Purple & Gold Leopard Print (Recreation from 2014)

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday! We’re officially mid-week, which means we’re just days away from October… how crazy is that? Wasn’t it just January?

I’m super excited though, because October is one of my all time favourite months for nail art, so I’m excited to get started on all sorts of spooky season nails. In the meantime, though, I have a fun nail art look which is a recreation of a nail art look I did all the way back in 2014. You know me, I love a good nail art recreation.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Belle of the Ball
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Ski Bunny
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Five Golden Blings
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio
  • NailStuff.ca 4mm Micro Detail Brush

I’ve actually been planning on recreating this nail art look (which was originally inspired by perfectlynailedUK) for a while, but I was just waiting for the right moment. This colour scheme is very much an Autumn colour scheme. Also, I switched things up slightly for my recreation, but I think I’ve captured the overall essence of my original manicure quite well! & I love being able to look back on old designs & see how far my nails have come.

Leopard print is just such a fun design to wear, no matter the season. But the combination of gold & purple is perfect for this late September, pre-Halloween nail art season. & now that I’m (more or less) feeling back to myself, I’m excited to get back into all the fun nail art designs I love to wear this time of year! & plan for those spooky season manicures to come.

What do you think about this nail art recreation? Do you like how I updated this old design? Do you ever recreate nail art looks from the past to see how your nails have improved? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

Happy Wednesday! ♥︎

Gold Dotted Moons (featuring OPI Lincoln Park After Dark)

Hello lovelies & happy Monday!

A beautiful Fall morning here on the East Coast. The sun is shining, the leaves are crunching under my boots; the perfect Autumn weather. So naturally, that meant I needed to find another Fall polish favourite for today’s nail art! &

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Top Coat
  • OPI Lincoln Park After Dark
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Goldie Rocks
  • NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool Trio

For this look, I wanted to create a kind of moon effect, but using polka dots instead of my usual way of doing them, & I think I was semi-successful. Some of my nails turned out a bit wonky, but over-all I think the intended effect came to fruition. Plus gold just pairs so well with the darkness of Lincoln Park After Dark. I think it’s a fun effect, & a little bit different than my usual gradient dotticures. Next time, though, I might try for smaller dots.

What do you think of these gold dotted moons? Do these nails give you all the Fall vibes? What is your all time favourite Autumn nail Polish? Let me know in the comments below!

Have a lovely Monday!

🖤

SWATCH SUNDAY — Revlon Color Stay Stormy Night

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. Well, I hope you’re having a happy Sunday. I’m on my first day of covid isolation — after 3 1/2 years it finally got me. So I’m currently laying in bed, feeling less than fabulous.

It’s also the reason why these photos are not up to my normal standard. These photos were taken in my living room, without my daytime bulb or light box, so they’re a bit potato quality. (My husband — who is also sick — was isolated to our bedroom where my nail polish resides so I was limited in options.) But I still wanted to share something for this week, & when I saw this cement grey polish, I thought it would be perfect.

This is Revlon Colorstay Stormy Night

2 coats + top coat

The formula on this shade was pretty easy to use. It applied smoothly, with good coverage. The bottle is a bit old, so I did need to give it a really good shake before I applied it. The colour is perfect for Autumn, but also very neutral so I feel like you could wear it to work.

I don’t wear grey nail polish on its own very often, & lately I’ve been obsessed with the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Moonlit topper. I’ve been wearing it with a lot of polishes. So naturally, I needed to see how it would look over top this smoky grey.

2 coats over Stormy Night + top coat.

I don’t think I’ve found a polish that Moonlit doesn’t look good with. It just makes every manicure so extra fun! & the pretty flaky shimmers make me so happy. I could see this being a great base for some Fall leaves nail — maybe when I’m finally feeling better.

Sadly the Revlon ColorStay line is long since discontinued, but I know I found my bottle in a random clearance section. The Color Stay line was replaced by the ColorStay Gel Envy line, which is still in production, but I didn’t see any similar colours listed on the website.

What do you think of this neutral grey, & fun combination with the sparkle? What Fall shades do you currently have in rotation? Let me know in the comments below.

Instagram Space Collab 🌌

Hello lovelies & happy Friday! I hope everyone’s having the most lovely week. I had yesterday off, & the kids had their first day of school, so it was a nice relaxing day where I caught up on laundry & blog stuff.

Today, though, I’m excited to share a new design I did as part of the monthly Instagram collaboration hosted by @Essiyall & @Petitenaillover. I’ve been having so much fun with these large collabs, & this month’s theme was SPACE. It’s been a bit since I did a galaxy design, so I was pumped.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Top Coat
  • China Glaze Glamcore
  • Icing Mermaids Have More Fun
  • Ardene La Luna
  • Sally Hansen Buffalo Nickel
  • NailStuff.ca 4mm Micro Detail Brush

For this look, I went with the classic sponge effect for my design. I used two shades I thought suited each other well, especially the shifty base of Mermaids Have More Fun. Then I added the little details of the stars, for that fun galaxy effect. I really like how everything came together.

Don’t forget to hop on over to Instagram, & check out all the amazing beautiful designs that my fellow nail artists did. Everyone interpretation for this theme, & I absolutely love everyone’s manicures!

Have a lovely day!

♥︎

Freehand Metallic X-pattern Nails

Hello loves, & happy Wednesday. It’s mid-week, & back to school is tomorrow! How exciting is that? I’m kind of sad Summer is over, but also there are so many fun Halloween & Autumn decorations popping up in store, I’m not too sad.

Today I’m sharing a fun freehand design I am very proud of. I was trying to come up with something fun & unique to share, & ended up creating these x-pattern nails. I do have nail vinyls with this pattern I could have used, but I really wanted to see if I can do it completely freehand.

& I did!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour Grip Primer Base Coat 
  • Top Coat: Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Top Coat
  • Milani Nail Polish Deep Thoughts
  • Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Scarab
  • NailStuff.ca 16mm Liner Brush

I found this old clearance Milani in my stash, & realized I’d never worn it, so I decided to give it a try. Right now I’m just loving deep, dark purples. Also, I’m kind of sad this was my first time ever trying this shade out as I’ve owned it quite a while. Now that I should have a smidge more free time, I think I need to officially go through my nail polish stash & check out all those untried nail polishes I’ve collected over the years.

Also, I’m so so so happy with how this x-pattern design turned out. My thumb ended up slightly off centre, but I more or less had all the nails pretty even. I’m really proud of how these turned out, & I think the beautiful teal shimmer over the deep purple looks incredible. It really pops! & it was such a fun design to wear.

What do you think of these freehand x-pattern nails? What colours are you loving right now? Right now, I’m all about dark nails, which I’m loving. Especially shades with just a little bit of shimmer to keep things interesting.

Have a lovely Wednesday! ♥︎