Tag: NOTD

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Negative Space Floral

We’re currently being bombarded with 25+ cm of snow here in Halifax, which is not so much fun. I’m really not a Winter person (well, once Christmas is over anyways.) So how about some floral nails to cheer us up? I wore this design this weekend, but with a raging Winter storm outside as we speak I kind of need something pretty & Spring-y to cheer me up. Did I mention I’m really, really over Winter?

Did you know it’s 49 days until Spring? Just a fun fact to get you through those long, chilly days ahead. Unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case do you have a spare room because I’m coming to visit!

I took so many pictures of this design. I know every floral manicure is my new favourite, but this one just turned out so well I couldn’t help but take a million pictures of it.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: L’Oréal the Matte Velvet
  • Essie The Girls Are Out
  • OPI My Pointe Exactly
  • China Glaze Ever Glaze Don’t Grape About It
  • Sally Hansen Instadri Petal Pusher
  • Essie Bachelorette Bash
  • Sally Hansen I ♥️ Nail Art Pen in Green
  • Essence The Green & the Grunge
  • Essie Play Date
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow
  • Small detail brush (Born Pretty Store)
  • Small & large dotting tools (Bundle Monster)

So many polishes were used for this design, but it was so worth it. & I think the matte top coat just makes the end result that much more beautiful. This is definitely not a quick to do design, but floral just makes me so happy I don’t even care! 💗 I hope you love floral, because I have a feeling there will be a lot of floral leading up to Spring. Also even though it’s snowing today, I’m totally pulling out my favourite floral romper, since I have no plans on leaving the house today… except to maybe go to Starbucks & get coffee but even then I won’t be leaving the car.

What are your thoughts on today’s floral design? Are you a fan of floral nails? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Matte Neon Moon Manicure 🌙

Happy Friday lovelies! Today I’m blasting you with a little neon to cheer up the Winter blues. It’s currently -11 degrees here in Halifax, so I need anything I can get that feels even a little Spring-like. Also this colour combination might actually be perfect. 💜

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Matte Top Coat: Butter London
  • Quo by ORLY Culture Classic
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • White Paper White Reinforcement stickers.

I’m so one of those people who can only stand Winter until Christmas is over, & then I want Spring already. If I didn’t love Halifax so much, I would move somewhere where it was warm all year & I could drive to the snow. Instead, I guess neon nails to cheer myself is in order! (& all the hot drinks I can handle to keep myself from freezing)

I guess I should probably start planning my Valentine’s Day designs soon! I missed out on a lot of Valentine’s designs last year, you know with having a baby haha, so I want to make up with it this year!

What do you think of this design? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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COMPARISON POST — Matte Top Coat

Hello lovelies! Today I’m sharing a fun post with you that was inspired by @mugglenails on Instagram! Meghan & I were having a conversation about matte top coats & I thought it might be fun to do a comparison of all the matte top coats I own. Truthfully, I used to own way more, but apparently I got rid of some when we moved so I’m going to (potentially) call this part one.

The matte top coats we will be testing today are from Butter London, Personnelle Cosmetics, Sally Hansen & L’Oréal.

To start, I painted all my nails a base colour. For this comparison, I wanted to go with something dark, so I picked this nameless blackened blue from Hard Candy that I picked up at Walmart in the clearance for 37 cents.

Next, I applied just one coat of each matte top coat to the nail & let dry. From left to right is Butter London, Personnelle Cosmetics, Sally Hansen & L’Oréal on the pinky. As far as dry time, both Butter London & L’Oréal dried fastest, the Personnelle Cosmetics was next & Sally Hansen was the last to dry.

As you can see above, L’Oréal & Butter London dried almost identically with the L’Oréal looking a little more matte to me, & while the Personnelle Cosmetics dried fairly matte it had weird streaking which would require a second coat to hide. As for Sally Hansen… it was the least matte of the 4. It wasn’t glossy but it certainly still had a sheen to it which is especially evident when paired next to the other 3 top coats.

Looking at these 4 top coats, I would say it’s pretty close between Butter London & L’Oréal & if we’re figuring cost into the equation then I would call L’Oréal the winner. Personally I love both Butter London & L’Oréal & tend to reach for them equally. The Personnelle Cosmetics top coat was a clearance score while on vacation (I grabbed it for a $1) & while its not the best, I can see myself using it if I didn’t have my other favourites. As for the Sally Hansen matte… I love Sally Hansen, I really do. It’s one of my favourite brands. But I’m sorry Sally Hansen, I hate this matte top coat. It’s slow to dry, & it’s just not matte enough. There are just much better (affordable) matte top coats you can use.

Did you favourite make this list? Do you have a favourite matte top coat not on this list that you’d like to see a comparison of? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below & I’ll see what I can do about putting together a part two!

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Marbled Nails Using Acetone

Good Morning Lovelies! & happy Monday.

Today I have a have nail art design to share with you. I’ve written before how I love playing around with different techniques, & lately I’ve been really into marbled nails & the many ways to create them. For today’s design, I created a marble design using polish & acetone–a technique that I’ve shown off before.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • China Glaze For Audrey
  • Quo by ORLY Feeling Free
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Xroma Polish & Vinyls Spiral Star
  • Acetone
  • Q-tip

Obviously the easiest way to show you how to create this design was with a tutorial, so check out below!

I just really, really love this colour combination. There is something about turquoise & purple that goes so well together. Also why don’t I grab China Glaze For Audrey more often? It was my very first ever China Glaze shade, & now I remember why I fell in love with it. Just so pretty!

So what do you think of this marble design? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Quo by ORLY Sailor’s Blue

Happy Sunday lovelies! Welcome to my favourite day of the week–Swatch Sunday! 💙 Today I’m sharing a polish that OG readers will remember as one of my early swatches on this blog: Quo by ORLY Sailor’s Blue. (Seriously check out that original post, because the picture quality alone is worth the laugh! 😹)

This shade originally came into my life as part of the Quo by ORLY 2013 Holiday Minis set (it was gifted to me by the Hubby) & was my first real foray into the whole Quo by ORLY Polish line.

Sailor’s Blue is a sheer deep blue polish with a duochrome shimmer that flashes between gold & pink. It’s sheer enough that I wear it with undies (China Glaze First Mate) to avoid having to build coats. I also feel like using it over top of another blue shade keeps it from looking muddy. For this look, I did one coat of undies & one coat of Sailor’s Blue, plus top coat.

Sadly, I don’t think this shade is available anymore for purchase which definitely makes me wish I had more than just a mini bottle in my collection. I know it was also released by ORLY as High On Hope as part of the Spring 2013 collection, but unless you find it buried in clearance bins, I don’t think it’s an easy shade to track down. Which is seriously a shame, because it’s so pretty!

& for fun, a macro shot so you can really see that duochrome shift. ⤵️

What do you think of Quo by ORLY Sailor’s Blue? Do you own this shade (or it’s twin ORLY High On Hope in your stash? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!