SWATCH SUNDAY — 6 Nail Polishes I’m Loving for Valentine’s Day!

Happy Sunday lovelies.

Since we’re into the first week of the month of love, I thought it would be fun to dedicate Swatch Sunday to some perfect polishes for Valentine’s Day. I own a lot of pink & red shades so I had fun going through my stash to find 6 polishes that I will definitely be loving this month in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day (okay & pretty much always because pink & red nail polish always have my heart). I actually did a post like this a few years ago, so I thought it would be fun to do another one!

So here are my 6 polish picks for Valentine’s Day 2018.

 

CHINA GLAZE — SEDUCE ME

Firtst up is China Glaze Seduce Me, a deep berry red that applies in 2 coats, although if you’re careful you might be able to get away with one careful coat. My bottle is pretty old, so I went with two. I chose this colour for Valentine’s Day because I feel like it’s a really grown up colour: it has pinkish undertones but it’s not bubblegum pink & it’s also not that classic candy apple red shade either. It’s a little bit different, & I honestly feel like this shade is one that will look great on everyone! It also pairs really well with other pink & reds for nail art (like some zig zag chevrons perhaps?)

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L’OREAL VERNIS A L’HUILE — JARDIN DES ROSES

L’Oreal Jardin Des Roses is my first pink choice & it’s a pink I’ve really been loving lately. This is two coats for full coverage of this soft romantic pink & it applies really well. This pink is great because of how soft the colour is–you won’t look like you’re Barbie when you wear it.

 

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN BEAUTY — ROUGE LOUBOUTIN

If you’re looking for a classic red to wear on Valentine’s Day, I feel like you don’t need to look any further than Christian Louboutin Beauty Rouge Louboutin! I received this beautiful red nail polish from a family friend the night before my wedding, & because it is so special to me I tend to save it for special occasions. I used two coats for coverage — it’s pretty good after one, but I wanted to make sure there was no hint of visible nail line. This is definitely the perfect classic red for a Valentine’s Day date, & if your significant other forgets about Valentine’s Day, you can always stab them with the bottle!

 

ACO BY ARDENE — BOUDOIR

Valentine’s Day is a special occasion, & sometimes I want a little glitter & Ardene Boudoir is a fun glitter choice. It a clear base stuffed full of berry glitters. I used 3 coats for my swatches (thank god for peel off base coat) but normally I would either apply it over top a complimentary shade or sponge the glitter onto my nail. You can build close to opacity though, although I couldn’t imagine the dry time. I just love the colour of the glitter in this polish–sometimes you just need to sparkle a little (or a lot)!

 

OPI — FIRE ESCAPE RENDEZVOUS

Next up we have OPI Fire Escape Rendezvous. This is 2 coats of this metallic ruby red polish with glitters–both shard glitter & hex glitter. The glitters are interesting, but I really dig them.  They give this polish an interesting texture which makes it unique, although I definitely prefer it top coated (Seche Vive). If you’re looking for something a little more than just red, this would be a great choice.

SINFUL COLORS — BLOOM BLAST FLOWER POWER

Last, but definitely not least, is Sinful Colors Bloom Blast in Flower Power. This milky pink shade is stuffed full of large & tiny matte pink metallic & white glitters. I belive it’s supposed to be worn on it’s own but I think it looks best over top other pink polishes. This is one coat over OPI Two Timing the Zones. How cute does this look? I know not everyone is a nail art person, so a topper like this is a great way of zazzing up your nails without having to worry about freehanding anything! It’s almost a dotticure without any of the work!

 

So those are the six polishes I’m loving for Valentine’s Day this year? What shades/polishes are your Valentine’s Day favourites? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

Holo Gradient & Hearts

Happy Thursday lovelies! & happy first day of February. Seriously, how is the first month of 2018 already over?! That’s kind of amazing in a way. It also means we’re 2 weeks away from Valentine’s Day, so it’s time to start getting my love-themed manicures started.

When it comes  to Valentine’s Day, I feel like hearts are kind of a necessity. For this design, I decided to skip the pink (there will be lots of pink to come, don’t worry) & used silver, purple & blue holo shades instead. You still get that Valentine’s Day feeling without going too overboard.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Mercury Twilight
  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Ultra Violet
  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Ocean Rush
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • KaylaRayLoves Nail Vinyls Tumbling Hearts Vinyls
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge

I really, really love how these turned out. The gradient + the hearts just looks so good together! You could definitely go with more pink shades if you wanted these nails to be extra girlie (which I could see myself doing for actual Valentine’s Day). Also I was really impressed with how well these holo polishes blended together to create a gradient! I feel like I haven’t been doing enough gradients lately, & that seriously needs to change. Yeah, they can be kind of messy, but that’s why they invented liquid latex.

Below, I have a couple of shots of the gradient before I added the hearts. I really need to do more holo gradients because the end result is just so pretty!

what do you think of this manicure? Would you wear it for Valentine’s Day? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

More Christmas Tree Nails!

Okay, so I think I’m obsessed with Christmas tree nail art. 🎄 I seriously can’t get enough of them. This time I created some Christmas tree stamped nails using a design I didn’t even know I had! I was trying to create something new, & discovered on this plate I reviewed from the Summer that there was this cute tree pattern–perfect for Christmas nails! So obviously it meant I needed to try it out.

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is manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald
  • Essie Tuck It In My Tux
  • Morgan Taylor Dreaming of Gleaming
  • Morgan Taylor Silver in my Stocking
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate BPL015
  • Clear Jelly Stamper (also from Born Pretty)
  • NailStuff.ca reindeer studs

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I really, really love how these turned out. i think they’re just so pretty. I tried out my hand at double stamping using silver under the green, but it’s very subtle. However it did make Emerald Fitzgerald pop a lot more, since it’s a little thin for stamping. Also, can we talk about these ADORABLE reindeer studs from NailStuff.ca? I used a whole lot of top coat to attach them to my nail & they lasted a whole day easily. Also they’re the cutest studs I’ve ever seen.

what do you think of this Christmasy design? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Tribal Stamped Accent Nail

Good Morning! & happy Saturday. ♥️ My Saturday is starting off pretty good because we actually got a sprinkling of snow last night, so things are looking pretty festive & Winter-y. It’s also starting off pretty good because I have some new nails to show off.

I wore this nail art design the other night when I was invited to a Mark’s Well Worn Media Event–the first blogger event I’ve ever been invited to! It was pretty exciting & obviously I needed to wear something fancy on my nails for the occasion. & what is more fancy than some holo glitter & a little stamping accent nail. ✨

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The polishes I used for this design were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2 Foundations
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Finger Paints Piece De Resistance
  • Essence We Will Spock You
  • ACO by Ardene Style Icon
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate m100 (no longer available)
  • Latex free make up sponge

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I just love how this design turned out. Honestly I never thought I would enjoy stamping so much, but it’s kind of become an obsession! I ordered a bunch of new plates from Born Pretty Store, so those should be here sometime in the New Year. In the meantime, I’ve been rediscovering old stamping plates I bought in the beginning of my nail art journey. I think the combination of a good liquid latex & polishes that work well for stamping has made it more fun & much less of a frustration. Also how pretty is ACO by Ardene Style Icon? I sponged it on for full glitterocity & the sparkle is hard not to stare at. Again thank god for Edge Perfection because trying to clean that glitter off my cuticles would have made me cry.

What do you think of these nails? Let me know in the comments below. ✨

Holo-day Nail Art

Christmas came early for me as I received a parcel from Wrenn Polish on Monday. I have swatches coming on Sunday of all three shades I received, but in the meantime how about some sneak peak nail art featuring one of these gorgeous polishes! I was feeling some untraditional Christmas nails for decorating our house, so I picked Enchanted, a stunning pink linear holo, & decided to make it Christmas-y. I’ve always dreamed of having an all purple Christmas tree! This is probably as close as my husband will let me get haha.

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: NailTek 2 Foundations
  • Top Coat: Seche Vite
  • Wrenn Polish Enchanted
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Troublemaker
  • MyNailsDid Christmas Tree Vinyls
  • Medium sized dotting tool

Can we just talk about how beautiful this polish is? If you read my previous post about the Wrenn polish shades I own, you’ll know I was very impressed with this Indie brand. Alissa makes just the most incredible shades & I love that they’re all inspired by her handcrafted jewelry. You’ll have to wait until Sunday to find out my thoughts on all three of the newly released shades I received, but spoiler I’m in love. The holo in Enchanted is beyond impressive. Even in the grey cloudy weather we’ve been having, it was hard not to stare at the shift. I have quite a few holo shades in my collection, but nothing like this!

If you want to get your hands on Wrenn Polish Enchanted, you can find it here.

So what do you think of these Holo-day nails? Do you have your Christmas decorations all up or are you last minute like me? Share your thoughts in the comments down below!

*PR SAMPLE* Some of these items were sent to me for review. However, all opinions are my own