SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Stop, Drop & Shop

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Good morning lovelies! Hope you’re having a beautiful day wherever you are. Today is my favourite day of the week: Swatch Sunday! & today I’ve shopped my stash to bring you another order polish perfect for Fall: Essie Stop, Drop & Shop from the Fall 2018 collection.

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This collection was released last year & I remember seeing Mani Geek’s swatches & falling completely in love with the whole collection, but at the time I only bought Fall for NYC. I actually found this bottle in the clearance bin at Shoppers Drug Mart for only $3, & knew I needed this shade in my life!

& I was totally right!

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For my swatches of Essie Stop, Drop & Shop, I did two coats of polish over my base & finished everything off with Essie Gel Couture Top Coat. The formula was easy to work with & the new thicker brushes make me so happy.

The colour itself is such a nice dusty berry & reminds me a bit of OPI Aurora Berry-alis from the 2017 Iceland Collection, only a bit darker & more red toned. Honestly, this is a fairly unique shade to my collection, which makes me happy. It gives me another reddish option to grab–as red polish is one of my favourites to wear just on its own–but is more unique than a lot of my other red polishes. & I love that.

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Do you own any of the polishes from the Essie Fall 2018 collection? Which one was your favourite? I find Essie does Fall shades really, really well. I don’t think I’ve ever not liked one of their Fall collections.

Ever!

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I must say, going through all these shades is making me very excited for all the Fall 2019 collections coming out! Which one is on your list right now?

Let me know down in the comments below!

Fall Themed Colour Block

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Good morning lovelies! As much as I’m loving doing the Glam Nails Challenge for August, I thought it would be nice to break it up a bit with some other nail art! So today I have a fun colour block design to share with you, using a couple amazing polishes from past Essie Fall collections.

I swear, I’ll try to wear some neon soon… but in the meantime, how about some fun rich Autumn nails?

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Couture
  • Essie Stop, Drop & Shop
  • Essie Leggy Legend
  • Essie After School Boy Blazer

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This design was surprisingly quick, all things considered. I like freehanded my colour blocking, so there no need to wait for my base to try before painting on my blocks of other shades. & the result looks awesome!

I also really like how well these colours went with each other. Some of my absolute favourite polishes have come from past Essie Fall collections, including these 3 polishes. Essie After School Boy Blazer is definitely my #1 favourite Navy blue of all time. It’s just perfection.

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Are you already thinking about Fall nails? Do you have a favourite Fall collection from years past?

Mine is probably the Essie “For the Twill of It” collection from Fall 2013, which After School Boy Blazer is a part of, as well as my all time favourite grey Cashmere Bathrobe.

🍁

SWATCH SUNDAY — QUO by ORLY Wrong So Right

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Good morning lovelies! It’s the beginning of another week & that means it’s Swatch Sunday. Today I grabbed a fun Fall shade from my stash to share with you.

This shade has also been in my collection for a long while, & I don’t think I’ve ever actually worn it in a manicure: Quo by ORLY Wrong So Right. This shade came to me as part of the Quo by ORLY 18 Piece Holiday collection from 2013 that the hubby gifted me.

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For my Swatches, I’m wearing 2 coats of Wrong So Right over Essence Plump Power. The polish itself is very sheer (which I find with a lot of shades like this) so I always choose to wear undies instead of layering 4+ coats to get the polish opaque. It also can give you a different look, depending on what colours you choose to layer it over.

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For those looking at this polish going “hmmm, that shade looks very familiar”, you would be right. Wrong So Right is the Quo by ORLY version of ORLY Brilliant Boysenberry (aka ORLY Space Cadet) which is also a dupe for MAC Mean & Green (from the Venomous Villans collection) & dupes of Finger Paints Surreal Sunset & Claire’s Venomous). Turns out I must really like this finish & shade, because I own all of the above except Mean & Green. What can I say… I’m a duochrome addict.

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Look at that shift! It just screams Fall to me, & Fall is my favourite nail polish season. 🍁 & no, I don’t care that it’s only August. Give me plaid & pumpkin spice & all the jewel tone nail polishes I can handle.

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What do you think of this polish pick? Do you have any dupes for the shade? Let me know down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY— OPI Gelato on My Mind

Good morning loves! Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday & well caffeinated! ☕️ Today I have another oldie but goodie swatch to share with you: OPI Gelato on My Mind.

This minty shade was originally released as part of the OPI Venice collection for Fall/Winter 2015 & was the first shade I bought from that collection as you know I’m a sucker for any shade of blue. Also I remember that the name was just too cute, which was part of the reason I NEEDED to own this shade. (It’s also the reason I had to own OPI Pineapples Have Peelings Too.)

For my swatches I did two coats over my base, followed by top coat (Essie Gel Setter). You have great coverage in two coats, but like a lot of light/pastel shades the levelling on this shade wasn’t great, so I needed that top coat to give you a nice glossy finish & eliminate any potential streakiness. Maybe if you’re more careful you can get it to level out, but I couldn’t & needed my nails to dry quickly so a glossy top coat always works for me.

As I mentioned, this shade was originally released as part of the OPI Venice collection, which was for Fall/Winter 2015. Personally, to me this is more of a shade I lean towards for Spring but I can also see pairing this with a few darker/vampy colours for a fun Fall design as well. I definitely can see myself doing another fun tribal design (similar to this look) but with much darker, vampier colours.

What colour are you currently rocking on your nails? Which polish do you think I should pick for next week’s Swatch Sunday feature–something Summer-y or Fall-esque? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!

Fall Houndstooth Accent Nails

Happy October 2nd! Can you believe we’re already a day into Halloween month?! Are you as excited as I am? I’m definitely going to need to start planning my Halloween designs soon.

But in the mean time, maybe some Fall themed nails? With the weather shifting quickly, I’m already digging out some of my favourite scarves, so I figured why not some nails inspired by the coziness of Fall.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Essie Fall for NYC
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Lets Snow!
  • Essence Black is Back!
  • Born Pretty Store Classic Patterns Stamping Plate BP-L006 (item #17924)
  • Born Pretty Store Color Flame Rhinestones colour #2 (item #41753)

First off, can we talk about this Essie shade from the Fall 2018 collection? It’s absolutely amazing. The second I saw the swatches, I knew it was so different from all the other polishes I own & that meant I had to have it! & since it feels so Fall to me, I knew I had to pair it with this stamping plate from Born Pretty Store (which I haven’t had the chance to use yet!)

Also check out these crystals also from Born Pretty Store (item # 41753). I needed something to jazz up my plain nails, & I love the iridescent shift they have. You can kind of see how the shift of your hand shows different colours, which means these crystals will match with so many different polishes & manicures!

what do you think of this Fall inspired manicure? What Fall shades are you wearing on your nails right now? Let me know in the comments below!