GlamnailschallengeOct—Graveyard

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Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! This has been a busy week for manicures & it’s not over yet. Today I’ve got the next prompt for GlamnailschalleneOct: Graveyard! For this look, I wanted to channel the look of gravestones as my background sky & then create a little landscape graveyard near my cuticles.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Grey Area
  • Maybelline Audacious Asphalt
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Essence Black is Back
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm liner brush

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I had this idea in my heart to create this grungy grey background, I feel like it was kind of successful? Not exactly how I pictured in my head, but I still really like it. Next time I would probably add a dark dusky purple or blue to add a bit of colour to the mix. But over all, I think this design captures the spookiness of a graveyard, & when it comes to Halloween designs that’s what is most important, am I right?

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I think my dry brush background might be one of my favourite parts of this look. Instead of doing short brush strokes, I brushed the polish brush up almost the entire length of my nail. It really helped capture the haunting quality of gravestones/graveyards, which I am really excited about. I will say though, next time I would probably pull out my What’s Up Nails graveyard stencils for the gravestones.

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what do you think about this grungy graveyard design? Are you already planning your Halloween nail art looks?

& don’t forget you can keep up with #glamnailschallengeOct on Instagram for everyone else’s amazing designs this month! There are still a few more fun design looks coming up for the rest of the month!

Birthday Nails with Essie Birthday Girl 🎉

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Hello lovelies & Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is having a beautiful start to their week. Today I’m breaking up my usual posting schedule because TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY! That’s right, today marks 33 years around the sun. So obviously I needed to do something fun on my nails to mark the occasion.

In years past I’ve done some obvious birthday nails, but this year I decided to let the polish do the talking. When I saw that Essie had released a polish called Birthday Girl, I knew that I was going to need to own it & incorporate it into my birthday mani this year! I also wanted to do something fun, as I snapped a nail just in time for my birthday, so I am back to some serious shorties.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
  • Top Coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie The A-bliss {PR sample}
  • Essie Birthday Girl
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Color Club Eternal Beauty
  • Essie Play Date
  • Sally Hansen Pat on the Black
  • Nailstuff.ca 11mm Liner Brush {PR sample}

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For my base, I applied two coats of Birthday Girl over one coat of The A-bliss. I then did a whole bunch of Pinterest stalking to see what kind of design I wanted to do overtop my base of Birthday Girl & in the end I decided a Waterfall look was the way to go! Do you remember when Waterfall designs were all the rage? I feel like this design needs to make a comeback!

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For this look I decided to pick a few purples that I thought would compliment my pink base. Then o used my liner brush from NailStuff to brush thin streaks of polish at my cuticle line, & bam! An low effort design that looks super fancy & fun. Kind of reminds me of sparkling fireworks at the base of my nails which is perfect for celebrating, even if my idea of celebrating is drinking my free birthday drink from Starbucks & playing with the new stamping plates my Mum bought me for my birthday! I can’t think of a more perfect day. ☕️💅🏻

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Hope everyone has an amazing day! Let me know what you think about this look & what colour combination you’d love to see me do in a Waterfall look next! 💙

GlamnailschallengeOct—Spiders 🕸

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We are almost halfway through the month, can you believe it? & Happy Thanksgiving to all my Fellow Canadians celebrating today with Turkey, Tofurky or whatever else you’re making for the occasion.

Today I have another look for GlamnailschallengeOct! Today’s prompt is Spiders, which is quite possibly my least favourite thing in the whole wide world, but a popular choice this time of year for nail art. & I do seem to do some kind of Spider web look each year, as it’s a time honoured Halloween classic.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Nicole by OPI Totally in the Dark
  • White Acrylic Paint
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Striper Brush

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Okay, so regardless of my phobia toward legit spiders (& their sticky webs), I am really loving how these turned out. These turned out much more delicate than some of my previous spider web attempts, which I’m very happy about. Turns out good nail art brushes really make a huge difference in how nail art turns out! My nail art brushes from NailStuff.ca has really improved how my nail art looks & has brought my freehanding to another level… even when I’m on a nap time time crunch. Also I fought it for a longtime, but using acrylic paint also really helps with upping the look, probably because it doesn’t dry as quickly as nail polish does.

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Halloween manicures make me so happy, even ones involving spiders (ick). This would definitely be a fun manicure to wear for a witchy Halloween costume, or something like Mortica. I have quite decided what I’m being for Halloween, although Kenneth tells me I’m being a princess, but if I go with a spooky look I may have to recreate this! I did end up wearing this manicure for a good 5 days.

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What do you think about this spider design? Are you already planning your spooky Halloween designs? Don’t forget to keep checking out #glamnailschallengeOct on Instagram for everyone else’s amazing designs this month!

SWATCH SUNDAY — (part of) the Essie Rocky Rose collection

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Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday! & Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my fellow Canadians–I hope you’re enjoying a lovely feast with friends & family. Today I’m very thankful for everyone who takes the time to sit & read the blog, & comment & like. I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for you guys. & I wouldn’t have the opportunities I have if it wasn’t for you guys.

Like being sent PR packages from Essie!

Today I have a couple of polishes that we’re so kindly gifted to me from Essie themselves! They sent me 4 shades from the Rocky Rose collection from this past Summer. The collection itself features 9 neutral toned shades & is described in the PR materials as “a collection that harnesses the sun-saturated grandeur of the iconic desert landscape.”

Can’t get more awesome than that!

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For my swatches, I received the shades The A-bliss, Cliff Hanger, Set in Sandstone & No Shade Here. I will add, only two of the bottles came with the actual polish names on the bottom so I’m guessing based on the other swatches I’ve seen.

Now let’s get to the swatches.

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY — (part of) the Essie Rocky Rose collection”

China Glaze Halloween 2019 Swatches — To Catch A Colour Collection

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Hello lovelies & Happy Friday!

Today I’m switching things up a bit & sharing my swatches for China Glaze Halloween 2019. I know, usually I would wait & write up a Swatch Sunday post featuring these beauties, but I was too excited about this new collection to wait!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but China Glaze always makes my favourite Halloween nail polish collections, because they’re always super unique & fun for Halloween, but still work really well for other times of the year. This year, the collection consists of 6 brand new polishes: 1 textured shade, 3 regular metallic/scattered holo shade, & two fun glitter toppers.

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So without any further ado, let’s get to the swatches!

Continue reading “China Glaze Halloween 2019 Swatches — To Catch A Colour Collection”