SWATCH SUNDAY — Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour 513 Black Pearl

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Good morning lovelies & Happy Sunday! Today is a really exciting edition of Swatch Sunday because I’ve been sharing a polish from my Mom’s nail polish stash I’ve been dreaming of getting my hands on: Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour 513 Black Pearl.

I looked this shade up online, & found posts about it all the way back to 2010. Sadly it looks like it has been discontinued, although I did see more than a few listings for it on EBay if you’re dying to get your hands on this shade.

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For my swatches I did my base, 2 coats of colour, & finished off everything with top coat (Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat).

Black Pearl is a dark steel grey shimmer which has this very pretty dark teal shimmer that comes through in certain light. It’s very, very pretty & very perfect for this Fall weather. The formula was kind of thin on the first application, but the second coat definitely levels things out for perfect application. & even though this is the kind of polish that you think would be slightly streaky, I avoided too many brush strokes.

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This is definitely the kind of shade I find myself drawn to as the days get cooler–darker shades that capture the Fall mood perfectly. & I’ll admit: I wish this beauty could come home with me, but I’m pretty sure if it disappears from my Mom’s stash, my bags would be the first ones searched. Haha.

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So what do we think about this shade? Are you loving dark moody colours are much as I am right now? Let me know down below! & let me know what your favourite Chanel shade is because I think I might need to add one to my own collection.

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VACATION NAILS — ocean inspire Saran Wrap splatter.

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Hello lovelies! Still on vacation, but even though I’m on vacation that doesn’t mean I’m not painting my nails! Like I wrote in my last Swatch Sunday post, visiting my parents means I get to take advantage of my Mom’s massive nail polish collection she uses for her jewelry. So I decided to take a few of her polishes to create an ocean inspired design perfect for an East Coast vacation!

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvacote
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Sally Hansen CSM A Bleu Attitude
  • Quo by ORLY April Showers
  • Santee ACO6433
  • China Glaze Cattle Drive Me Crazy
  • Crinkled up Plastic Wrap

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Obviously, being away from my own nail polish stash & supply, I’m not going to attempt to crate one of my more complicated designs–like floral– which is why something like a Saran Wrap splatter is such a perfect design! Easy to do, minimal clean up, but still looks fancy & fun! & obviously because my nails were inspired by the ocean I had to take pictures of this look right on the beach! 🌊

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Looking at these close up, I realized how much these look like the mussel shells we used to collect off the beach as kids! This colour combination is definitely one of the best versions of this design I’ve done, but I find that happens whenever I do anything in shades of blue! They always just turn out so beautiful!

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What do you think of this look? What do you do about your nails when you’re on vacation–do you still paint them, or go with something like soak off gel that lasts 2+ weeks!

Let me know your vacation nail routine down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure A Bleu Attitude

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Good Morning lovelies & Happy Sunday! I’m currently writing today’s Swatch Sunday post from my parents place in New Brunswick, but a little vacation won’t keep me from painting my nails!

For today’s post, I decided to borrow from my Mom’s vast nail polish stash — Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure A Bleu Attitude. I knew I had to shade this gorgeous polish with you, so I crafted a makeshift lightbox just so I could take pictures of this polish to share!

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According to my Internet Research (aka Google), this shade was released as part of Sally Hansen’s CSM Fall 2016 collection. There is something about Navy that just screams Fall to me. As I’ve said probably a million other times, the first hint of Pumpkin Spice & you have me craving deep, dark polishes.

For my swatches, I applied one (!) coat of polish for full opacity, & finished it off with glossy top coat. Any time I can get away with a one coat polish, I am going to be happy–I love painting my nails, but sometimes I am short on time. So a beautiful one coater like A Bleu Attitude makes my life so much easier. & that makes me very very happy.

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Seriously, can you believe that is only one coat?! How amazing is that? I’m seriously tempted to sneak this bottle into my suitcase to take home, but my Mom did give me her bottle of (original) Pacific Blue, I feel like stealing this beautiful polish from her wouldn’t be the nicest move. So I’ll just have to search out my own bottle online (I did find it on Amazon.ca for sale) & if that doesn’t work, I’ll just slap it on my nails next time I come to visit.

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What do you think of this navy blue? Do you have Sally Hansen CSM A Bleu Attitude in your nail polish collection? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below! & stay tuned, because I have some fun nail art featuring this shade to share soon!

Fall Inspired Chevron Moons

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Hello lovelies & Happy Friday. I am currently on vacation with my kiddos for the next week & a half so my posts are (probably) not going to be as regular as they normally are, but I did bring my China Glaze Gone West polishes with me, so I’m hoping to have a few fun designs to share with you!

First up, a manicure I created prior to going away. I posted on Instagram what design I should do & the overwhelming vote was for some chevron moons! I will admit, it’s been a while since my last chevron moon design–in fact, it was in May–so a new version was way over due. & since I’m all about the Fall polish right now, I had to use some of these awesome China Glaze colours. Because, I’ll be honest… I’m kind of obsessed with this entire collection.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Franken Base Coat creation
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • China Glaze Lawless & Flawless
  • China Glaze Take The High Rodeo
  • China Glaze Cowboy Bye
  • The Base Coat Stacked Chevron vinyls

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I talked in my Swatch Sunday post about how good I thought that Lawless & Flawless would be for negative space designs, & I was right. It made such a good middle layer for this look, but the shimmer in the polish still comes through. Gorgeous. Also I debated on which shades to use for this look, & went back & forth between Cowboy Bye, Cattle Drive Me Crazy & Buffalo Bills Bills Bills, but in the end my favourite won out because I thought that the underlying shimmer of Cowboy Bye just seemed to compliment the pink in Take The High Rodeo.

& you know what? I was definitely right. Just look how well these three go together!

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Okay guys, I know I’ve been saying I’ve been feeling the Fall vibes since, like, the middle of July but I’m serious now–I am so ready for it! My nails are channeling Autumn hard, & all this girl needs is a dairy free pumpkin spice latte, some knee high socks, my cosiest sweater & my biggest knit scarf. Hope you’re ready for the influx of Fall designs that will be coming your way, but I am definitely inspired. 🍁🍂

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What do you think of this Fall chevron moon design? Are you ready for Fall or still holding on to those last days of Summer? Let me know which side you’re on down in the comments below!

Tribal/Aztec Print for #GlamNailsChallengeAug

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Hello loves & happy Wednesday! Today marks the last prompt for #GlamNailsChallengeAug, can you believe it? We made it! & I am so excited to have completed this challenge, because it really did inspired me to try out more nail art designs than my usual go to designs. That being said, I’m also itching for some Fall inspired floral & half moons, so stay tuned for some of those coming up next month!

The last prompt for this month is Tribal/Aztec, which is one after my own heart, so I couldn’t wait to draw some new tribal inspired nail art. & obviously I had to use some of the next China Glaze Gone West polishes for a Fall colour scheme.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used are:

  • Base Coat: Fraken Base Coat combination
  • Base Coat: Quo by ORLY Bonder
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Settter
  • China Glaze Cowboy Bye
  • China Glaze Prairie Tale Ending
  • China Glaze Take The High Rodeo
  • China Glaze Gold Mine Your Business
  • China Glaze Cattle Drive Me Crazy
  • Essence Black is Back
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm Nail Art Brush
  • Small dotting tool

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So I know I’m totally biased, but how cute did this look turn out? The colour pallet is just so perfect for Fall weather & I think goes really well with the tribal prompt. I mean, I can’t stop obsessing about these colours anyways, but combined with one of my favourite kinds of designs, it’s hard not to just keep staring at my nails. & it satisfies my craving for Fall just enough.

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I’ve really had so much fun doing this challenge this month, & I’m super excited that I completed all 8 prompts! Still deciding if I’ll be joining in again next month, as the prompts look quite fun, but if I don’t do all of them, I will definitely take inspiration from some. & I definitely plan on getting more creative this month in my nail art! So who knows what designs you will see coming up! I definitely feel like pumpkins are going to need to happen!

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Don’t forget to check out the other manicures for #glamnailschallengeaug & let me know down in the comments below if you’d like to see me do more challenges like this in the future!