Iridescent Flakie Gradient Nails

Good morning lovelies & happy Tuesday! It’s a rainy & chilly Tuesday — very much November weather. So I thought I would break up some of the gloom with a pretty flakie look, because flakies make everything better.

I realized the other day I hadn’t played with any of my flakies or Chrome powders in my collection, & got this idea to do a look using them in a similar look to my favourite stained glass technique. & I think they turned out so pretty!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: NailStuff Essentials Base Coat *
  • Top Coat: Nail Stuff Essentials Quick Dry Top Coat *
  • Sally Hansen Special Effects Salon Chrome Top Coat (used as a base to help my flakies stick!)
  • Dimension Nails Kronosaurus
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Flakies
  • NailStuff.ca Flat nail brush

Look at that beautiful shift! I can’t believe I’ve taken so long to use these again. I definitely go through fazes where I use nail art stuff less than others, but I’m going to make a conscious effort to go through more stash more frequently to use these items! Because they really do give such a beautiful look on the nail!

What do you think of these flakie glitter gradient nails? Can you believe the shift on these flakies? I can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on using them! Definitely will be glkng through my stash & seeing what nail art looks I can create with my little pots of glitter.

Happy Tuesday

🖤

SWATCH SUNDAY — Claire’s Poison Apple 🍎

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! It’s a beautiful Autumn Sunday, cool & crisp. It’s also the last Sunday of October, if you can believe it. How is this month almost over?

Even though I have some really exciting shades from Ella + Mila to share with you, I wanted to close off this month with a slightly Halloween adjacent shade with Claire’s Poison Apple.

This shade was the third in the collection they released in the early 2010s as dupes for the MAC Villainous collection — click to see the swatches of Evil Queen & Venomously.

3 coats + top coat

This beautiful foil red takes a few coats for perfect opacity, but it’s worth the work (& dry time). The formula is a metallic red with micro flakies. It has a subtle gold shift, although it shows up better in the bottle on the nail (as is the trend with this mini collection). For an almost 15 year old nail polish, the formula is still great & I had no issues with application.

Look at that metallic finish—so pretty! I love colour for this time of year. I do wish that you see that gold shift on the nail like you can in the bottle, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. & I’m so happy that I have all three in my stash, especially because I didn’t original think that I did have a full set.

What do you think of Claire’s Poison Apple? Do you like this villainous red? Do you think Claire’s should do another release like this? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

Crimson Stripes

Hello beauties & happy Friday! It’s officially the weekend (basically), & that means we need to cap off this week with some more nails. I’ve really been trying to do my nails as much as possible — both for the challenge this month, & then sneaking in some non-GlamNails nails as well.

Today’s look is a simple one, but I just love it because it’s been a while since I did stripes on my nails. & I just adore the subtle effect.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base 
  • Base Coat: LA Colors Mega Grow Treatment 
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri CinnaSnap
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Zip Wine
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Just In Wine
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat Moonlight
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Striper Brush

Oh man, I just love stripes! & these ones are subtle but then you get that sparkle from Moonlight & it shows up so well. I love it.

Plus, we all know I love a red nail moment. Red nails will forever be a favourite of mine, even when I’m like 80! I’m never ever going to grow tired of them. But it is fun to find a way to spice them up a little bit every so often.

What do you think of this crimson stripe look? Do you like it as much as I do? It feels like a good amount of Autumn vibes, which is perfect because our weather is finally feeling Fall-like again, after some seriously balmy temperatures. & considering how much I live for Fall fashion, I’ll take it.

Happy Friday!

🖤

GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE SEPTEMBER (2024) — Autumn Harvest

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Today is a balmy not-so-Autumm day here on the East Coast, not Fall-like at all. But that’s okay because we’re continuing on with our Fall inspired manicures for Glam Nails Challenge September with the next prompt which is Autumn Harvest. & I won’t lie, this one had me a bit stumped at first! So I decided to pull out some acrylic paint & get creative.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base 
  • Base Coat: LA Colors Mega Grow Treatment 
  • Essie Expressie Cold Brew Crew
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Moonlight Top Coat
  • Acrylic Paint
  • Nailstuff.ca Mermaid Tail 7mm & 11mm liner brushes

So I don’t know if you can tell, but I handprinted some pumpkins & squash, & then filled into the space with some Fall foilage. I feel like maybe using such a dark base colour might have been a detriment to my design, but it looks very pretty up close. & the colours just scream Autumn, which I love!

& you can never go wrong with flakies.

What do you think about these Autumn Harvest nails? Are you getting the prompt from this design? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & how you think I did.

Are you following along with the other nail art designs for this month’s Glam Nails Challenge September? Don’t forget, you can check out #glamnailschallengesept24 on Instagram, & see all the other beautiful designs being shared!

GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE AUGUST (2024) — Stained Glass

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday. I hope everyone is having a lovely week so far. The weather here has been weird — cold then hot & muggy, with sporadic rain. Makes it very hard for a girl to know what to wear!

But today marks another prompt for Glam Nails Challenge August, & today’s prompt is stained glass. & obviously, I had to pull out an old favourite for this prompt — the stained/shattered glass look I love so much. This time, I used a flakie topper which gave it more of that stained glass effect I think.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base 
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • OPI Turn On The Northern Lights
  • ‘Ard As Nails Fairy Flakes

  • NailStuff.ca dotting tool from Dotting Tool Trio

How pretty is this look! I’ll admit, fishing out the flakies vs the usual hard glitters I usually do this kind of look with was a bit more time consuming than I was expecting, but then end result is so worth it! I’m kind of obsessed with these flakies over this dark base & it’s giving straight up Autumn—& I’m okay with that. Time to pull out my over the knee socks & sip on some pumpkin spice.

I’ve been wearing this look for a few days, & I got curious how it would look matte-ified & oh man… I think I love it even more! What do you think — shiny or matte?

I love a good stained glass look, so this was a fun prompt. Plus it let me tap into those Autumn vibes I’ve been seriously craving, & I’m not mad about it at all. Over all, this might be one of my favourite designs of the challenge thus far. It’ll be interesting to see what the rest of the month holds!

& as always, you can follow along with the Glam Nails Challenge on Instagram with the hashtag #glamnailschallengeaug24 & see all the beautiful nails that have been created!

Happy Wednesday

🖤