Tag: Summer Nails

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essie Too Too Hot ❤️‍🔥

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

It’s been a beautiful balmy week this week (at least in terms of our usual April days) so I’m feeling all the Summer vibes I can handle. I even broke out my favourite holo sandals. So with these beautiful Summery days, I felt like switching gears from pastel vibes to full on Summer with a classic Essie shade: Essie Too Too Hot.

This shade was originally released circa 2011 as part of the Braziliant Summer 2011 collection ( found swatches online of the full collection here).

3 coats + Seche Vive Top Coat

I ended up with 3 coats of polish for my swatches, which I feel like was a bit too much, but I the formula was a bit on the thinner side, so I found I needed to do a lot less polish on the brush to avoid flooding my cuticles.

The colour is this beautiful mix between a bright tomato red, & a coral, although in my photos it’s definitely leaning more towards the red side. That could also be due to the fact my skin tone leans more on the yellow/olive side, so I feel like that brights out the red tones more.

We all know I love a good red nail polish, & I love an Essie red even more! It’s actually surprising how few Essie reds I have in my stash, so I think I need to fix that.

This shade is beautiful though, because I find it would be pretty universally flattering on a lot of skin tones. It reminds me a bit of Sally Hansen Cherry Delightful from their RED/ESIGN collection from a few years ago, which was designed to compliment everyone. So this definitely seems like a red that anyone could wear.

Sadly, this shade has been discontinued from the Essie core line, which makes me really sad because I think everyone needs a classic flattering red in their collection. Red nails make everything better (which is why I spent the majority of my early 20s rocking some shade of red.) So I would totally be down with championing a petition for Essie to bring this beauty back to their core line!

What do you think of this beauty? Do you own Essie Too Too Hot in your nail polish stash? What is your favourite Essie red? Let me know in the comments below.

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Sparkly Holo Purple Swirls

Hello lovelies & happy Tuesday! I hope everyone’s week is off to a good & not too stressful start so far. I finally have a day off, which is very exciting — even if today seems to be the one day in the last, like 8, that isn’t beautiful & sunny.

Oh well. I do, however, have some fun & sparkly nails from a day which was very sunny! I wore these last week during a particularly sunny day, which was perfect to show off all the holo goodness.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat
  • Holographic Top Coat: Starrily Eclipse
  • Essence Colour & Go Little Lila Town
  • Color Club Art Club Pink Pastel
  • Colour Club Art Club Passion flower

Originally, I hadn’t planned on adding the holographic top coat, but I’m so glad that I did because it made the whole look feel complete. & it was just so much more fun! Definitely a fun Summer look.

Also, it’s reminding me of how much I love stripers. Don’t get me wrong, I love love love all my nail art brushes & they’re wonderful. But there is just something different about one of those striper polishes. I feel like I need to get some more, again. There is just certain times when those are the brushes I need in my life, & I keep forgetting that until I use one of my old ones again. Guess that means it’s time to take a little trip to Sally Beauty!

What do you think about this nail art look? Do you enjoy these holo purple stripes? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below, & if you’d wear this nail art look.

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Funky Green Star Swirls

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday!

Hope everyone’s week has been lovely so far. It’s feeling sunny & Summery lately, so I decided to step out of my nail polish safe zone with some green toned neon nails!

I think I’ve mentioned before, I don’t often wear green polish unless it’s Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day, but when I saw these two colours sitting in my stash, I thought it would be fun to pair them together.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Essence Extreme GEL Top
  • OPI Gargantuan Green Grape
  • OPI Nature Strong Cactus What You Preach
  • UR Sugar Star Swirl Nail Vinyls

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit of a nail art rut, mostly because I’ve been lacking in time, & what time I do have I feel beyond exhausted. But, I’ve been missing using my nail vinyls a lot so I’ve been going through & trying to make an effort to use those things I haven’t in a long time — like these Star nail vinyls I received forever ago from URSugar. Originally I had thought about doing a half moon look with these colours, but the star swirls were just so much more fun!

I thought the lighters green under this pretty mint was such a pop of colour. I just really love how vibrant these are. They were really fun to wear.

What do you think of this funky green star design? Do you like this green on green colour combo? Are you feeling the neon vibes? Let me know down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Shocking Pink

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

It’s the first week of June, which means it’s only a couple weeks of Summer here in this part of the world. & that means I want all the neon I can get my hands on!

Todays Swatch Sunday pick is a classic from my stash: Shocking Pink. Yep… we’re all about the pink again!

3 coats, matte top coat

First things first, the formula on this shade was a bit complicated to work with. I ended up needing 3 coats for full coverage, but it was a bit thick, & had a little bit of trouble smoothing (you can see it a bit in some of the pictures.) Like many neons, it does dry to a soft matte on its own. I added matte top coat to smooth things out while keeping the matte finish the polish has.

The colour is definitely tricky to photograph. If you look online, I feel like everyone’s swatches of this are just a little bit different. It looks lighter, or darker, depending on the lighting. The colour though, is definitely Summer in a bottle. It’s bright & blinding, & the kind of pink you throw on your toes while laying on the beach, sunglasses on, soaking in the Summer (while wearing a high SPF, don’t get too crazy!)

This was the first time, that I can remember, I’ve put this shade on as a full manicure — I’ve usually only grabbed it for nail art accents. With the bit of trouble I had applying it, I’m not 100% sure it would be my first pick for my nails, as I change them so often. But I definitely think it is a great pedicure choice, & I’m definitely saving it for my next one.

I found a few places where you can purchase Shocking Pink:

Do you have China Glaze Shocking Pink in your stash?

Let me know what you think about this shade down in the comments below, & share your favourite neon shade for Summer!

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Gradient Cactus Nails

Good afternoon & happy May everyone! Who else excited for warmer days. I feel like I’m saying this every post, but I’m just. so. ready. This winter has felt just so darn long & I’m craving neons & brights.

I was also craving a gradient as it felt like absolute ages since I had created one, so I decided to go with a blue toned look. & to finish off the look I added these absolutely adorable cactus stickers that Victoria from NailStuff.ca sent to me because she knows my love for cacti! 🌵 Have you checked out her collection of nail stickers & nail decals? I’m obsessed. So many fun designs for easy nail art this Summer.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Essie Fashion Playground
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sugar Fix {PR sample}
  • China Glaze I’ve Got A Blue Attitude
  • Sally Hansen MG Make It N-Ice {PR sample}
  • Edge Perfection Cuticle Barrier {PR sample}
  • Cacti Nail Stickers {gift from Nailstuff.ca}

My gradient skills were a little rusty, but I love this look so much. The colours used almost give the gradient a thermal polish feel & obviously I couldn’t do a gradient without adding a little glitter. & finishing off the look with the stickers just made them a little more fun!

What do you think of this look? Share your thoughts down in the comments below!