My Husband Paints my Nails for Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day lovelies!

Today I have a special & fun post I’ve been hoping to do for a while. I’ve been trying to convince my husband he should paint my nails FOREVER (probably as long as we’ve been together), & he finally agreed to do it in honour of Valentine’s Day!   I really wanted to record to whole thing, but I figured it was enough that he was doing them all at so I didn’t want to push my luck too much.  But I did manage to take a few pictures of the whole experience, just for fun! After all, it’s not often someone else does my nails!
Continue reading “My Husband Paints my Nails for Valentine’s Day”

Pretty Pink Gradient & Stamping

Happy Tuesday everyone!

We’re quickly speeding through February, can you believe we’re already half way through? Kind of crazy! Today I have a super fun gradient design to share. I’ve been kind of obsessed with gradients lately–I go through fazes, & now that I’m all stocked up on my Edge Perfection I’ve been a little gradient crazy.

For today’s design, I was feeling pink. I wanted something a little Valentine’s Day-esque without being too over the top. I started out with the gradient, then added some holo glitter. & then I thought–why not some stamping too? I was a bit scared it was all going to be too much, but I think because I didn’t use contrasting colours, the whole design really works together.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by Orly Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Joe Fresh Cotton Candy
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mauve Over
  • China Glaze Life is Rosy
  • Quo by Orly Falling Star
  • Essie No Place like Chrome
  • Born Pretty Store Image Plate BP-L006 (item #17924)
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier

I’m really loving this gradient!

& obviously I took some macro shots! You see the holo glitters much better this way, since my desk lamp doesn’t show them off as well as I would like. Also it shows off the blend on this gradient, which I have to admit, I’m pretty proud of. Especially since my early gradients looked something like this.

 

I’m so happy with this whole design! I know it’s not oh my god Valentine’s Day, but it’s pretty & pink & what is more lovely than that?

What do you think of this design? Do you like all the layers, or do you think it’s too busy? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

5 Cute Valentine’s Day Designs (inspired by Pinterest)

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Are we getting excited for Valentine’s Day? T-minus one week until the big day! & even if you’re not a fan of the holiday itself, it’s always fun to have an excuse for cute nails. I decided it would be fun to browse my nail art inspiration folder on Pinterest for some fun Valentine’s Day nails. I decided to pick 5 relatively easy nail art designs & recreate them for you, just in case you need a little last minute inspiration.

DOTTICURE HEART — original design (by @majikbeenz) pinned here

First design I picked to recreate is this adorable dotticure heart design that was originally done by @magikbeenz. I’ve actually recreate this design before (pre-this blog & instagram) but I loved it so much I wanted to give it another attempt. All you need for this design is a couple of polishes (pink, white, red, coral) & a dotting tool. It looks super complicated, but it really isn’t. If you weren’t sure if you can get the heart shape right, you could always use a heart stencil & fill the dots inside.

My main pink is Essence Perfect Match.

TIC TAC TOE HEART ACCENT NAIL — original design (by @nailstorming) pinned here

The next design I attempted was this tic tac toe heart design originally done by @nailstorming. I thought this design was super cute & a little bit more challenging. Your best bet for you accent nail is to use acrylic paint, so that if you make a mistake you can wash it away easily. For this design you’ll want a striper brush, detail brush & small dotting tool. I have this set from Bundle Monster, which was actually a Valentine’s Day gift from my hubby a few years ago.

Main pink is L’Oreal Jardin Des Roses & main red is L’Oreal Carmin Parisien.

PINK HEART & POLKA DOT ACCENT NAIL — original design pinned here

I found this cute simple heart nail design on Pinterest & loved how girlie it was. I wish there was a proper Instagram account to link to, but sadly I couldn’t find one. (I guess my Veronica Mars sleuthing skills aren’t as up to par as I thought). This is a great design for a nail art beginner to wear on their nails! I created my heart using a larger dotting tool & a small detail brush (you can see how I create hearts by checking out my tutorial here) but again if you’re not comfortable with freehanding, a nail stencil also works!

Main pink is L’Oreal Jardin Des Roses.

VALENTINE’S DAY LEOPARD PRINT — original design (by @mayasnailart) pinned here

If you’re not in the mood for a super obvious Valentine’s Day design, but still want to feel festive, this design originally done by @mayasnailart is a super cute option! Again this is a design that is not super complicated to do, even though it looks super complicated! I like the contrast of the leopard hearts against the neutral base colour. All I used for my leopard print was a red & black nail art pen (Sally Hansen I ♥ Nail Art)  & it was just as easy as drawing on paper. You just have to make sure your base is dry.

My main beige is OPI You’re So Vanilla.

BLUE VALENTINE NAILS –originaldesign (by @karrisabianco) pinned here

Not everyone is a fan of pink or red, so this is a great Valentine’s Day nail art option. This design was originally done by @karissabianco & what drew me to it was the fact it wasn’t your typical colour scheme. For this design, I also used a Sally Hansen Nail Art pen (this time in Silver) but for your heart you could use a stamping plate or nail stencil, & create your polka dots using a dotting tool.

Main Blue colour is Sally Hansen Miracle Gel in Beatnik

So that’s 5 cute Valentine’s Day designs inspired by Pinterest! I hope I’m not the only one who can spend hours on pinterest saving nail art design (& style idea, & home ideas & food ideas). Do you have any fun nail art designs you’re planning on creating for Valentine’s Day? Share your favourite designs in the comments below!

If you’re interested in checking out my favourite saved manicure designs on Pinterest, my username is xcoffeeandnails.

Bestie Twin Baby Boy Birthday Nails with @hjs_nails

Happy Tuesday lovelies! Today I have a very special nail collab to share with you. One of the most amazing things about the nail community is the way it brings people together. Last August I did a mani swap with Hannah from @hjs_nails & we bonded over the fact we both had baby boys in February. Since our beautiful little guys share a birthday month we decided to team up & do some Bestie Twin Baby Boy Birthday Nails in their honour.

How handsome do our little guys look hanging out beside their special birthday manicures! For our designs, Hannah & I created a fun celebratory design featuring a gradient dotticure (to represent confetti), some balloons & the number one. Hannah had painted her nail design first, so I followed her polish picks to match the best I could.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Breathable Kiss Me, I’m Kind
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • ORLY Decades of Dysfunction
  • Essie Strut Your Stuff
  • Essie Too Too Hot
  • L’Oreal Feeling Kilty
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Small detail brush from Bundle Monster
  • Small dotting tool from Bundle Monster

How cute did this design turn out?! The colour combination reminds me of a race car, which is perfection when celebrating baby boys. My little guys birthday isn’t until Thursday, but it still works because on this day last year I was on day 2 of my 54 hour labour! It’s kind of crazy to believe that I am almost the Mom of a one year old. This year has certainly been a whirl wind, & it definitely hasn’t been easy to balance Mom-life with non-Mom life (like blogging & doing my nails) but I wouldn’t trade it. It’s been a very interesting adventure.

My nails & my 9 pound baby boy.

Hope you liked this design! & don’t forget to pop over to Hannah’s instagram (@hjs_nails) & give her mani some love too!

Have a happy Tuesday! 🎈🎉🎁

Chevron & Deer Stamped Design

Hello lovelies! Today I have a really fun design to share with you. Back in early December, I made an order through Born Pretty Store & just recently received my goodies which included 6 new stamping plates! Obviously, I couldn’t wait to play with my new plates, because I’ve been using the same ones I bought in 2014 for ages. Today’s design was semi inspired by all the fun stag head designs that have been popping up on my Instagram feed! Finally I can create my own cute deer designs!

For this design, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: Butter London
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Trouble Maker
  • Quo by Orly Breathable Barely There
  • ACO by Ardene Daydreamer
  • L’Oreal Feeling Kilty
  • Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Black Heart
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Stamper
  • Born Pretty Store Image Plate BP-L006 (item #17924)
  • Born Pretty Store Image Plate BP-L03 (item #23268)
  • Small dotting tool
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier.

Seriously, just how cute is this manicure?! I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t order these in time to get them for Christmas, so I could do cute reindeer nails, but I’m very excited for all the upcoming designs I’ll be able to do. I’m also very happy to have a brand new jelly stamper because mine as certainly seen better days & will need to be retired very soon. Don’t get me wrong, I still love doing freehand/nail vinyl designs, but there is something a little more convenient about stamping–you don’t have to spend an hour trying to paint a design, or worry about having to wait for you base to dry to apply nail vinyls (even with quick dry top coat). It’s taken me a while to finally get the hang of stamping, & while I’m not a pro by any means, I definitely feel like I’m so much better than I used to be!

What do you think of this design? Are you a fan of stamping? Let me know all your thoughts (or tips & tricks!) in the comments below.