St Patrick’s Day Shamrocks 🍀

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday. & Happy St. Patrick’s Day Eve!

I feel like the older I get, the less I tend to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day — the 3 day hangover just isn’t worth it — but I am always here for a special reason to paint my nails! & St. Patrick’s Day is the one day a girl where my green nail polishes I rarely wear get their moment to shine. I’m not normally a green girl, with the exception of March 17th.

Today’s look is a simple St. Patrick’s Day look… but I was very excited for an excuse to pull out my shamrock nail vinyls I haven’t used in ages.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat
  • LA Girl Color Addict Urge
  • Essie Satin Sister
  • UR SUGAR Nail Vinyls shamrocks (What’s Up Nails has very similar ones available)

I’m not going to lie, these turned out messier than I intended — I’m not sure because I was rushing to get them done, or wasn’t feeling the colours. However, I do really like these little shamrock nail vinyls, & I think the whole look turned out simple but cute. It’s March Break here, & work has been very busy, so I’m feeling a bit run down at the end of the day. Hence a little more simple nail art this week. I literally fell asleep at 7:30 the other night after I got home.

I’m definitely looking forward to things going back to (slightly) normal next week. Hopefully it means I’ll have some more Spring nail art looks to share. & obviously, it’s time to get thinking about Easter nail art looks too!

What do you think of this St. Patrick’s Day nail art look? Are you a fan of holiday inspired nail art, or do you keep things simple with just polish colours? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

♣︎

Dainty Present Accent Nail Art 🎁

Hello beauties & happy Friday! Can you believe we’re just a little over a week before Christmas? Where has the time gone?! We have less than 0 snow which means it doesn’t really feel like Christmas or, even, December here. But I’m hoping for a Christmas miracle, & a little bit of snow for the holiday.

Today though I have a cute Christmas design to share with you that I’ve been wearing for the last few days. I recently took a trip to the Chatters by my new work, looking for nail polish. While they don’t quite have the stash they used to have, I did find a couple cute shades including a mini bottle of OPI Green on the Runway from the 2014 Coca-Cola collection. I thought it would be a fun non-traditional Christmas colour choice.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • Starrily Vantablack (c/o: NailStuff.ca)
  • OPI Green on the Runway
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Make It N-Ice
  • China Glaze Sleigh Bells Ring
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Nail Brush Trio (11mm Liner Brush)

I really wanted to see how Green on the Runway would look layered over black, & I like it! Obviously, I had to had some sparkle, & Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Make It N-Ice is a great topper! It adds just the right amount of sparkle to this design. It’s Christmas, so sparkle is almost mandatory!

Also I love how my teeny little bow turned out. Sometimes all you need is just a little accent nail, & I feel like this was the perfect combination of colour, with a little bit extra holiday added. It makes me so happy! My slightly dry cuticles thanks to freezing temperatures? Not so happy. But hopefully Santa has a big tin of Burt’s Bees cuticle balm for my stocking this year.

What do you think of this dainty accent nail, & colour combination? Are you a fan of simple of fancy holiday designs? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below! Just 8 more days until Christmas Eve, so now is the time to get the rest of my Christmas nails finalized.

Have a fantastic Friday!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Quo Beauty Green With Envy

Good morning lovelies, & happy first official Sunday of December! It’s time.

Every year, I try & find shades that are Christmas-y/seasonal to share during my December Swatch Sunday posts. I’m going to be honest — I don’t have as many Christmas collections as I thought I did, so I’ve started having to get creative with my picks. Also, I definitely plan on making my way to the Chatters by my work day to see if they have any new collections to check out.

This week’s pick is a relatively new shade from Quo Beauty: Green with Envy.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Quo Beauty brand, it’s the in-house brand for the Canadian Pharmacy Shoppers Drug Mart. The collections range in price between $12.49 CAD to $13.99 CAD depending on the finish, but they do semi-frequently go on sale which will usually save you a few dollars. I also love to wait for when the Quo Beauty nail polishes go on clearance, because I’ve scored shades for anywhere between $1-$3 before!

2 coats, no top coat.

First coat went on surprisingly thin, especially for a matte polish — I always find matte shades have relatively thicker formulas, but this one left a little to be desired on the first coat. Second coat, though, left me with perfect opacity, & full nail coverage.

Dry time, like most matte shades, was pretty quick, I like the soft finish with little bit of shimmer giving that velvet effect. The whole combination gives Green with Envy the effect of a beauty velvet Christmas dress, like the matching ones my Mom used to dress me & my sister in when we kids. Hence why I picked it for this week’s Swatch Sunday pick.

What do you think of Quo Beauty Green with Envy? Do you like these kind of velvet effect matte polishes for the holiday season? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & if you’ve tried any of the Quo Beauty nail polishes before. Also — if you can think of any 2022 holiday shades I must track down to swatch for this year, let me know! Still on the hunt for the Sally Hansen Merry & Bright shades I didn’t get to swatch yet, but they seem to be the most popular ones.

Happy Sunday loves!

Shimmery Subtle Ruffian Nails

PR — Features Gifted Product

Hello beauties & happy Thursday. Hope everyone is having a good week so far. I had a very exciting week because I received the most amazing PR package from Sally Hansen Canada featuring 4 shades from their Miracle Gel Holiday 2022 collection. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but Sally probably makes my favourite Holiday collections, & I always feel so lucky when I receive any PR from them this time of year.

I have a fun unboxing Reel on my Instagram if anyone wants a sneak peak. Swatches are coming this Sunday!

In the meantime, I had to try out one of the shades I received, & decided to use as the base for this shimmery, & subtle, ruffian nails.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Shine Bright Like a Menorah (Merry & Bright Holiday 2022 collection) •pr sample•
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Garnish Attention
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Unicorn Top Coat

Another super simple look that has a very striking effect — that would be perfect holiday party nails. Listen, I don’t have a holiday party to go to, but that doesn’t mean my nails can’t look like I do! & I know lots of people do, & will be looking for nail polish/art ideas.

The most difficult part of these is getting that second rounded swipe. I find the Miracle Gel brushes can be a bit trickier for that, but only because my nails are pretty thin & small, & they are very wide so they almost cover too much of the nail! Just takes a bit of practice, but if you get it right… well, it looks pretty beautiful. & the subtle ruffian effect is a perfect touch of nail art. You could also do the opposite, & put the glitter as the base, which would also have a similar peek-a-boo subtle look.

What do you think about this subtle shimmery ruffian look? I really like how the combination turned out, & it’s a fun look to wear! If there is one thing about the cold, dark months of late-Autumn/Winter I enjoy, it’s that there is no better time to pull out all the pretty dark sparkly shades that have been hiding in my stash untouched for months! So expect a lot more shimmer & sparkle on this blog!

It’s long overdue.

Have a fantastic Thursday!

Funky Green Star Swirls

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday!

Hope everyone’s week has been lovely so far. It’s feeling sunny & Summery lately, so I decided to step out of my nail polish safe zone with some green toned neon nails!

I think I’ve mentioned before, I don’t often wear green polish unless it’s Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day, but when I saw these two colours sitting in my stash, I thought it would be fun to pair them together.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Essence Extreme GEL Top
  • OPI Gargantuan Green Grape
  • OPI Nature Strong Cactus What You Preach
  • UR Sugar Star Swirl Nail Vinyls

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit of a nail art rut, mostly because I’ve been lacking in time, & what time I do have I feel beyond exhausted. But, I’ve been missing using my nail vinyls a lot so I’ve been going through & trying to make an effort to use those things I haven’t in a long time — like these Star nail vinyls I received forever ago from URSugar. Originally I had thought about doing a half moon look with these colours, but the star swirls were just so much more fun!

I thought the lighters green under this pretty mint was such a pop of colour. I just really love how vibrant these are. They were really fun to wear.

What do you think of this funky green star design? Do you like this green on green colour combo? Are you feeling the neon vibes? Let me know down in the comments below!