GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE OCTOBER – Spiders

Hello lovelies & happy Monday! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

I wish I could say I did, but I’ve been fighting through a horrible sickness for the last week or so, & Saturday I worked 10 hours with laryngitis which was… not fun. I also haven’t had any time or energy for my nails, which is why it’s been so quiet on here. But I do have my next prompt for Glam Nails Challenge October, because I am dedicated to seeing it to the end.

Today’s prompt is Spiders. I decided to go with a quick & easy spider web design using these Dollarama nail art stickers.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat
  • Essie Kimono-over
  • Paris Hilton Nail Polish unnamed glitter
  • Starrily Space Debris
  • Dollarama Halloween nail art stickers

These stickers are so cute, & I really like them over this sparkly purple base. I really love these glitters layered over the darkness of Essie Kimono-over — it build into such a beautiful base for me. The stickers — well while I’ve had some really good luck with other Dollarama nail art stickers, these ones might have been too big, or too stiff, but they did not want to stay on my nails at all. But at least I got enough wear out of them for this design!

Also I know it said Spiders as the prompt — but I hate spiders. Spider webs are much, much more fun for me to wear. & don’t give me the creeps.

What do you think about this nail art look for Glam Nails Challenge October? Have you been following along with the other looks on Instagram? Don’t forget, you can check out the hashtag #glamnailschallengeOct to see all the other fun designs! Only 2 more prompts to go until Halloween!

Have a lovely Monday.

SWATCH SUNDAY – Personnelle Cosmetics Daisy

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! I hope everyone is having a lovely start to their day, & is enjoying their weekend however they can. It’s a bit rainy here, but the temperatures have been very mild for October, which I’m enjoying. Perfect boots & tights weather, without needing too many layers.

Today I’m excited though, because I’m sharing a new polish with you I picked up last weekend while I was away to my parents in Northern New Brunswick. No matter where I go, I always got to check out the clearance rack, & I ended up finding this beauty at the local pharmacy (Jean Coutu) for $2.

This is Personnelle Cosmetics Daisy, which is the Jean Coutu in-house cosmetics line.

1 coat, no top coat.

Holy Moses, this is a stunning polish, & the formula is absolutely amazing! The colour is this beautiful darkened purple-y blue, with metallic finish. I was also really really impressed with how well this formula applied — I only needed one coat for each nail, which is awesome! Especially with a finish like this, because it cuts down on the amount of brush strokes you need to apply.

Just look! It’s so beautiful! & the colour is a perfect jewel tone for this time of year. & the little hint of silver sparkles is beautiful. I ended up wearing this shade for a few days, topped with Starrily Eclipse holographic top coat, & it was a stunning combination. Definitely very impressed, especially for a pharmacy nail polish that was only $2. But even at the regular price ($5.99) it’s definitely a great quality choice.

This brand is sadly only available in Ontario, Quebec & New Brunswick Canada (as far as I’m aware) so it’s a pretty limited scope, but if you’re even in a location with a Jean Coutu location, I definitely recommend popping in & checking out their cosmetics, especially their nail polish. I’ve always had good luck finding clearance nail polish there, including some Essie shades I had been coveting for years!

What do you think of Personnelle Cosmetics Daisy? Would you wear this beautiful metallic shade? Have you ever tried this brand before? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — Essence Lilac Vibes (Neon Pastels)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! & happy Easter. I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday (if you celebrate). Today I’m celebrating another week, & another Swatch Sunday post!

This week, I pulled out this Essence beauty: Lilac Vibes. I found this shade at my local Shoppers Drug Mart last Summer, & I have been meaning to share it ever since! But I thought since Spring is in full swing, it would be a great colour pick for this week’s Swatch Sunday post.

2 coats, no top coat

The formula on this shade is super creamy, & easy to apply. I possibly could have gotten away with one coat, but I applied a second to hide a few patchy spots on the nail. It dries to a beautiful shine, as pictured, without any top coat needed — although if I’m wearing long term, I always had top coat to help my polish last.

The colour is really pretty, & vibrant. It’s not quite pink, not quite purple. But the soft shade is enough you could get away with it for a variety of occasions. It also reminds me a bit of one of my favourite ORLY shades: Scenic Route — although Violet Vibes seems to lean a bit more on the blue side.

As mentioned, I picked this shade up at my local Shoppers Drug Mart last Summer. It wasn’t part of the core Essence display, but one of those little separate displays for limited edition shades. Like all Essence polishes sold at Shoppers, it was $2.99 CAD, which is a very good price.

It’s no longer listed as available on the Shoppers Drug Mart beauty site, but I did find the shade also listed on the Essence website as available so I’m not 100% sure if it is a core shade or not, but it does look like it is still available for purchase — although I do believe that is the US site, so shipping would not be available for Canada.

What do you think about this Essence shade? Are you a fan of Essence nail polish? Let me know what you think about this fun shade down in the comments below, & what your favourite Essence shade is!

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!