Blue on Blue Dotticure

Good morning lovelies & happiest of Mondays! I hope the weather where you are is nicer than here on the East Coast — it’s raining, again.

My favourite.

Today I’m showing off a quick & simple nail art look that I did last week. Now that the countdown for baby #2 is down to days, I’ve been trying to keep my manicures quick & simple. & there is nothing I love more when I want quick nails than a dotticure!

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen  Green Tea & Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • China Glaze For Audrey
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art Pen in Navy

I’ve mentioned before how much I love my Sally Hansen nail art pens for creating dotticures. I find they’re the easiest because you don’t have to constantly need to reapply polish to your dotting tool, you just need to touch the nail. Obviously, that’s for petite polka dots as opposed to bigger dots.

This was also my first time wearing China Glaze For Audrey in absolute ages & I forgot how pretty it is. Fun fact: For Audrey was the very first China Glaze shade I ever bought (shortly after our very first Sally Beauty opened) & I bought it completely based on the fact Breakfast At Tiffany’s is one of my favourite movies.

What do we think about this dotticure? Do you have a favourite polka dot combination? Share your favourites down in the comments below!

Marble Fluid Nails

Good morning lovelies & happy Friday! Who else is excited for the weekend!? Today I have some brand new nails with a new to me technique I’ve been wanting to try for AGES: fluid nails.

This technique has been popping up on Instagram for a while & I’ve been obsessed with how they looked just as long — I even went out & bought a few of the Sinful Colours Hypnotic Transforming Top Coats that were released a few years ago, but was dawdling on actually giving the technique a try!

The polishes I used for this design were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Bamboo & Green Tea Strengthner
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Peony
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Neons Peach Please
  • Sinful Colors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat Rebel Rebel
  • Sinful Colors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat Purpunk
  • Stamper (I used my clear stamper from Nailsuff.ca)

Most of the tutorials I saw involved creating decals to make your cells for the fluid look, but being lazy (& tired) I decided to see if I could use the smoosh technique to get a similar look. I painted my nails my base colour of choice & then applied drops of polish including my Sinful Colors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coats & then quickly pressed down using a stamper to smoosh my shades together. & it worked!

I was a little careful with application to keep mess to a minimal (couldn’t find my Edge Perfection & wasn’t in the mood for a ton of clean up) but you could definitely make the fluid look cover more of the nail if you applied more polish & smooshed down harder. I will definitely be trying this look again & seeing if I can do a fuller nail look. However, that being said my pinky was the first nail I did & it turned out my favourite!

Have you tried out the fluid nail art look yet? I know I’m about 2 years behind, but I’m so glad I finally gave it a try & finally used these awesome spotted polishes I’ve had in my stash forever!

What do you think of this look? Let me know in the comments below!

Neon Summer Stripes

Good afternoon lovelies! Today I have some brand new nails to share with you, which was a spur of the moment design that turned out surprisingly fun!

I’ve been using a lot of the same polishes over the last couple weeks (probably because they’re out sitting on my desk, so easy to grab) so I wanted to pull out some other shades! & TADA! this design was created. I decided to still stick to my neon-ish shades, as the weather is warming up & finally feeling beautiful, but dug into the stash to see what other Neons I could find.

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea & Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Pretty Peony {PR sample}
  • Color Club Disco Dress
  • China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle
  • China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely
  • NailStuff.ca 11mm Liner Brush {PR sample}

At first, I had just Too Yacht To Handle & Thistle Do Nicely & wasn’t so sure I liked to colour combination — which I hate when that happens — but as soon as I added my lines of Disco Dress, it brought the whole look together & I ended up being absolutely obsessed with the end result.

The imperfection of the stripes reminds me of a beach towel, or something. I originally was going to use vinyls to create everything, but I’m so glad I was lazy & freehanded things because I think it looks so much better the way they turned out.

What do you think of this look? What summer nail art look are you wearing right now? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Color Club Wham! Pow!

Good Afternoon lovelies & Happy Swatch Sunday! I know I missed last week, so I’m back this week with a colour totally out of my comfort zone–Color Club Wham! Pow!

According to NailPolishCanada, this shade was originally released as part of the Poptastic collection. I picked up my bottle in clearance at my favourite pharmacy, for only $1.99, but you can find this shade online for a mere fraction of its original cost.

This shade is very neon, like highlighter orange neon, which obviously made for a difficult time while trying to photograph in my light box with my iPhone. For my swatches, I did 2 coats of base coat, 2 coats of polish & finished with a glossy top coat.

I was super impressed with the formula–sometimes Neons can be less than easy to apply with super thin formulas that need white undies, or they drag really bad, & need too many coats, but Wham! Pow! went on with only 2 easy coats. The first was kind of patchy, but the second coat filled everything in & levelled beautifully.

This colour is definitely out of my comfort zones–usually when I pick oranges I go for more coral shades as opposed to something so bright & neon, but I was feeling in the mood for something different! I do like how shades like this always make you look more tan than you actually are.

& below is what I did with my swatch: I added some holo glitter with both Sally Hansen Make It N-ice & Quo by ORLY Falling Star. You can also see how the colour shows more truly in the sunshine versus the photos in my light box.

what do you think of today’s Swatch Sunday pick? Would you rock this colour? Let me know in the comments below!

Summer-y Neon Dotticure

{PR sample}

Good morning lovelies! & happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a great start to their week — we’re having a beautiful Sunny day today & I plan on fully embracing all the sunshine. So what better day to share this fun neon dotticure I did last week.

Again, I had to reach for my fun Neons from Sally Hansen Canada! I’m seriously either grabbing these Neons & my Holos which is why you see me grabbing either so often!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea & Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Electri-Lime
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Fuchsia Fever 
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Lemon Chillo
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Miami Ice
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Peach Please
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Violet Voltage 
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod

Is there anything more fun than a dotticure? I just love how easy it is to do & how cute they look! With the white base, these remind me so much of candy! 🍭 I wore this design for a good 4 days before changing them up (this was day four) & they lasted an impressively long time without chipping! There was some growth near my cuticles, but other than that they were almost still perfect by day 4.

What design would you like to see next? What colours? Let me know down in the comments below!