Tag: Freehand

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Watercolour Freehand Floral 🌸

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday!

I hope everyone is having a lovely week. The weather here has been pretty amazing & Spring like. You can’t help but love it! Our flowers are even starting to bloom in our front garden, so naturally I was inspired to create some pretty floral on my nails! This design was also inspired by a nail art look that popped up in my Facebook memories from 6 years ago (this one, in case you want to see the original.)

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Where’s My Chauffeur
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • OPI Be Magentale With Me (Sheer Tints)
  • OPI Don’t Violet Me Down (Sheer Tints)
  • Essie No Shrinking Violets (Silk Watercolours)
  • Essie Love Sheen (Silk Watercolours)
  • Essie Flowerista
  • OPI Lost My Bikini in Molokini
  • OPI My Dog Sled Is A Hybrid
  • Essie Poolside Service
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Blacky
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio 

Okay, so I know every time I do a floral, I say that it’s my new favourite — so I won’t even say it, but seriously this might be the most favourite floral I’ve ever done! I feel like the sheer polish plus darker outlining just gives this manicure such a beautiful feel. & I love the floral combined with the brightness of Essie Where’s My Chauffeur which is hands down one of my favourite polishes for Spring. I’m really really in love with this whole combination.

& obviously, a close up because I am so freaking proud of how these turned out! I know roses are my floral safe zone, but I think I would to branch out a little bit more, maybe try & perfect other styles. I definitely still have plans to try out a tulip design very very soon as well!

What do you think about this floral look? Has your garden started to come to life yet? Let me know what you think down in the comments below, & what kind of floral you’d like to see me attempt next!

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Happy 6th Blogiversary Coffee & Nail Polish

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday. I know what you’re thinking — this isn’t my usual Sunday content. But I’m making a special exception for this Sunday because IT’S MY BLOGIVERSARY!

6 years ago today, I posted my very first post here on coffee & nail polish, & I haven’t stop since. A lot has changed since those early, early days of blogging but my love of nail polish has not. & I can honestly say I can’t imagine not having this place, my very own place, to share that love! So whether you’ve been reading since the beginning, or just recently found me, I just want to say thanks for being here! & have a piece of cake (or a very large fancy coffee) for me!

In honour of today, I thought I would do something I did for a previous blogiversary, & recreate one of my early nail art looks. This orange floral look was the second ever nail art I posted here on the blog, & one of the first really good florals I ever painted. I was going to attempt to repaint this using all the originally polishes I used, but sadly both my bottles of China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin, as well as my bottle of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls are long gone. So I updated the look using newer polishes in the stash.

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Fall for NYC
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Firey Island
  • ACO by Ardene Lemon Sorbet
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essie Off Tropic 
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio 

Back when I started this blog, I think I had a single dotting tool (Essence brand — I still have it around here somewhere) I had bought from Shoppers Drug Mart for like $1.99, some cheap dollar store brushes I never ended up using, & a bunch of striping polishes. & that was the extent of my nail art tools. But you know, I thought that was amazing & I loved teaching myself how to create nail art looks with them, like that beautiful floral. & honestly, I remember being so beyond proud of myself for posting those. I thought they were the best nails I ever painted!

Flash forward: check out those roses! I’m in love. But I will definitely say this — the tools you use definitely make a huge difference in your ability to paint. Everyone always comments on how much my painting has improved, but I definitely think it has a lot to do with the fact my tools have improved as well. That’s always my #1 tip to those who ask me what tips I have for improving their painting: invest in good brushes! I absolutely adore my nail art brushes from NailStuff.ca, but I also have amazing brushes I used to use from Bundle Monster (now Maniology) that definitely helped my improve my skills. &, of course, practice!

So what do you guys think of this floral recreation? Have you ever recreated an old manicure?

Thank you guys SO much for sticking around, for finding me, for liking my posts & leaving comments. You honestly have no idea how much it means to me to see people loving what I do, & the fact after 6 years people still love it! ♥♥♥

Have an amazing Sunday!

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Spring-y Pastel Floral

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday. Today I’m showing off a pretty springy pastel floral, which is perfect because it’s currently 0 degrees & snowing. Ah, Spring in Canada. 🌸

Usually went I do floral I try to do a more realistic looking design, but I decided to go more simple this time & I’m really happy with how these turned out.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Lounge Lover
  • Essie Play Date
  • Essie Bikini So Teeny
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Essie The A-Bliss
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Brush Trio (I used the 7mm liner brush) — use COFFEE10 to save 10% off your order

These feel very Easter-y to me, even though I hadn’t really started thinking about Easter manicures quite yet. I thought the pretty pastel shades worked really well for this look though — & I’m really how with how these flowers turned out. It took my patience, but I think they look beautiful!

Is anyone else’s hands struggling with extra dryness right now? Between extra extra hand washing & hand sanitizer when we have to venture out for groceries (or handmade Lysol wipes) I feel like I can’t keep on top of my cuticle oil or hand cream. Thank goodness I have an abundance of hand cream at home, because I’m going through it like crazy!

What do you think about this floral? Are you feeling pretty pastels? Let me know what design you would do with pastels for Spring!

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Freehand Daisies

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday. At least, I think it’s Wednesday. I feel like time has no real meaning during crazy times like this!

But I DO know that (tomorrow) Friday is the 20th, officially Spring, which is definitely something to get excited about! This winter has been long, & brutal, & not just because it seems like bad news is happening every 3 days. So in honour of it almost being Spring, let’s get hard into the floral. 🌼 Because floral makes everything better.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Deborah Lippmann It’s Raining Men
  • White Acrylic Paint
  • Black Acrylic Paint
  • Yellow Acrylic Paint
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Brush Trio (I used the 7mm liner brush) — use COFFEE10 to save 10% off your order

I attempted this manicure a while ago, using polish, but it did not turn out at all. I don’t tend to post my nail fails, but not every manicure I attempt turns out. Sometimes they are epic fails. So I decided to try this look again, just using acrylic paint again — & it worked.

I know I’ve mentioned it’s before but if you’re trying to get into nail art & struggling with hand painting, give acrylic paint a try. The best part about it is if you mess up what you’re drawing, you can just wash it off & start over again! Certainly makes things a bit easier.

I absolutely love daisies, they’re my absolute favourite flowers. But I haven’t worn them often on my nails just because I was scared of messing them up. I find roses so much easier to paint, because you can (usually) just keep adding layers to give it that petal appearance. Other flowers are a bit more difficult.

What do you think about this floral design? what is your favourite flower? What kind of flower do you think I should attempt next? I was thinking maybe tulips? I’ve never done tulips before.

Leave all your thoughts down in the comments below! I hope everyone is staying safe & healthy. ♥️

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Rosy Floral 🌹

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday.

I hope everyone is having a lovely start to the week — my whole house has been struck down with the cold from hell which had NOT been fun. Thankfully, I have a pretty floral manicure to distract me the fact I feel like I’ve been struck by a truck.

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Candy Coat 907
  • Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Pink Cardamom
  • Sally Hansen GPK Eco-Rose
  • Sally Hansen GKP Beet It
  • Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Bubblegum
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essence The Green & The Grunge
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush (COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio 

I hope you’re not getting sick of the floral, because I’m certainly not sick of creating them. I need something to distract me from what feelings like the most never ending Winter (even if we haven’t really had an overwhelming amount of snow this year — definitely not complaining!)

Also I have to shout out this Candy Coat polish because I wore these floral nails for a good 5 days before they started to chip, which gives me a lot of hope for when I go back to work. Got to love a Polish you can wear for an extended amount of time without worrying about the dreaded chips. I’m interested to see how these will survive an 8 hour shift in retail!

So what do you think about these rosy floral nails? Would you like to see some more floral soon? Let me know what you think & what your favourite flower is down in the comments below!