Tag: nails

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GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE APRIL — Rainbow 🌈

Hello lovelies & happy Monday! I hope your day is starting off beautifully. Today I’m in a great mood because I’m sharing another beautiful manicure for Glam Nails Challenge April.

& what is the next prompt? Rainbow 🌈

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive Fast Dry Top
  • Holographic Top Coat: Starrily Eclipse
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Cerulean (pinky)
  • Sinful Colours Fitspo
  • OPI Nature Strong Make my Daisy (middle)
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Fiery Island (pointer)
  • Essie Too Too Hot (thumb)

How pretty is this rainbow? I thought about hand painting a rainbow, but there is just something about a skittle design. I totally could have freehanded little white ‘s’ in the middle of each nails, & they would have been legit skittles! Simple, but effective.

Also the kiddos loved the look so much, they asked me to give them both rainbow nails! So here is a bonus shot of their fun rainbow nails. Even though I sometimes get a little on edge painting their nails — mostly because they hate sitting still — I do adore anytime they ask for me to paint their nails!

What do you think of these rainbow nails? Are you a fan of a rainbow skittle look? Let me know down in the comments below!

& just for fun: what is your favourite skittle flavour. I’m controversial because I will die on the hill that the green apple skittle was the best, especially in sour, but I know not everyone shares that opinion.

Have a lovely Monday!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — OPI Nature Strong Emflowered

pr/gifted — Features Gifted Product in Exchange for Content

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! A beautiful sunny Spring Sunday here on the East Coast, which is lovely to see. So I thought that something bright & Springy would be perfect for this week’s Swatch Sunday post.

Today’s pick is actually a polish I’ve had in my stash since last year when I teamed up with TradeSecrets.ca & was sent some beautiful shades by them from the OPI Nature Strong line. Somehow, I completely managed to forget to share some swatches, so I thought today was the perfect day to share. Today’s pick: OPI Nature Strong Emflowered.

2 coats + OPI Nature Strong Top Coat

The formula on this shade was really easy to work with & apply. I’ve used a few of these different “natural” formulas over the years, & I’m always impressed with how you notice very little difference with these cleaner shades. It applied easily, in two coats, with full opacity. & it dried down quickly between coats as well, which is always a plus! The formula was a bit on the thinner side so I was careful not to over fill my brush, but I had no issues with cuticle flooding.

The colour of this one is definitely stunning. I love a good purple-y pink shade, & Emflowered definitely is my kind of pink. It’s vibrant & lush, & I’m kind of obsessed. Also, we’re giving off some Barbie vibes & I really like that. Maybe it’s the influence of the movie coming out soon, but I’m digging bright pinks right now.

Over all, I really like this pink, & the shades I’ve tried from the OPI Nature Strong line so far. The colours & formulas have all been spot on, & they’ve lasted pretty well on my nails, even through a long shift at work.

You can find the OPI Nature Strong line on TradeSecrets.ca, as well as a ton other OPI collections to choose from. I’ve kind of been itching to buy some new polishes, & there are a few shades calling my name (especially since @GrapeFizzNails has been sharing her own fun OPI Nature Strong shades on Instagram) so I think I might need to do a little online shopping… maybe for Mother’s Day? I’ll definitely do a haul of what I get in that case!

What do you think of this beautiful shade (or any OPI Nature Strong shades you might have tried)? Let me know down in the comments below!

Have a lovely Sunday darlings!

Products featured in this post were provided in exchanged for content. 

All thoughts are honest & my own.

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GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE APRIL — Daffodils

Good morning lovelies & happy Wednesday! I hope everyone’s week has been lovely so far. The weather has been seasonal so far, which I can’t complain about too much. & the flowers are beginning to bloom.

It’s time for the next prompt of Glam Nails Challenge April: daffodils. & I’ll be honest I was nervous, again, about this prompt. I love love love doing floral, but this was a type of flower I’d never painted before. But, you know, I think I nailed it!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive Fast Dry Top
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Glos-Sea
  • OPI Nature Strong Make My Daisy
  • Essie Fall for NYC
  • Essie Check Your Baggage
  • Essie Cliffhanger
  • ACO by Ardene Jungle Green
  • Essence Bloom Me Up! Blow My Mint
  • Essie Off Tropic
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Brush

First off, check out this blue! I recently picked it up at Shoppers when I had some optimum points, & I’m really in love with it. It’s kind of hard to see in this lighting, but it has the prettiest pink-y shimmer in it. A fantastic colour for Spring. Also the perfect base for these beautiful yellow flowers.

Second I’m so, so proud of how these daffodils turned out. Sometimes I get self conscious when it comes to nail art I’ve never done before, but I really do love them. & it’s inspired me to do more floral again. I feel like I stopped doing florals for a while, & now that Spring is here, it’s time to pick up doing them again. Because, they really do make me so happy.

What do you think of my daffodils for Glam Nails Challenge April? Did you miss all the floral? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below.

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GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE APRIL — Tulips 💐

Hello lovelies & happy Monday! Another week is upon us, although this one isn’t looking nearly as Summer-y as the last. Today, though, I’m sharing the next prompt for Glam Nails Challenge April — tulips.

It’s kind of funny — in all the time I’ve been doing floral, I don’t think I’ve ever done a tulip design. So this was definitely a bit of a challenge for me. While it’s not my most perfect floral ever, I’m super happy with how adorable they turned out.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive Fast Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Play Date
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Jelly Belly Cotton Candy
  • Sally Hansen Good. Kind. Pure. Peony Origins
  • Sinful Colours Yolo Yellow
  • Essie First Class Affair
  • OPI Life Gave Me Lemons
  • OPI My Gecko Does Tricks
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Brush Trio

How cute do these flowers look? I would have loved to have taken a picture of them in front of my own garden, but no tulips quite yet. A few more weeks. I think this is such a perfect Springtime look. I love how colourful these are with the purple base & the yellow & pink tulips. Yes yes yes.

What do you think about this tulip design? Do you love a good bright & vibrant Spring-y design, or do you prefer things more subtle?

Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below & what you’re wearing on your nails this week.

Have a great Monday! 🌷

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Too Too Hot ❤️‍🔥

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

It’s been a beautiful balmy week this week (at least in terms of our usual April days) so I’m feeling all the Summer vibes I can handle. I even broke out my favourite holo sandals. So with these beautiful Summery days, I felt like switching gears from pastel vibes to full on Summer with a classic Essie shade: Essie Too Too Hot.

This shade was originally released circa 2011 as part of the Braziliant Summer 2011 collection ( found swatches online of the full collection here).

3 coats + Seche Vive Top Coat

I ended up with 3 coats of polish for my swatches, which I feel like was a bit too much, but I the formula was a bit on the thinner side, so I found I needed to do a lot less polish on the brush to avoid flooding my cuticles.

The colour is this beautiful mix between a bright tomato red, & a coral, although in my photos it’s definitely leaning more towards the red side. That could also be due to the fact my skin tone leans more on the yellow/olive side, so I feel like that brights out the red tones more.

We all know I love a good red nail polish, & I love an Essie red even more! It’s actually surprising how few Essie reds I have in my stash, so I think I need to fix that.

This shade is beautiful though, because I find it would be pretty universally flattering on a lot of skin tones. It reminds me a bit of Sally Hansen Cherry Delightful from their RED/ESIGN collection from a few years ago, which was designed to compliment everyone. So this definitely seems like a red that anyone could wear.

Sadly, this shade has been discontinued from the Essie core line, which makes me really sad because I think everyone needs a classic flattering red in their collection. Red nails make everything better (which is why I spent the majority of my early 20s rocking some shade of red.) So I would totally be down with championing a petition for Essie to bring this beauty back to their core line!

What do you think of this beauty? Do you own Essie Too Too Hot in your nail polish stash? What is your favourite Essie red? Let me know in the comments below.