SWATCH SUNDAY — Deborah Lippmann Through The Fire 🔥

Good morning lovelies & happy Sunday! I hope you’re having a lovely start to the week ( or end to last week). It’s been rainy & stormy here, although we just missed quite the snowy mess that the rest of the East Coast of Canada seems to be getting.

Either way, it’s wet & blah.

So let’s liven up this day with some nail polish. It’s Swatch Sunday, & I pulled out a beauty from the stash that was calling me. This is Deborah Lippmann Through The Fire.

2 coats, no Top Coat

Originally released for Holiday 2012, this beautiful glowing deep red applies flawlessly in almost one coat. Honestly, I probably could have easily achieved a beautiful manicure in one coat, but I applied a second for full coverage. I picked up my bottle as part of a Deborah Lippmann collection at Marshalls (Or Winners, I can’t remember after all these years.) This definitely gives red wine holiday vibes, & even though it’s January now, I’m not mad about it.

You can really see the beautiful shimmer in this close up ( & the dust on my bottle… whoops!) The colour is really beautiful. As mentioned, this is without top coat, so you can see how beautifully glossy the polish dries just on its own. This would definitely be a great polish option for a Valentine’s Day Date, if you wanted your nails to feel extra fancy. A little heart accent nail, & bam! Done.

Sadly this shade seems to be long gone for circulation, but I did see a few listing for it on eBay, so if you’re really in need, you could definitely find someone destashing a bottle.

What do you think about this beautiful polish from Deborah Lippmann? I always forget about her polishes in my stash until I wear one again, & then I remember how stunning they are. Especially the reds I own. Let me know all your thoughts on this shade down in the comments below, & let me know you absolute favourite red to wear — I’m always open to new suggestions to add to my rotation!

Have a lovely Sunday ♥︎

Vintage Inspired Polka Dot & Floral 🌹

Hello loves, I hope you’re having a beautiful start to your Thursday!

Today’s look is giving me early blog vibes, & most specifically this early design featured in the younger days of this blog. I love a good floral, & to be honest I haven’t really been inspired to paint floral on my nails in a while. I think June was the last time I posted any kind of floral, & even that was a simple daisy design. So to say I was long overdue would be an understatement.

So obviously I decided lets do a throwback inspired design, grabbed some pink & red polishes, & I ended up with this pretty look! The throwback vibes are strong, & I’m okay with that. I feel like old school nail art designs are making a comeback — heck one of the indie brands even released a whole collection of crackle nail polish — so I thought I would join in on the fun.

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Base Coat: Essie Hard To Resist Glow & Shine 
  • Top Coat: Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat
  • L’Oreal Vintage Vinyl
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Ski Bunny
  • L’Oreal Feeling Kilty
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Racing Rose
  • Sally Hansen InstaDri Cinnasnap
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Montley Hue
  • China Glaze Shore Enuff
  • Essence Cosmetics Green is the new Grunge
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • Dotting tool (I always use mine from NailStuff.ca — Dotting Tool Trio)
  • NailStuff.ca Mermaid Tail Nail Brush Trio (11mm Liner Brush)

Ooooh it’s so pretty! I mean, being a self confessed perfectionist I can definitely see some flaws, but I’m not going to concentrate on those, & instead focus on the good things… like floral being on my nails again after far too long. It just feels good, especially during these frigid days we’ve been having. I’m not a fan of Winter once Christmas is over, so I don’t really enjoy January at all.

A girl can only drink so many extra hot coffees in a day.

So I would expect to see a few more florals popping up on my nails over the next few weeks, especially as we start inching closer to Valentine’s Day.

What do you think of this floral design? Have you missed seeing it around? What is your favourite nail art design to do of all time — or for others to do? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below.

SWATCH SUNDAY — OPI Peace, Love & OPI

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. & happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians. I hope you all get a chance to celebrate however you prefer — whether that is turkey, Tofurky or pizza!

Today, though, it’s all about Swatch Sunday, & I’m sharing a fun old school shade from OPI dating back to OPI Fall/Winter San Fransisco collection from 2013. This is OPI Peace Love & OPI, a beautiful charcoal grey metallic with a fun teal purple duo chrome effect.

2 coats + Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure

The formula on this beauty isn’t too hard, though it does have a bit of streakiness to it, which I found is alleviated with some top coat. The colour is beautiful — it reminds me a lot of Essie For The Twill of It which is another silver/grey favourite I used to wear quite a bit. & I do love a good duo/multi chrome effect, although I found it didn’t quite show up as much in my photos as it does in person.

A little macro shot action. You can really see the teal & purple here.

This shade has been in my stash a long, long time. I think, at least 6 years — it has a white spot on its lid, which says to me I bought it on clearance at Chatters. When I worked close to one, I used to love checking out the clearance section because they always had the most amazing deals on polishes!

What do you think about this shade from OPI? Do you have Peace Love & OPI in your own stash? Let me know what your favourite metallic grey polish is down in the comments below.

Have a lovely Sunday.

SWATCH SUNDAY— Essie Bell-Bottom Blues

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! I hope you’re having a lovely weekend so far. Can you believe it’s the last weekend of August? That’s crazy! This Summer has definitely been a blip. But I had my first PSL yesterday from Second Cup, so I’m all in on Autumn.

Today though, I’m throwing it back to Fall 2015 with Essie Bell-Bottom Blues from the Essie Fall 2015 Leggy Legend collection. I remember when this collection was first released I was obsessed with all the colours in the collection, but especially Bell-Bottom Blues, & it was the one I almost immediately bought upon finding it in stores.

2 coats + Essie Speed Setter Top Coat

For a polish that is 7 (!) years old, this shade is just as perfect as it was back when I first purchased it. The formula is still smooth & easy to apply. The formula is pigmented enough it could be a one coat wonder, but I did used two coats for full opacity. The polish itself is a beautiful dark blue, with vibrant blue shimmer, & this hint of purple which you can, sadly, see best in the bottle.

On its own, it dries to a soft satin finish. I much prefer it with top coat though as I feel like it shows off the shimmer much better.

It’s been a while since I pulled this shimmery blue from my stash, & I’m super glad that I did. I’ll be honest, I haven’t really been paying that much attention to the upcoming Fall collections, aside from swatches posted on Instagram. But I’ve been spending a lot of time shopping my own collection for fun Autumn shades to wear, including some oldies but goodies.

What do you think about Essie Bell-Bottom Blues? Do you have any of the shades from the collection in your stash? Let me know down in the comments, & let me know when of the 2022 Autumn nail polish collections you’re most excited about!

FASHION FRIDAY — Revisiting My Prom Dresses

Hello lovelies! Today I have another edition of Fashion Friday, featuring a bit of a throwback. I had so much fun with my previous try-on post, so I thought it would be really fun to do a similar post, but this time trying on my old prom dresses!

I actually went to prom three times — my own, with one of my best friends, & then to my high school boyfriends. & each time, I wore a completely different dress in a completely different style! I was never a huge fan of the traditional princess-y prom dress, so I’ve never worn one. It’s just not my style.

So let’s take a look!

Continue reading “FASHION FRIDAY — Revisiting My Prom Dresses”