Tribal/Aztec Print for #GlamNailsChallengeAug

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Hello loves & happy Wednesday! Today marks the last prompt for #GlamNailsChallengeAug, can you believe it? We made it! & I am so excited to have completed this challenge, because it really did inspired me to try out more nail art designs than my usual go to designs. That being said, I’m also itching for some Fall inspired floral & half moons, so stay tuned for some of those coming up next month!

The last prompt for this month is Tribal/Aztec, which is one after my own heart, so I couldn’t wait to draw some new tribal inspired nail art. & obviously I had to use some of the next China Glaze Gone West polishes for a Fall colour scheme.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used are:

  • Base Coat: Fraken Base Coat combination
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Settter
  • China Glaze Cowboy Bye
  • China Glaze Prairie Tale Ending
  • China Glaze Take The High Rodeo
  • China Glaze Gold Mine Your Business
  • China Glaze Cattle Drive Me Crazy
  • Essence Black is Back
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm Nail Art Brush
  • Small dotting tool

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So I know I’m totally biased, but how cute did this look turn out? The colour pallet is just so perfect for Fall weather & I think goes really well with the tribal prompt. I mean, I can’t stop obsessing about these colours anyways, but combined with one of my favourite kinds of designs, it’s hard not to just keep staring at my nails. & it satisfies my craving for Fall just enough.

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I’ve really had so much fun doing this challenge this month, & I’m super excited that I completed all 8 prompts! Still deciding if I’ll be joining in again next month, as the prompts look quite fun, but if I don’t do all of them, I will definitely take inspiration from some. & I definitely plan on getting more creative this month in my nail art! So who knows what designs you will see coming up! I definitely feel like pumpkins are going to need to happen!

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Don’t forget to check out the other manicures for #glamnailschallengeaug & let me know down in the comments below if you’d like to see me do more challenges like this in the future!

City Sunset 🌇 for #glamnailschallengeAug

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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!

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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)

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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.)

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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.

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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!

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!