#GlamNailsChallengeOct — Sugar Skull 💀

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Hope everyone’s week is going okay so far. Here is Halifax the weather is very, very, VERY wet — it’s a very good day for a snuggly sweater & a lot of hot tea!

Today I’m sharing another look created for this month’s #GlamNailsChallenge. The next is prompt is Sugar Skull, which was one I was quite nervous about. I’ve seen lots of tutorials for how to create a sugar skull look, but they’re not as easy to do as they let on. Haha.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen CSM Belle Of The Ball
  • Essie White Page
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • Color Club Nail Art Club Duo pens in assorted colours (green, pink, blue)
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art pens in fuchsia & purple.
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush(COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

This was my second attempt at a sugar skull design, since my first one was a little wonky. It’s not perfect, but I do like how it turned out. I decided to go a more Jack Skellington direction for my initial face, then added the colourful details. I feel like it gets the Sugar Skull theme across nicely!

What do you think about this sugar skull look? Do you like accent nail designs like this, or full nail designs? Let me know in the comments below!

#GlamNailsChallengeOct — Ghosts

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday!

I can’t believe it’s Tuesday! I totally meant to post these nails yesterday, but between work & being totally run down from never ending allergies, I’ve been absolutely exhausted. Today I’m sharing another design for #GlamNailsChallengeOct: ghosts. 👻 My design was partially inspired by an old design by @betina_goldstein.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Essie Ballet Slippers
  • White acyrlic paint
  • Black acyrlic paint
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush(COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio (I used the smallest dotting tool for my ghosts’ mouths)

I was totally in love with the original design that inspired me, & I’m quite in love with how my turned out. Sometimes I love going spooky with nail art, & sometimes I’d rather keep things a little more simple & subdued. I just think these are the cutest little ghosts ever!

What do you think of this little ghost design? Have you started any Halloween nail art yet? Let me know in the comments below!

#GlamNailsChallengeOct — Black Cats

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Today I’m sharing another design for the GlamNailsChallenge for October which is Black Cats 🖤

If you don’t know, I absolutely adore black cats, & I’m lucky enough to have a beautiful black furry baby. So I was very excited to create some black cat inspired nails. I thought about going full spooky Halloween with this look, but I decided to go a little understated & more glam (but still channeling Autumn.)

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • ORLY Brilliant Boysenberry (aka ORLY Space Cadet)
  • Essie Ballet Slippers
  • Starrily Nails Vantablack
  • the Base Coat cat vinyls
  • MyNailsDid Black Cat Decal
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio (COFFEE10 saves you 10%!)

Again, I know I say this all the time, but I’m totally obsessed with how these nails turned out! My little accent kitties just make me so happy, & I like the minimalistic look of the cats against my base of Essie Ballet Slippers. I have to say, I think I’m going to need it pick up a big bottle of it because it’s becoming one of my favourite bases for nail art. The pale base just makes my little kitties jump out!

Also loving the black & white against the shiftiness of ORLY Brilliant Boysenberry. I honestly own a few bottles from different brands that are all dupes of this shade, but it’s such a good reddish/burgundy duochrome that I can’t help but buy more!

What do you think about my black cat design? Would you rock this design on your nails? Let me know down in the comments below!

#GlamNailsChallengeOct — Pumpkins 🎃

Hello lovelies & Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I had Saturday off work, so the whole Fam took a trip to visit the Zoo. It was an awesome little adventure & the kids loved seeing all the big animals including lions & tigers!

Today I’m joining in on the GlamNailsChallenge for October! You might remember last year I participated a few times, & I kind of missed the challenge, so I figured what would be better than jumping in on the October challenge — after all, I knew it would have lots of spooky & fun prompts.

Our first prompt? Pumpkins! 🎃 Very fitting for October.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Wet N Wild Beauty Buffy The Violet Slayer
  • Sally Hansen CSM Fiery Island
  • Essie Spice It Up
  • China Glaze Stoked To Be Soaked
  • Sally Hansen CSM Pat On The Black
  • Essie First Timer
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • Essie Cliffhanger
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush(COFFEE10 to save 10%)
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

Not going to lie, I’m seriously obsessed with these nails.

First I’m wearing Buffy The Violet Slayer which is fitting as I’ve been rewatching Buffy again. Second, how adorable did these pumpkins turn out? This is reminiscent of a design I did, like, 5 October’s ago, & I think they turned out too cute! You can never have too much pumpkin in your life… including on your nails! 🧡🎃 also I totally adore the combination of pumpkin & orange together. It just looks so good!

What do you think of my version of pumpkin nails? Are you excited that I am participating in GlamNailsChallengeOctober? Let me know which prompt you’re excited to see, & check out the other nails by clicking on the #glamnailschallengeoct hashtag on Instagram!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Like A Charm (Blue Moon Halloween 2020 Collection)

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday! Today I have another really fun nail polish to share with you!

For those who don’t know, Essie released a Halloween nail polish collection, for the first time ever! So naturally when I saw the shades at my local Shoppers Drug Mart, I knew I had to pick at least one shade up (I was being good). All the shades were pretty beautiful (@apolishedcolleen has full swatches on her Instagram) but the one that caught my eye most was Like A Charm.

There is something about a shifty dark purple that just makes me so happy, especially during Halloween season.

2 coats + Essie Speed Setter Top Coat

Like A Charm is a dark navy with scattered teal & blue & silver flakies to give it a fantastic colour shifting effect, which you can really see in the above macro shot. The formula was nice & not too thick, but did off a good amount of coverage. I did two coats for even application & opacity.

I definitely was really excited to see Essie come out with a fun Halloween collection this year, & even though this isn’t a completely unique shade in my nail polish collection over all, it is a unique shade when it comes to the Essie shades I own, & for that I am so, so glad that I picked it up!

Truthfully, I haven’t even gotten that excited about Halloween yet, just because this year has been such a rough year, but starting to paint my nails with Halloween polishes (especially one so witchy!) definitely gets me pumped to start thinking about my favourite holiday!

Next up will be Halloween decorations!

Have you picked up any of the shades from the Essie Blue Moon Halloween 2020 collection? Do you have a favourite? What do you think about Like A Charm? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below & if you’ve already started decorating for Halloween! 🎃