SWATCH SUNDAY— OPI Infinite Shine Heart & Coal

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. The last Sunday before Christmas! Can you believe that Christmas is only 6 days away? That means its time to kick the Christmas designs into high gear!

But, in the meantime, I have a fun Christmas related polish to shade for Swatch Sunday: OPI Infinite Shine Heart & Coal from the 2020 Shine Bright Holiday Collection. I found this beauty at Winners, during my Christmas shopping adventures this past week, & kind of couldn’t leave without it! They had a few a the shades from the collection left, but I decided to be good & just buy this one.

This is also, somehow, my first full sized Infinite Shine shade which is also really exciting!

2 coats + 2 coats OPI Infinite Shine Gloss Top Coat

Heart & Coal is a beauty black with an abundance of tiny holo scattered glitters. A lot of holo glitter. The first coat of this shade was a bit thin, but the second I applied the second coat, it was perfect opacity. The formula can be a bit grainy–thanks to those thickly packed holographic glitters–but applying two coats of top coat definitely smoothed things out a lot. A part of me would be curious to see how it would look without top coat, & if it would dry similarly to those sand effect shades of a few years ago.

Look at that macro shot! You can see those beautiful shimmers, plus you can really see that the black base has a bit of a shimmery finish to itself as well. A lovely holiday polish to wear! Especially if you’re not in the mood for a traditional red or green polish to wear to celebrate.

I also like the lasting power of the Infinite Shine line. According to the OPI site, it’ll give you up to a 11 day lasting manicure. I’m not sure about that, but I did get a good shift out of these where I was unpacking boxes & being all around rough on my nails, & my nails looked as good as the beginning as at the end.

What do you think about this polish? Do you have OPI Heart & Coal, either regular or Infinite Shine, in your stash? What is your holiday manicure you’re wearing right now? Let me know down in the comments below!

Purple & Gold Freehand Swirls

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday!

Hope everyone is having a very lovely week so far! We’ve actually been having a beautiful weather here in Halifax — very un-November like weather! It’s been absolutely beautiful… which has kind of made being inspired for nail art a little difficult. So I decided for my latest mani to go with a look I used to do all the time — this freehand dainty swirl look.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • OPI Ink
  • Essie Getting Groovy
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

Back in circa 2014-2015, I used to love freehanding these swirly looks, so I decided since I wasn’t feeling all that inspired, it was a great look to go with.

I really love the look of the gold over the shifty purple base of OPI Ink. I feel like this look is very regal — it also gives me slight wrapping paper vibes, but I’m not mad about it. I think it looks very beautiful. It was definitely a good nail art choice in this in between time when it doesn’t quite feel like Fall, but is too early (in my eyes, anyways) for Christmas.

What do you think about this nail art look? What designs are you wearing right now? Have you started thinking about Christmas nail art? Let me know in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — OPI Ink

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday… The first Sunday of November!

I’m not quite ready to start thinking about holiday polishes yet—although I’ve been tempted—so I thought I would delve into my stash & pull out an untried. Todays pick is OPI Ink, which I scored on a serious deal at my local Lawton’s.

2 coats + Seche Vive Top Coat

According to my Google research, Ink was originally released as part of the 2007 Night Brights collection. It has since become part of the permanent core collection.

The polish is a deep blue shimmer with a multitude of purple & blue micro flakie glitters. It’s very densely packed, which means 2 coats of polish easily covers the nail. There is also a beautiful shift that shows blue or purple, depending on how you move your nail.

You can really really see the glass fleck glitters in a macro shot. It looks really beautiful. Also you can really see the beautiful shift — it’s a stunning polish for sure!

You can OPI Ink (pretty much) anywhere OPI nail polish is sold, both in regular formula as well as the gel formula. A few places I’ve found online which have it in stock are:

What do you think about this beautiful OPI shade? Do you have OPI Ink in your nail polish stash? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

Glam Nails Challenge October— Mummy

Good morning lovelies & happy Thursday! Yes… it’s Thursday already! & Halloween is only 3 days away.

Is everyone ready?

I don’t know about where you are, but stores around here are almost cleared out for Halloween & it’s like Christmas exploded in every store. But I’m still here for Halloween & have a few more Halloween looks to share! First up, the next prompt for GlamNailsChallenge October: Mummy.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Sally Hansen CSM Off The Shoulder
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Essence Dare It Nude
  • China Glaze The Snuggle is Real
  • OPI Chiffon My Mind
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

Please excuse the cruddy lighting — it was a rainy miserable day when I was attempting to take these pictures. The joys of late October in Nova Scotia, haha.

For my mummy look, I wanted to go with a more subtle mummy look — like if an Egyptian princess was being mummified & wanted her nails to be featured. Haha. My look definitely ended up a bit more subtle than I had originally wanted, but that was a lot to do with my base shade. I feel like I might have wanted a bit more of a contrasting colour. But I’m still really happy with how they turned out.

What do you think about this “mummy” look? Can you believe that Halloween is almost here (& over!) What is your favourite Halloween candy? L

et me know in the comments below!

Fall Inspired Floral (birthday twin nails with @nailstuffca)

Hello lovelies & happy Saturday!

I usually never post on Saturday’s, but yesterday was such a busy day, I didn’t get to get this post together! These nails are twin nails I got together to do with my girl Victoria (@nailstuff.ca) — we are both October birthdays, 2 days apart, so these are some Fall floral birthday twin nails!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie First Base
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • OPI Barefoot in Barcelona
  • China Glaze Autumn’s Up!
  • China Glaze Spice To Meet You
  • China Glazes Loves Em & Leaves Em
  • Essie Satin Sister
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure So Much Fawn
  • Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Zip Wine
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush

This design is originally inspired by @rachelsbeauty_.

My base is a bit more pink that the nude she used, but I love how my version turned out! It’s been a while since I did a floral look, & even longer since I did a Fall floral, so I was excited to team up with Victoria for these twin nails. It’s been way too long since I got to do twin nails with anyone!

& this was an extra fun way to mark our birthdays.

What do you think of this floral design? Are they giving you the Fall vibes? Let me know what you think down in the comments below! & don’t forget to check our Victoria’s twin design over at @nailstuff.ca as well!