Tag: nail art

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Vacation Nails! 

This week, I took a mini vacation with our Lil Bubs to visit my parents up in Northern New Brunswick. Usually when I travel I tend to bring an assorted variety of nail goodies with me, because I know I will need to change up my manicure. However, because I know my Mum has quite the stash of polish on hand (she’s started painting sea glass jewellery peices with it—I’ll share a picture at the end!) I decided to leave my polishes behind for the opportunity to play around with the many shades she owns. 

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive 
  • My Beauty Spot unnamed dark purple
  • L’Oréal Because I’m Worth It
  • L’Oréal The True Gold Transforming Top Coat
  • Essence Metal Glam Steel-ing the Scene 
  • Kiss Products zig zag Nail Vinyls 

These are definitely Fall nails. I’ve been really feeling gold & purple lately (especially together). I also totally forgot how good Steel-ing the Scene looks over dark colours (I also have a bottle in my stash at home.) This is a great combination which sadly I couldn’t capture as well as I would have liked thanks to some fairly dull bathroom lighting. Even still, I really dig how this mani turned out. At first I wasn’t quite sure but the more I stared at it, the more I like how everything came together. 

& just for fun, here is one of the beautiful pieces of sea glass my mum painted (using nail polish!) for the jewelry she’s been making. I have a couple pieces she’s made & they’re such pretty statement pieces. 


What do you think of this vacation design? Do you do your nails while on vacation or stick with what you leave with? What are your vacation nail essentials? Let me know in the comments below! 

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Throwback Thursday Halloween Nails

October is quickly speeding by, so I need to amp up my Halloween designs! 🎃

 This time I decided to recreate a design I did all the way back in 2014 (originally done with @mynailpolish_addiction as part of a bestie twin nail collab.) Even though I had spiders, I always thought this design was adorable so I wanted to recreate it. 

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • L’Oréal Orange You Jealous?
  • Color Club Wham! Pow!
  • OPI I Cannoli Wear OPI 
  • Sally Hansen Hard To Get Black Heart
  • Essie No Place like Chrome
  • Revlon Holographic Pearls
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue
  • The Base Coat Spiderweb nail stencil 
  • Small detail brush from Bundle Monster
  • Latex Free Make Up Sponge 

I thought these nails were super cute when I did them originally, & I still think they’re super cute. & I definitely feel like they turned out a little less wonky this time around. Sometimes when I feel like my nails suck & I have no talent & I’m feeling especially hard on myself it’s nice to do these recreations to see how far I’ve come. I may not be the most insanely talented nail artist, but I’m hugely proud of how far I’ve come. 

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

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Happy Birthday Nails! 🎉🎈🎂 

I know, it’s Sunday which means normally I would be sharing a swatch with you. But today is not just any Sunday… it’s my birthday! So obviously I had to do something fun on my nails in honour of the occasion & I couldn’t think of anything more fun to put on my nails than a glittery purple cupcake nail (which are a few of my favourite things.) After perusing Pinterest searching “cupcake nails” I had an idea of how I wanted my design to look, & I’m so happy that they turned out exactly how I imagined! 

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • ORLY Plum Sugar
  • Nails INC Cherry Road
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hard To Get
  • Color Club Evolution
  • Cosmetic Arts Unnamed Baby Pink
  • Color Club A Warm Place
  • URSugar Zig Zag Nail Vinyls item #AUB39877 
  • Dotting Tool
  • Small Detail Brush


I really really love my birthday cupcake nails. I feel like it’s been ages since I freehanded anything & I was a little nervous about my cupcake but it turned out so cute! These are going to be fun to wear for my birthday celebrations with my family later this afternoon. Last year I spent my birthday in a dark room with an eye infection, so I’m determined to make up for that this year! 

Have a great Sunday everyone! 💜

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Saran Wrap Smoosh Nails

I don’t do a lot of Saran Wrap smoosh nails, mostly because I find them fairly messy (& I ran out of liquid latex & I’m being lazy in replacing it). But every time I see one pop up on my Instagram feed I tell myself I need this technique in my life again. They just always look so cool! I’ve been struggling with inspiration lately, so I decided to risk the messy clean up & do a smoosh. 

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • Essie Cocktails & Coconuts
  • China Glaze VII
  • Quo by ORLY Fairy Godmother
  • Saran Wrap, or plastic bag of some sort. 

If you’ve never done a Saran Wrap smoosh, there are lots of tutorials on the internet (this one from @snowglobenails is great). From my expirence, I find sometimes they can take a few tries before you figure out what works for you, but for me less is more.  I prefer to use maximum 3 shades together, otherwise I find my nails can end up looking kind of swampy. & I also try not to push blend colours too much when pressing down on my plastic. 

What’s your thoughts on smooshy nails? Do you have a favourite colour combination? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

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 Silver Chevron Claws 

I did not fall off the face of the planet, I swear. This weekend was busy with family Thanksgiving, trying to get our apartment ready for showing (we’re moving soon!) & dealing with a super upset stomach that left me with no energy for blogging. I decided to take a little break to recoup, wear some glitter on my nails. I’m finally feeling a little bit better, so I wanted to get a blog post up! & what’s better to blog about than chevron claws! 

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Nails INC St Martian’s Lane
  • Nicole by OPI Phil’s Paradise 
  • Kiss Products Nail Art Striper in Black
  • Snail Vinyls Deep Single Chevron Nail Vinyls

This design is very reminiscent of my very first chevron moon design, colour wise. Comparing the two, I’ve definitely come a long way since those early days! Thank goodness for nail vinyls—I no longer have to create my own triangles in order to get the design right! But hey… it worked. & those first chevron moons are what started my all out obsession with the design, which has obviously lasted all this time! 

I’m feeling like I’m in a bit of a nail art lull right now. Even with Halloween approaching, I’m just struggling to be in the mood to paint my nails anything other than a solid colour (&, even then, I can barely make up my mind on what to wear.) My birthday is coming up on Sunday, so I’m dedicated to doing a fun design in celebration—maybe birthday cupcakes? Good thing I have 5 days to make up my mind! Off to Pinterest I go. 


What do you think of these chevron claws? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! & if you have any birthday nail suggestions for me, please share! 💜