethyst
Essie Play Date
Essie Mint Candy Apple
Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Bourbon Belle
What’s Up Nails Moroccan Nail Vinyls

I thought this look turned out really unique, although using a white base might have made the pattern pop even more.

Also I would have loved to have done this on all my fingers, but like I said I’m starting to run low on my Moroccan nail vinyls so I have to use them sparingly until I order more of them. But I do think the three accent nails look really neat! & the bright polishes I picked are a little bit more Summer-y than a lot of my nail art has been lately.

What do we think about how this look turned out? Would you try out this design? Let me know in the comments below!

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