GlamnailschallengeOct—Jack o Lanterns 🎃

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Oh my gosh, we did it you guys! It’s the last day of GlamnailschallengeOct! Another month of fun designs that I might not have done otherwise! & I’ve had a blast celebrating my favourite holiday with this challenge… now it’s time for one more design!

The last prompt is Jack o Lanterns. Now there are a lot of different ways you can do Jack O Lanterns on your nails, & I searched through many minutes of Pinterest for inspiration, but in the end I decided to just start painting & see what I got.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Green Tea Bamboo Strengthener
  • Base Coat: Duri Rejuvocate
  • Top coat: YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat
  • LA Girl Rock Star Groupie
  • Acrylic Paint
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm liner brush (from Mermaid Brush Trio)
  • NailStuff.ca dotting tool trio

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For this look, I took my base colour which I was already wearing (LA Girl Groupie) & used a few orange acrylic paints to create my pumpkins. I went with acrylic paint (again) because it’s easier to erase if you’re unhappy with how it turns out & I find can’t paint on a bit easier than nail polish — & I was working against the clock.

I liked the idea of doing a couple smaller pumpkins on each finger with a larger “accent pumpkin” on my ring finger. I thought it turned out kind of cute! I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of actually carving pumpkins–& truthfully I haven’t done it in like 10 years–but I’ll paint cute Jack o lanterns on my nails any time!

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What do you think about my Jack o lanterns for GlamnailschallengeOct? Have you figured out what you’re dressing your nails as yet?

Don’t forget to pop over to  #glamnailschallengeOct on Instagram & see all the final designs for this month!

SWATCH SUNDAY—LA Girl Rockstar Groupie

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Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! If you follow me on Instagram (insert shameless plug here) you would have saw that I posted a poll to pick this week’s Swatch Sunday polish. & the winner with 59% of the vote was LA Girl Groupie from the Rock Star collection. This collection is pretty old — I found a Vampy Varnish swatch post that date back 10 years. I purchased this particular bottle pre-blog life, in 2013. & I’ve only done one manicure with it since starting this blog: these pink & purple half moons. So a reunion was long overdue!

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LA Girl Rock Star Groupie is a deep grape purple with a very prominent blue micro glitter. This is definitely a classic example of a blurple, which I was absolutely obsessed with when I bought this guy. &, I’ll be honest, is still one of my favourite kinds of purples. There is also a bit of pink shimmer that comes out depending on which way you shift your fingers. The perfect example of a “galaxy in a bottle” nail polish.

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For my swatches I did base coat (always), 2 coats of colour & I did finish things off with quick dry top coat because I was planning on doing nail art over top. First coat had some streakiness, but second coat levelled everything off nicely. If you wanted an even solid application, you could do a thin 3rd coat, but I really feel like it’s not super necessary. That being said, with the polish being thin (& quick dry top coat), the polish dries fairly quickly on the nail so you don’t have to worry about drying to dry a big gloopy mess.

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Sadly, it looks like this particular line of LA Girls has been discontinued & even eBay didn’t seem to have an overpriced bottle to be found. However, the LA Girl brand is still up & running & from the looks of it still has lots of gorgeous polish options to choose from at a very affordable price. In my early polishaholic days, when I was a poor retail slave, these were some of my favourite polishes to buy because I could buy 2 or 3 & still be able to afford my coffee addiction. In fact, next time I pop over to my favourite pharmacy (the one that has ALL the nail polish deals) I think I’ll have to check out what LA Girl polishes they have to offer!

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What do you think about LA Girl Rock Starts Groupie? Do you love a pretty blurple like this? Do you own this bad boy in your stash? Let me know! & let me know if you’d like to see me feature more of the shades from the brand in an upcoming blog post.

💜

SWATCH SUNDAY — ORLY Plum Sugar

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Good morning lovelies & Happy Swatch Sunday! Today I pulled from deep in my stash for some deep & dark Fall inspiration.

Today I’m wearing ORLY Plum Sugar, which was originally released as part of the Spring 2015 Sugar High Collection. This shade came to me thanks to the Marshall’s clearance section, one of my favourite places to find hidden polish gems. & even though this shade was originally released as part of a Spring polish collection, to me it is the perfect Autumn polish pick!

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Plum Sugar is a super rich purple cream with a fantastic formula. For my swatches I did two coats of polish over my base, & finished everything off with a thick coat of glossy top coat (Essie Gel Setter). On the first coat, the polish was a bit streaky, but once you apply your second swipe, you have perfect opacity.

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Seriously, how gorgeous is this purple? I love a good purple polish & I’ve definitely been craving vampy shades lately. & Plum Sugar is just the perfect gateway shade for these almost-Fall days. You would have seen this pretty purple base as the background of my Fall inspired bestie twin floral that I posted yesterday. 🍂🌼🍁

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Oh gosh, I’m just absolutely obsessed with this polish! Hence why I took about 50 thousand pictures of it. I just couldn’t stop staring it at! If you’re interested in adding this shade to your collection, I found it for sale at NailPolishCanada.com, as well as on Amazon (link through my Amazon Shop).

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What is your favourite perfect purple for Fall? Have you already started breaking out the vampy shades for Fall, or are you still holding onto those last days of Summer?

Let me know what your wearing on your nails this week down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze IDK

Hello lovelies! Getting in under the wire with a last minute Swatch Sunday post! It was sunny ☀️ today, so you know what that means — HOLO! & for today’s holo pick, I decided to grab a Polish I have yet to wear: China Glaze IDK! This purple holo was released last year as part of the China Glaze OMG Flashback collection & came into my life courtesy of @helloluli_ who sent me a whole slew of gorgeous polishes, including the majority of the OMG collection! & I am sad it took me this long to wear.

For my swatches, I did Base Coat, two coats of polish & finished everything with glossy top coat. In the bottle, the polish is very pretty. It’s not until you put it on your nails that the holo really comes through though! I was actually so impressed with the rainbow shift you get on the nail. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t kept getting distracted by staring at my nails.

Ugh, so pretty! Like just look at those rainbows. & even more exciting is this shade of purple is different than one of my other favourite purple holos Color Club Eternal Beauty.

& because you can’t truly appreciate it until you see it in the sunshine, a shot of my nails on our adventures today! It was so warm today & I got to wear a dress with bare legs. It was a very exciting day & I’m so happy for Spring to be here. Bring on all the holo!

Share what your favourite holo polish is down in the comments below!

Pink Purple Blue Holo Gradient

Good morning everyone & happy Wednesday! Today I’m showing off some holo nails with this pinky purple blue holo gradient. Sometimes you just need to do something a little fun on your nails to jazz up your Wednesday!

This gradient was a spur of the moment decision & because of that I couldn’t find my usual sponges so I decided to try using a make up applicator. It didn’t turn out exactly like I wanted (or how I’ve seen other nail artists do it) but that’s okay because the holo kind of hides that fact! ✨Another reason everything is better with holo.

The polishes I used for this manicure:

  • Essie Grow Stronger
  • Essie Speed Setter Top Coat
  • Wrenn Polish Mesmerizing
  • Color Club Eternal Beauty
  • OPI Give Me Space
  • Small Sponge make-up applicator

Look. At. That. Holo. Also please ignore the cat hair on my finger haha. Even though my sponging if the gradient was kind of a fail, the holo really hides that fact which I love. Next time I would probably try this colour combo the old fashioned way, but for a quick spur of the moment design, I still think these turned out great. Plus it was super easy, & when you’re tired & doing your nails at 11:30 at night, sometimes that’s the only thing that really matters.

what do you think of this gradient. What is your favourite holo polish? Let me know down below in the comments!

💕