Tag: nail art

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GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE OCTOBER 2025 — Ghost 👻

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! It’s hope your week has been as calm & peaceful as can be.

Today is our third prompt for Glam Nails Challenge October, which is ghost! I do love a good ghost design especially this time of year, so I was excited to give this a go. I wanted to create a ghost look slightly different from ones I’ve done in the past, & I think I managed to create a spooky & fun look. & I’m so in love with how they turned out.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen InstaDri Top Coat (red bottle) 
  • Base Coat: Essie Hard to Resist (purple)
  • China Glaze Skyscraper
  • Essence Pastel Ombre Top Coat
  • OPI Alter Ego
  • Icing Store Black
  • Small Dotting Tool (NailsStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio)

So the trick of creating these translucent ghosties is using a really, really shear white polish (or mixing a more opaque white with a clean polish to thin it out.) I Have this Essence Pastel Ombre Top Coat from years, & years ago, & while I’ve never used it for an ombre design, it works perfectly for nail art like this! I also added a bit of OPI Alter Ego for a bit of extra shimmer/glow.

What do you think about this ghostly design? Do you like the spooky sheer effect of the ghosts. I feel like these ones are definitely more on the spooky side, compared to my ghost designs of years past — which I’m loving! Let’s go for all the spooky vibes this October — I am here for it!

Happy Wednesday

♥︎

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Skyscraper (Fall 2011 Metro Collection)

Good morning lovelies & happy first Sunday of October. It’s a beautiful Autumn day, I’ve been jamming to Taylor Swift’s new album for the last two days, & I’m currently enjoying my maple brown sugar coffee. It’s a good day! I’m also excited for another Swatch Sunday.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t really been in the mood to buy new nail polish. Maybe I just need a trip to Sally Beauty, but my usual haunts are not really cutting it right now. However, the plus side of me not buying new polish, is I’ve been going through my current stash a lot more often & finding long forgotten about gems — like today’s polish pick. This is China Glaze Skyscraper from their Metro Collection from Fall 2011.

2 coats + top coat

Once upon a time, purple used to be my signature colour (after red, of course) & as a result I spent many years buying every purple, or purple leaning, polish I could get my hands on. Skyscraper is a gorgeous dark blue/indigo jelly base packed full of silver & blue micro glitters. Some of the pictures of swatches of this shade I’ve seen seem more blue than my bottle, but maybe that’s the result of it being 10+ years old (I can’t remember exactly when I bought it, but I did post about it here.)

Close up shot to see all those glitters. I only did 2 coats on my nails for swatches, but you could definitely do another coat for even thicker glitter — or sponge it on to make it really glittery! I was happy with the opacity I had after two coats though, & especially happy with how easy the formula was to apply The first coat goes on very thin, but that second one saves it & gives it a beautiful finish. Will I enjoy removing this glitter? Well we will have to see.

But I do love wearing it!

What do you think about China Glaze Skyscraper? Do you own this shade? What do you think about the colour?

China Glaze has long been one of my favourite go to brands (I own a drawer & a half of their polishes!) but I feel like I haven’t really checked out the new revamp they recently did. I’m definitely going to have to go to my local Sally’s & check out the new bottles & polishes they’ve released!

Happy Sunday!

♥︎

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GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE OCTOBER 2025 — Candy Corn

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! & Happy October 1st. It is officially my favourite season, & I can’t wait for all the spooky fun that this month will bring. Give me pumpkins, & ghosts & all the treats!

Today though, I’m excited because I’m officially committing to Glam Nails Challenge October for this month. It’s been… a while. It’s been a long while. But I think what I need to get out of my nail art slump, & create some beautiful designs, in honour of my absolute favourite month. & the first prompt of Glam Nails Challenge October is candy corn! I, for one, am a huge fan of candy corn (when I can find it that is gluten free) so I was pumped to paint it on my nails. & I thought I’d do something similar to a design I did a few years ago, where I did a candy corn themed dotticure.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Top Coat: Essie Good To Go Top Coat
  • Base Coat: Essie Hard to Resist (purple)
  • Essie Nail Art Studio Jelly Gloss Blush Jelly *pr
  • Madam Glam Nail Art Pen White *pr
  • Madam Glam Nail Art Pen Orange *pr
  • Madam Glam Nail Art Pen Yellow *pr

How cute are these itty bitty polka dots? I used some of my Madam Glam Nail Art pens, & they worked perfectly for the finest dots. I love them!

&, I also got a ton of compliments on this look over the weekend when I wore them to work, which always makes me so happy. Whenever I’m at work at someone notices my nails, it gives me such a sense of pride, & really does make my whole day! So I was very excited when I got multiple compliments on my nails.

What do you think about my candy corn inspired nails for the first prompt of Glam Nails Challenge October? All the prompts for this month are so exciting & fun, & I can’t wait to really dive into the challenge & come up with fun & creative designs — & share some super cute new nail art stickers I bought just for this month!

Enjoy your first day of spooky season!

♥︎

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Autumn Floral Accent Nails🌻🍂

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! How is everyone enjoying their week so far First full week of school for the kiddos, & today is the first day I have all to myself so I’m going to enjoy some nail painting (& much overdo room cleaning!) First up, though, I have some beautiful Fall floral accent nails I recently painted on my nails, & they turned out so beautifully. So I thought you might enjoy them!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Top Coat: Essie Good To Go Top Coat
  • Base Coat: Essie Hard to Resist (purple)
  • Essie Expressie Take The Espresso
  • Essie Fall for NYC
  • Essie Get Your Groove On
  • Essie Merino Cool
  • Essie Wind in the Willow
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail 7mm liner brush
  • NailsStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

Look at the close up! Oh, these are the nails that make me the happiest. Floral accent nails have always been one of my favourite designs. & I think the combination of colour is absolutely Autumn on the nail. Plus it matches the Brown Eyed Susans in our garden so perfectly — they made the perfect background for my pictures.

What do you think of this Autumn inspired floral design? Are you feeling the Autumn vibes as much as I am? Our neighbours have started decorating for Fall, which makes me happy to see whenever I’m out walking. This is just my favourite time of year, & I’m ready to embrace it fully.

♥︎

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SWATCH SUNDAY — LA Colors Gel Color Craze Color Shifting Top Coat Retrograde

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! A beautiful sunny Sunday once again. I know I shouldn’t complain about the beautiful weather — especially since we’ve been having cooler morning & evenings which are giving me all the Autumn vibes — but we’re still desperate for rain on the East Coast with all the fires we’ve been having.

Today though, it’s all about nail polish & I’m excited because I found a new & fun shade while perusing my local Walmart! They’ve recently– in like the last year or two — started selling LA Colors & I always love checking out what new shades they have in the display. I noticed these Color Shifting Toppers the last time I was there, so I decided to pick up two of them. The first one I’m excited to share is this green to blue shifty duochrome called Retrograde.

2 coats applied over Essie Frock n Roll + Top Coat

For this application, I applied two coats of Retrograde over a dark base — in this case, I picked Essie Frock n Roll. The base of Retrograde is fairly thin, as you would want a topper to be, but it has a fun metallic duochrome effect that builds very nicely. I feel like you could almost wear a couple coats of it on it’s own, since the base layer definitely disappears beneath the topper.

The shift is also gorgeous — there are flashes on blue & green, as the main ones, but you also get purples as well. Very mermaid-y, which I love, but the jewel tone is perfect for this time of year. I’m not usually someone who reaches for green very often, as well all know (& I’ve said plenty of times) but a shade like this with the multichrome shift is definitely one I will wear. In fact, I wore this manicure for almost 5 days!

LA Colors shades retail at Walmart for $3.97 CAD — which is a pretty awesome deal! The Color Shifting Topper line has 10 shades to choose from, all with celestial names. I picked up Retrograde & Nova, but I’m definitely going to be going back for more shades! They are all such fun colours, & I love anything that can switch up shades already in my collection with a fun twist. Also, I bet these would look beautiful swirled into a drag marble design. That might have to be my next thing to try!

What do you think of LA Colors Gel Color Shifting Topper? Are you a fan of the LA Colors brand? Like I said, I love how affordable these shades are — &, like the crackle shades they’ve released, I find they’re really stepping up their game! So many fun options you can play around with.

Happy Sunday!

♥︎