Mermaid Scale Mani

I created a few new designs last week and needed to do some testing! Today I tried out the mermaid scale stencils, which resulted in some tweaking and here is the final product. I have a long weekend flash sale on currently, you can save 24% (for May 2-4!) until Monday the 18th at 10pm EST. I got my very canuck swap package yesterday and was absolutely spoiled. I got my very first picture polish shade, Cyan, and it's a stunner! I just had to use it ASAP. 

Products Used

Picture Polish Cyan

Echoes Polish Exterminate

My Nails Did Vinyls Mermaid Scale Stencils 

(use code FLASHMAY for 24% off!)

I love this sparkly, simple look! I'm always amazed at how easy vinyl manicures are, they're super quick and yield great results. You should check out the instagram contest on my account, @mynailsdid, to win a bunch of vinyls for yourself! 

Happy Victoria Day!

xo Shawna

Holo Zebra

I've been so busy preparing my shop for opening I have barely been getting my nails polished! I was testing out my new zebra vinyls yesterday and I loved the look, so I decided to get my butt in gear and do a proper mani with them. In holo of course! Channeling Lisa Frank, I used a bright neon base and some black holo for the stripes.

Products Used

China Glaze Pool Party

Mad Scientist Lacquer Unicorn Blood

Color Club Beyond

INM Out The Door Top Coat

My Nails Did Zebra Stripe Stencils

Here's a pic with direct light to better show the holo gorgeousness!

This is so fun, a little crazy for my usual tastes but I'm totally digging it. AND, my shop will be officially launching this weekend so keep your eyes open for a special discount!

Hope you enjoy!

xo Shawna

Mirrorball Quatrefoil for TGIF

So, here I am two days late to my own weekly nail art challenge! But that just means don't feel bad playing along if you're not punctual (like me!). This week's prompt is quatrefoil, which I've done once before and loved the look, and wanted to get around to doing it again.

Products Used

Echoes Polish Fliptastic

Orly Mirrorball

INM Out the Door Topcoat

Dotting Tools Amazon

I don't think I've talked before about my (previous) bad luck with thermals. I had two thermals from different indies and they were both so subtle they were practically invisible or really tough to shift. I snagged this from Sammy (Cuter Cuticles) at the meet up and was excited to give thermals one last shot... luckily I was not let down this time! 

Are you a thermal polish fan?

xo Shawna

Yogini Mani + 100th Post!

Tonight's post is extra special! It marks my 100th post since starting this blog in August. That's a lot of posts- and a lot of manicures! Thanks to all of you who pop in to check out my nail art and comment from time to time. I appreciate you all!

My next few days will be spent at the Toronto Yoga Conference, 12 hours of yoga over the next two days! So I wanted to do a mani to fit the bill. Very appropriate for my 100th post as yoga is one of the other big parts of my life (I'm a hot yoga instructor part-time as well as my day job)!

Products Used

Polish My Life Nude Lace

OPI Barefoot in Barcelona

Rimmel Sage All The Rage

OPI Golden Waves

Nicole by OPI Hard-Kourt Kardashian

INM Out the Door Topcoat

MoYou London Explorer 27

I loved how easy the nimbus nail art from a few nights ago was, so I decided to use earth tones to create a neutral base for some stamping with my MoYou plate. Since the colours used are pretty delicate, they melded together amazingly to create a gorgeous watercolour effect base. I have to say, the Nicole polish was amazing for stamping with my creative stamper. I am so happy with the overall effect and will be proudly rocking these in downward dog!

In honour of my 100th post, I would love if you left a quick comment telling me what country you're reading from!

xo Shawna

Unicorn Blood Swatch

Super simple post today, gorgeous pics of Mad Scientist Lacquer in Unicorn Blood! (And yes, I confirmed its totally a Harry Potter reference). It's currently sold out, but being restocked soon- I scored this at our meet up! Enjoy the holo porn. 

I always forget that "holo" is not a well-known term for those who aren't in the insta nail community. It means holographic glitter! 

QOTD - are you a Harry Potter fan? ;)

xo Shawna

Half Moon Lace for #TGIF

Happy Friday lovelies! And happy spring :) It's the 3rd week of my #TGIFnailartchallenge. I've found it a great way to tick more manis off my to-do list that have been there for a while - it's really dwindled! Today's theme was inspired by a manicure I took a screenshot of months ago by @ohh_lala_mani.  It was tough to remove my previous mani (i loved that one!) but this pretty pink shade is much more spring-like!

Products Used

Steel City Reflections Sweet Nothings

Stamping Plate QA-6 (code SDPX31 for 10% off)

BK Matt White

China Glaze Fairy Dust

China Glaze  Fast Forward

It was a sad moment when I tossed my top coat in the garbage. I hate when they is still definitely polish left in the bottle but it gets too thick and goopy and difficult to get out of the bottle. Luckily this time I had a backup bottle ready to go into rotation! 

Spring is my favourite season. What's yours?

xo Shawna

Leprechaun in a Blender

I finally ordered from Steel City Reflections the other week and while I don't usually go for this shade of green, I loved the look of this crelly with superfine gold glitter, small green square glitter and larger gold circular glitter. Tonja was kind enough to throw in the LE edition she had created for our Canuck swap (I couldn't make a purchase since I was actually shopping for her!) so I am excited to test that one out too. (It's called snow babes - very Canadian!)

Products Used

Steel City Reflections Leprechaun in a Blender

Sally Hansen Lime Green Striper

China Glaze Fast Forward

I just did some simple accent nails with the striper. I am not really a fan of the brush in the striper bottle, it's too thick (the end does not have a fine point) and the polish kept dripping down and blobbing on my nail. Good thing I got it for super cheap at Target! 

Will you be drinking green beer on Tuesday?

xo Shawna

Gold & Blue Creative Stamper Mani

I received my Creative Stamper yesterday after trying to track one down for a reasonable cost to Canada. Finally, my investigating led me to Eat Sleep Polish, the newest stockist and Canadian to boot! Caterina is also a doll. So, I got to work tonight and had fun with this super squishy stamper! 

I wanted to start making a dent in my "untrieds" which I've sorted into a box. I'm hoping to work them all into manis over the next month or so, in some way or another!

Products Used

China Glaze Intelligence Integrity Courage

Steel City Reflections The Mountain

OPI Golden Waves

China Glaze Fast Forward

MoYou London Bridal 06

Creative Stamper

Here's a macro of the goodness :) The gold is definitely soft and delicate as the stamping polish but the stamper picked it up no problem! 

I love the stamper. It is so soft, I had no issues using it as I read some comments on IG to roll instead of press, and to prime by washing with soap and water (or magic eraser). Worked like a charm! The polish I used is a little thin but I can't wait to try it out with something a little bit more bold. 

Do you have a big untried stash?

xo Shawna

birthday cupcake mani

Of course a birthday means a special mani! The first thing that popped into mind was all the cute little cupcake manicures I've seen before. I just googled a tutorial, there's tons. 

Products used:

China Glaze Snow

Polish My Life Nude Lace

OPI You Don't Know Jacques

Barry M Socialite

Color Club Unnamed Neon Pink mini

Mundo De Unas Lavendar (yes, it's spelled wrong!)

Amazon.ca Dotting Tools

Born Pretty Store Gemstones

Born Pretty Stamping Plate QA 91

*use code SDPX31 for 10% off at Born Pretty store! 

Most tutorials used a solid cupcake top and painted on sprinkles. I decided to bling it out a bit with one of my new, untried Barry M's. It's an awesome glitter!

The stamping isn't perfect, not sure if it's the plate or the polish. Still trying to get perfect crisp images from my MDU!

Do you do special birthday nails?

xo Shawna

Christmas Glitterbomb

I feel like it's been ages since I posted when in reality it's only been 5 days. I was feeling kind of uninspired (and also having camera issues, which luckily turned out to be as simple as the wrong setting) so while I was posting some new manis on IG, I just wasn't loving them enough to write a whole post on!

I am back in the swing of things with the holiday themed glitter bomb. A few weekends ago I got a pretty big haul which included about half of the china glaze holiday collection between my purchases and an early birthday gift! 

 Products used

Deborah Lippmann Hannah (green base)

China Glaze Pine-ing for Glitter

Barry M Mustard (gold base)

China Glaze De-light

Mundo de Unas Silver

HK Girl Top Coat

MoYou London Festive 06

I'm glad I took this pics ASAP because when I curled my hair later, the heat resistant glove scratched a lot of the stamping off since I hadn't yet top coated. Lesson learned! I had smudge issues last time I top coated the MDU too early so was trying to prevent that... oopsies!! 

I am not looking forward to taking this off, I forgot my elmer's base coat.

Glitter- do you love it or hate it?

xo Shawna

dry marble for nail art november

I will start right off by saying my thoughts on this mani can be summed up in the word "meh". The prompt for #nailartnov is "dry marble", which basically means adding lines or spots to your still wet base colour, and swirling them together to create different designs. If you saw the swirl mani I posted on instagram last month (there was no blog post - I did it in Cuba!), it's the same thing. I wasn't a huge fan of the swirl either, so I wanted to play around with a different design. I had seen a few cool looking designs on instagram but of course I couldn't find the tutorials, so i settled on this one inspired by Sveta Sanders.

I painted two stripes onto the base and then dragged a nail brush side to side. I must have a heavy hand because I ended up with a lot of bald spots, which I did my best to fill in.

Products used:

Polish My Life Storm Clouds

China Glaze Up All Night

HK Girl Top Coat

Nail Art Brushes from eBay

Meh. Do you like the design?

xo Shawna

Nude Lace for Nail Art November

Today's prompt for #nailartnov was (inspired by a) Polish Name.  At first I thought this would be super complicated, until I remembered one of my (many!) new fave polishes, Nude Lace by Polish my Life (which was swatched here). Have I mentioned how much I love this nude shade? Oh wait - I did!

A variation of this mani was also to my "to-do" list, although I had originally envisioned it on a diagonal. I decided to go simple and straight, and I am happy with the results! Don't look at my cindy hand, a few of the lace lines are less than straight and centered ;) 

Colours used:

Polish My Life Nude Lace

Color Club Warhol

Wet n Wild Black Creme

HK Girl Top Coat

Born Pretty Store Plate QA6 (code SDPX31 for 10% off!)

What are some of your favourite nail polish names?

xo Shawna

Striped Mani for Nail Art November

Theme for day 10 of #nailartnov is "Tape Mani". This could be interpreted a few ways (I've used scotch tape before!) but today it was the perfect reason to use my striping tape I received a few weeks ago. The design isn't groundbreaking, I've seen it various times on Instagram, but it seemed like a good basic design for my first time!

Colours used:

Deborah Lippmann Marnie

OPI Wocka Wocka (I think... it's an unlabelled mini)

Echoes Polish Holo Cow

HK Girl Top Coat

I added a holo top coat, although I instantly regretted it. I should have just added a few gems instead but live and learn! It's not the most unique manicure ever, but for my first time I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out. 

Have you worked with striping tape before?

xo Shawna

Snapshot: Holo Skulls Mani

Just a quick post today for you lovelies! I was loving the glittered digits of yesterday's Jelly Sandwich mani, but the stamped "sandwiches" weren't doing anything for me. So, I decided to go seasonal again and use a few of the indie items I've received! 

Accent nails:

MTL Creations Jason

Up Your Nails Holo Skull Nail Stickers

Hope you like :)

xo Shawna

Jelly Sammich Mani - Twinkie Nail Art Challenge

Good afternoon! I'm excited to be back in the swing of the weekly Twinkie Nail art challenge :) This week is "Jelly Sammich"! And in other big nail news... I have a new nail shape, almond shorties! They feel really strange, especially as I type. I had my plain old oval nails for quite a while - I'm guessing more than a year! They're growing on me though.

I had just the polish in mind, which I specifically bought for this kind of mani - Pink Freud from Echoes Polish. This is a new-to-me technique and while I don't totally love how the stamping images I chose end up looking combined, I can see myself playing with the technique in the future with different designs. And maybe more chunky glitter!

Polishes used:

Echoes Polish Pink Freud

BK Matt White (use code SDPX31 for 10% off!)

MTL Creations Tara

Sally Girl Silver Glitter

Ciate Speed Pro Top Coat

HK Girl Top Coat

I used a few plates, MoYou London Pro Plate 04, and m66 and QA91 from born pretty store. (SDPX31 for 10% off!) I think next time I'll just layer floral prints instead of different images. They kind of got lost!

Have you tried a jelly sammich mani yet?

xo Shawna

Twinkie challenge: stalker twin mani

The theme for last week's twinkie nail art challenge was "stalker twin mani" - aka copying a mani design you loved by someone else! No staged lightbox photos for this post- this manicure was done while I was on vacation in Cuba :)

The design was inspired by a tutorial I found on instagram, by @nailsbylsm. I changed the colour theme but followed the general design. It was a lot more work than I thought! Don't look too closely and you won't see the sloppy striping work :) 

Colours used:

Color Club neon pink mini

Echoes Polish Life is a Caberet

Finger Paints Hip-Hip-Hue-Ray!

Seche Vite Top Coat

The nice thing about being on a beach holiday was that my nails didn't chip and I got a solid few days of wear after all the effort free handing this design! I've copied the tutorial for you below if you want to give it a shot! 

Would you try this intricate design?

xo Shawna

(p.s. - pardon the poor quality of the cell phone pics!)