SWATCH SUNDAY β€” Essence It’s Raining Men!

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

Today I’m sharing a pretty old polish from my stash that I haven’t worn in ages: Essence It’s Raining Men! It’s been quite a while (like 5 years) since I last wore this colour, so it felt like a good polish to grab. I’ve gushed before how much I love the Essence line of nail polishes, so I have a ton of them in my stash. & some of my favourites are like this beautiful blue: deep, right & slightly sparkly.

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For my swatches I did base coat (always), & two coats of colour. For my swatches, I didn’t apply top coat so you could see it on its own when it dries, & as you can see it dries pretty shiny! The base is a beautiful dark blue, with a ton of lighter blue, turquoise shimmer & purple glass fleck glitters. The first coat goes on pretty patchy, but with the second coat you can see how opaque the polish becomes.

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I know it’s not a typical Christmas polish, but I love love love blue for Christmas for some reason. Maybe it’s because my Granny’s favourite colour was blue & she used to decorate with so many blue ornaments it makes me think of her. & Christmas was my favourite time of year with my Granny, so that’s why I just wear so much blue as December approaches. I mean, she would have never worn a polish this colour, but I feel like she would appreciate it on me. πŸ’™

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Sadly, this shade is way discontinued as Essence has update their nail polishes a few times since I purchased this beauty. I did look in my stash, & I’d say that China Glaze Blue Iguana is a close shade. Also, Essie Tied & Blue from their new holiday 2019 collection is very close in colour (from the swatches I’ve seen), although the finish is much different.

What do you think about this colour? Do you have a non-green/red polish that you love to wear during the holidays? Let me know in the comments below!

BODICO Stamping Plate & Stamper Review

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Hello lovelies! Today I have a fun spontaneous review for you guys! For my birthday last month, my Mom gave me a present that included a few stamping plates from a new to me brand (BODICO) & I decided that it would be fun to review these stamping plate for you guys! I also asked over on my Instagram if you would like to see a review & it was a resounding 100% YES!

I asked my Mum, & she said she bought these stamping plates at the Great Canadian Dollar Store in Bathurst New Brunswick. I looked this brand up online & couldn’t find any more plates to buy, but I did find the stamper/scraper set on some random website. The plates themselves are all single sheets of metal, with a selection of designs. & each plate is numbered–I have plates B-03, B-12, & B-17.

& before we get started, I just want to say I am not a professional stamper–at best I am a newb. But I do like stamping, & I feel like I’ve been getting better, so I feel like that makes me a good person to review these plates as they seem like the kind of item a beginner might pick up to try out nail stamping.

Continue reading “BODICO Stamping Plate & Stamper Review”

Stamped Sweater Nails

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Hello lovelies! & happy Tuesday! I’m super pumped to share this manicure with you, because we recently had a nice splattering of snow fall & winter-y sweater nails just seemed appropriate. I also really, really wanted to use a couple old stamping plates of mine that are Christmas/Winter themed that I always feel like I forget to use when the season comes around!

I don’t do a lot of stamping, but I have been doing it more often & I like how quick it can be. So you can probably expect to see more Christmas-y stamped looks coming up so that I can use a bunch of stamping patterns I never have before. & there definitely needs to be some ugly Christmas sweater nails happening.

But in the meantime, let’s take a look at today’s manicure!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Pat on the Black
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Sally Hansen MG Make It N-Ice
  • Revlon Iconic
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping plate BP-L032 (item #23268)
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping plate BP-L018 (item #19373)
  • NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper

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Oh man, I can’t believe how much I love love love this manicure. The colours work so well together, & this looks gives me all the cosy feelings. The weather has definitely taken that winter-y turn if always does in November & there is nothing I love more than wearing cosy sweaters & drinking copious amounts of warm drinks when that happens. &, okay, maybe all the holiday decorations that are increasingly popping up in stores may be giving me the Christmas feels. Last year I was too sick with never ending morning sickness to even think about Christmas nails, so I’m really excited to make up for it this year!

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What do you think about these winter-y sweater nails? What is your favourite kind of Christmas design to wear? Share all your thoughts down in the comments below & let me know what designs you’d like to see me do coming up!

SWATCH SUNDAY β€” Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Holiday 2019 {Oh My Gold}

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{PR sample}

Hello lovelies! Not only is it one of my favourite days of the week — Swatch Sunday — but even more exciting… the Holiday nail polish collections have started popping up! & Sally Hansen Canada, bring the sweethearts that they are, sent me their brand new Holiday 2019 Oh My Gold! Collection.

The Oh My Gold! Collection is a limited edition collection consisting of 3 gold polishes — one metallic gold with chunky Holo glitter (Goldie Rocks), one dense gold glitter (Good as Gold) in a clear base & finally a sheer gold base with a scattered holo glitter (Five Golden Blings).

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& now onto the swatches!

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY β€” Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Holiday 2019 {Oh My Gold}”

Geometric Chevron Claws

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Hello lovelies! Hope everyone is having a lovely week. I’ve been MIA this week, but it’s just been one of those weeks. I do have some new nail art to share, although I’ll be honest these looked better in my head. I had this cool idea about doing these funky geometric shatter pattern, but the colours just didn’t match up properly to make it pop.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea Bamboo Strengthener
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie For The Twill Of It
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Lilac Insomniac
  • Deep Chevron nail vinyls
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm liner brush (from Mermaid Brush Trio)
  • Black Acrylic Paint

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Gosh, I wanted to love this design so much, & I did wear them for 4+ days, but they just didn’t turn out how I had pictured in my head & it made me sad. Made if my base colour & chevron colour was lighter, the black paint would have popped better. I also thought about adding a few blocks of gold, but I just didn’t have enough time so I left them plain. Maybe next time I try this look, I’ll go with some lighter colours so my design pops more.

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What do you think about this design? What colour combination would you like to see me do next? Let me know in the comments below!