Tag: throwback Nails

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Nicole by OPI Scarlett || Happy 12th Birthday Coffee & Nail Polish 🎂

Hello lovelies & happy Easter Sunday! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, celebrating however they celebrate. But it’s not just Easter Sunday — 12 years ago today I made my very first post on Coffee & Nail Polish! So I thought it would be fun, & for this week’s Swatch Sunday I would share the first very nail polish I ever used for a manicure: Nicole by OPI (RIP) Scarlett from the Selena Gomez collection.

2 coats + top coat

This beautiful metallic pink was originally released as part of the Nicole by OPI Spring Collection which was Selena Gomez themed. I picked up this beauty at my local Lawton’s Drugs (which was one of my favourite places for clearance nail polish) for the stellar price of $2.50.

The formula on this one was slightly thin, but not too thin it made it hard to apply. 2 coats built to this perfect opacity. The finish though — the finish is my favourite. It’s this gorgeous glass fleck finish. Also I love that it sort of looks pink, but also sort of looks red.

Stunning.

Close up of this beautiful finish. I love the shimmer, the pinkish glow; all of it. It really does glow on the nail which just adds to the beauty.

& obviously, since today is the anniversary of my very first blog post, I had to do a recreation of my very first design — a red on red leopard print. Base is Scarlett & my spots were done using Nicole by OPI Basking in Gloria (from the Modern Family collection).

Unfortunately I did forget to matte-ify my design & didn’t realize until after the fact, but I still love my recreation.

What do you think about this throwback shade! I feel like the NOPI shades were definitely ahead of their time for drugstore brands. I really miss them, & cherish the shades I still have.

Happy Sunday!

Happy Easter!

🖤

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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! ♥︎

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Blast from the Past — Crackle Nail Polish

I’m sure if you’ve been a part of the nail polish community for any amount of time, you’ve seen quite a few nail polish trends come & go: feather nail polish, magnetic nail polish, textured nail polish & of course… crackle nail polish.

For those who don’t know what crackle nail polish is, it was a kind of topper you would apply over already painted nails, that would crack as it dried, revealing the base colour underneath. I was first introduced to crackle nail polish back with the Katy Perry Teenage Dream collection from OPI, & though it was the most genius idea, so naturally my obsessive brain had to own as many crackle polishes as possible! Thankfully, even nail polish company & their friend seem to come out with their own version of crackle so it was easy to get my hands on a whole slew of brands, colours & finishes!

Most of my shades have long since dried up & are pretty much impossible to use, but every so often I get the urge to pull out one of my bottles still holding on & play around with it. Thank you nostalgia.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Bamboo & Green Tea Strengthener
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • My blues from my cobalt blue comparison post
  • Icing Shatter nail polish Electric Graffiti

As you can see, even though this polish is about 7 years old, it still works semi well in terms of the crackle effect (minus my pointer finger… I have no idea what happened there!) Like I said, I collected quite a few of these shades during the heigh of their popularity, but only a few of them still work to this degree. & now that my nail art techniques have improved over the years, I don’t really grab these shades like I once did.

& just for fun, I wanted to share the very first mani I ever did using this fun polish. Please excuse the awful quality in all regards (painting, photography, ect)

As you can see, the actual cracking abilities of Electric Graffiti has dwindled over the years, but for a polish way past prime, I’m impressed I can still get any crackle out of it. I feel like because the formula has thickened up a lot, that’s the reason the shatter is different. A thinner application would definitely give me a reaction much more like my throwback manicure… wondering if adding a bit of thinner to the bottle would revive it. I’m curious to find out.

what are your thoughts on the crackle/shatter nail polish trend from years past? I know some people have very strong feelings about these polishes (& how much they hate them). Let me know if you’re team crackle or hate it?