Breakfast at Tiffanys for #nailartnov

Ok, so this one is a few days late but better late than never! I have been picturing doing something like this ever since I ordered the Audrey plate from Born Pretty. The #nailartnov theme Movies finally presented me the perfect opportunity. I used the technique to shrink your stamping image so I could fit the entire Audrey on my nail and it works like a charm :) Feel free to click on the image to see it up close! 

Products Used

China Glaze Snow

Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver

Wet n Wild Black Creme

HK Girl Top Coat

Stamping Plate QA38 from Born Pretty (SDPX31 to save 10% on reg. priced items!) 

I see what the fuss is all about for this white polish. I've being using the Ciate Snow Virgin that came with my caviar kit and this one seems a lot more crisp. Winner! 

Do you like Breakfast at Tiffanys?

xo Shawna

snowstorm nails for #nailartnov

After seeing how good the snowflakes from my new MoYou plate looked on my mani the other day, I instantly envisioned using the pattern over a pale blue (ok, this is actually a periwinkle toned purple) glittery base. How perfect that the day 24 prompt for #nailartnov was Nature - nature has definitely been giving us some snow lately! 

Products used

Essie Lilacism

China Glaze Fairy Dust

BK Matt White

HK Girl Top Coat

This turned out just like I imagine. I only wish I hadn't done the accent nails with the different snowflake, I could have achieved enough variety in the one pattern by just positioning it differently. I'll probably repeat some sort of version of this throughout the winter season! 

Do you like to match your manis to the season?

xo Shawna

Sweater Nails

This was a fun mani because I didn't have to do it myself! One of my friends owns a salon/spa in town and had mentioned she would like to learn stamping to be able to provide a quick nail art service to her clients. In exchange for my teaching services, I scored a free mani and also a blowout. No complaints over here :) 

Products used

CND Vinylux Rock Royalty

BK Matt White

MoYou Festive 06

I love both the polish colour (I want to find a non-vinylux dupe!) and the stamps. I love the way the one sweater design looks on an angle (my middle finger). I am already imagining the snowflakes over a glittery blue base. So many ideas, so little time! 

Do you like the sweater nail trend?

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

Watermarble Mani for Nail Art Nov

I've come down with a sinus cold and feel and sound awful, so I took Monday as a sick day from work. Since it was a decidedly lazy day, I chose to finally tackle one of my "to-do" manis which also was the day 16 prompt for nail art november (after briefly considering just skipping a few days that I've missed due to the wedding festivities!)

Products used:

Polish My Life Nude Lace

Ciate Snow Virgin

Essie Mint Candy Apple

Rimmel Do Not Disturb

Born Pretty Store Gemstones (SDPX31 saves 10%!)

HK Girl Top Coat

I love the colour palette so despite the designs lacking interest, I'm pretty happy with my first ever attempt at water marbling. Hopefully one day I will be making awesome flower designs with the technique :)

Have you tried this technique?

xo Shawna

Bridesmaid Blue & White Mani

I've been a little MIA from posting the past few days, because I have been a very busy bee with bridesmaid duties for my good friend Kelly' wedding (which was yesterday). I still had time to whip out a gorgeous blue and white mani, which fit the colour theme of the wedding. I actually did a test run with 5 different nail art ideas and had my IG followers vote, and this is the design that won by a landslide (bride included)! 

Products used:

Ciate Snow Virgin (white undie)

Sally Hansen Moonbeam

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

Wet n Wild Hallucinate (accent nail)
HK Girl Top Coat

Born Pretty Store Gemstones (SDPX31 saves 10%!)

MoYou Pro Plate 04

I love the way Moonbeam looks over the undie. It was the perfect base for this bridal mani! 

Congrats to Kelly & Marijan :)

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

Blue Plaid for Nail Art November

I am I love with today's mani. If I could get a bottle of nail polish for every time I said that...

Today is a combo of two challenges, nail art November (the theme is "plaid") and the twinkie nails art challenge, which the theme is "colour chosen by significant other". I knew without asking (but asked anyways!) that my fiancé would choose blue, and sure enough he did. I had a lot of fun creating this look, and while it was simple enough, it was a tad time consuming! Good thing I had the night off. 

Colours used:

Ciatè Chinchilla (base)

China Glaze Up All Night

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

Sally Hansen Hi-Ho Silver

Finger Paints Striper Hip Hip Hue-Ray

HK Girl Top Coat

Striping Brushes from eBay

I love the monochrome colour palette with the pops of white and silver. 

Please excuse the state of my cuticles, I did my clean-up in low lighting late last night and mistakenly thought I did a decent job. Oops!

Hope you love it!

xo Shawna

Geometric #nailartnov

I decided to jump on board with the November Nail Art Challenge hosted by @californails on IG. I had already done the day one prompt (movember) so I'm right on track!

It's called the "totally doable" challenge with prompts every couple days. Today (day 04) is Geometric and as soon as I saw the prompt I knew exactly what I wanted to do! I hadn't had a chance to use my aztec chevron vinyls yet, or the other design on my born pretty stamping plate. After swatching one of my new Deborah Lippmann polishes from the "Girls" collection (I got it for a steal at Winners after coveting it for a while!) I knew a metallic colour palette would really pop. And I am in love with the result! 

Colours used:

Deborah Lippmann Hannah

OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby

Sally Hansen Hi-Hi Silver

HK Girl Top Coat

China Glaze Matte Magic

I topped the mani off with a matte top coat, although I was expecting it to be a bit more flat. I love this colour palette and Hannah is such a gorgeous green - for sure a new fall/ winter favourite. 

 Here's a swatch of Hannah all by itself. Stunning!

Do you like matte manicures?

xo Shawna

Movember Stamping

Some days stamping goes so quickly, some days it doesn't. Luckily today was a good day! I got a manicure done last night as part of our friend's bachelorette night out- we took her for a mani/pedi. I was really hesitant to have someone else do my nails (and I had also wanted to do something fun for the night!) but after I told her not to use a file, everything else went smoothly. Even after bumping my freshly painted nails (twice!) they got fixed up in no time. Note to self: bring HK girl top coat next time! 

I had to settle on solidly coloured nails for the night out, but that didn't stop me from jazzing up the mani today in honour of Movember.  I used MoYou Tourist 21 to add the fun moustaches. The silver polish is a bit of a hot mess, smearing the stamping and a nightmare for cuticle clean up. Can't wait to receive my Mundo de Unas stamping polish (although apparently it will take a while!)

Colours used:

Color Club Total Mystery

Sally Hansen Hi-Ho Silver

Do you get in on the Movember fun?

xo Shawna