Tag: nail polish

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COMPARISON POST — My Favourite Cobalt Blues (Pacific Blue Dupes)

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! Today I have a special post I swear I’ve been meaning to do FOREVER but just never got around to doing — a comparison post featuring a few of my favourite cobalt blue shades!

I have done a couple of these comparison posts in the past, & they always prove to be popular, so I thought that it would be fun to do another. All the shades you’re about to see are inspired by my love of one polish: the original formula Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue. If you don’t know, Pacific Blue was the most perfect cobalt blue polish that ever existed, which sadly saw a formula change in 2014… a formula change which led to serious uproar in the nail polish community. This led to mainly nail bloggers searching for dupes, & stocking up on any old formula bottles they could find… myself included. As a result, I have quite a few cobalt blues in my nail polish collection… & I wanted to compare a few of my favourites to see how they lived up to the original.

As you can see, I’ve selected 5 of my many blues for comparison… can you tell which ones are which from the above swatches? All polishes were applied over my base & finished with top coat (Essie Gel Setter).

Continue reading “COMPARISON POST — My Favourite Cobalt Blues (Pacific Blue Dupes)”

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Gel Couture Princess Charming

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! I’m super excited to share brand new swatches with you of a new polish! & yep I changed my nail shape again. Round/almond nails just work so much better with newborn life.

Today’s polish pick a new to me shade which was actually gifted to me by my Mom as a gift after having our baby girl: Essie Gel Couture Princess Charming. 🌸

This pink neutral has an amazing formula which goes on in easy coats. It is almost a one coaster, & you could quite possibly apply in one if you were super careful (my pinky only needed one coat). I did two with thin coats, & everything levelled down perfectly, even before I added my top coat (Essie Gel Setter).

This link is such a nice neutral shade, which boarders on almost a nude. This is definitely a great Office appropriate shade that you could wear everyday. There is a hint of mauve to this shade as well, & I really like the duskiness of it. It would also make a fantastic base for nail art.

This is only my second ever Essie Gel Couture shade, but I must say if all of their polishes are like this I’m definitely going to need to change that! I am beyond impressed with the formula & how smoothly it applied. Not only that, but it seemed to dry quickly before I even applied my top coat. I’m definitely curious to see how well the polish holds up for me & how long it lasts on my nails before chipping.

Do you have a favourite Essie Gel Couture shade? Do you own Princess Charming in your own stash? Share all your thoughts on this polish down below.

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Blue & Pink Abstract Stripes

Good morning lovelies & happy Saturday! It’s been a while since I posted, but I have a new manicure to share with you!

This design was actually originally done earlier in the spring, but I never got a chance to share! Since I haven’t really had a chance to do any nail art since our baby girl arrived, I thought I would share this look with you now!

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Rose to the Occasion
  • Sally Hansen Sugar Fix
  • Art Club Nail Art Striper in Paisley Blue
  • Kiss Nail Art Striper in white
  • Kiss Nail Art Striper in Black

I can’t remember the last time I did an abstract stripe design, but it most definitely has been a while. (I went back through my Instagram feed, & this post from May 2018 seems to be my last time doing this technique, with a similar colour scheme. I guess I really love creating this style using shades of blue.

& honestly looking at these nails, it really makes me want to buy nail art stripers in every shade so I can do these kind of looks more often–I have a Sally Beauty gift card from Christmas waiting to be used that I feel like using on a few new stripers from some more line love!

what do you think of this design? What are your favourite colour combinations when it comes to stripes? Share down below!

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Black & White Chevron Accent Nails

Good morning lovelies& happy Tuesday!

I know things have been quiet on the blog, but I have a good reason: baby #2 has made her arrival! Madeleine Lena was born very early last Tuesday morning, so I’ve had a busy week of readjusting to newborn life. & I’m still wearing my blue drag marble nails which ended up being my labour nails!

However, going through my phone I found a few nail art looks I haven’t yet posted, so until I’m able to actually paint my nails–which is hard when you’ve got two little ones keeping you busy… no surprise there!–I have a few nail polish & nail art looks that I can post for you!

First up I have some stacked chevron accent nails–this is a look I’ve done before a few times because it’s super easy to do & is such a cute look!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Bamboo & Green Tea Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle
  • Quo by ORLY Platina
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Blacky-O
  • The Base Coat Vinyls Stacked Chevron

First off I love love love how blinding China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle is! Such a great Summer Polish to wear for a serious pop of colour. It’s just so good! I thought the simplicity of black & white accent nails worked really well because it added some art while still letting my polish shine.

what do you think of this look? Share your thoughts down in the comments below.

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Blue & Yellow Drag Marble Nails

Good morning lovelies & happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is having a lovely start to the week… & if not, the weekend is really only a couple days away.

Today I’m showing off some more marble nails since my obsession as be reignited! I’ve been having a lot of fun trying out different techniques for creating these looks.

For today’s look, my marble was done using a fan brush.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Bamboo & Green Tea Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • OPI I Just Can’t Cope-acabana
  • ACO by Ardene Lagoon
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Fan Brush (mine is from Bundle Monster)

This was actually a surprisingly easy & not messy way to create marble–all I did was apply blob of polish directly to my base colour (yellow) then brushed around on the nail using my fan brush to create the marble effect. If a nail wasn’t quite turning out how I wanted, I’d add a bit more polish of choice to give it the look I was going for.

The trick is you definitely don’t want to combine the polish too much as it can create a bit of a muddy effect– like my thumb. But when it turned out, oh boy does it look amazing! My ring finger was definitely one of my top favourites! I think it marbled the absolute best!

What do you think about these marble nails? What colour combination would you like to see me try next? Do you have a favourite marble technique?

Share your thoughts down in the comments below!