NYC Peel Off Base Coat

Yesterday I shared my latest find on my Instagram page- NYC Peel Off Base Coat! It generated huge response, most of which was asking how to use it and if it works! So I tested it out for you, my dear readers and prepared a short video to show you the results! (*sorry the video did not work before... it should be ok now!)

I had heard it could take ages to dry, but it only took a few minutes. (It's still slightly opaque when dry). I used Funky Fingers in Jawbreaker as the test control since last time I used it, it was a serious pain to remove. 

I wore it all day and there were no chips or anything! I should note I wear gloves at work, so it can be hard on my manis! 

Removal was easy as you can see. The glitter popped off in one piece with minimal manipulation.

Edited to add:
- polish must be dried fully for easy removal. (It did not work when I tried after half an hour. I'm talking s regular day's wear before removing. )
- proper removal will not damage your nails at all!

I highly recommend this product and its an amazing steal- it only only $1.77 at Walmart! Go get some ladies, this will change your life!

xo Shawna

Sheer Holo Gradient Floral Mani

Is my post title long enough? I could have added a few more words to it but had to draw the line! Tonight a bunch of nail gals from the GTA (greater Toronto area, for you non-Ontarians!) met up for dinner and lots of nail chat and swapping! I knew my nails needed to be on point so I eventually settled on a holo faux-gradient with a splash floral design inspired by The Lacquerologist! 

Products Used

Color Club Kismet

Wet n Wild Black Creme

OPI Sheer Tints I'm Never Amberassed

OPI Sheer Tints Be Magentale With Me

OPI Sheer Tints Don't Violet Me Down

OPI Sheer Tints I Can Teal You Like Me

INM Out the Door Topcoat

What's a faux gradient you ask? After I laid down my holo base, I vertically overlapped two sheer tints on each nail- the overlap created a new in-between colour. Sponge-free and easy-peasy! I needed two coats of sheer tints to help the colours pop. 

Here's all the gals! Don't mind my giant face, we needed a selfie stick!

The waiter thought we were a little nuts. No room for food with all the polish up for grabs! A few of us brought our destashes to swap. 

Nails on fleek!

Um, yum. Totally not paleo. Every bite was delish! 

And lastly, me and my girl Sammy! I've raved over the product line, Cuter Cuticles. Check her out if you haven't already! I didn't even need to photoshop my pics today because her oils are so amazing! (I also purchased Unicorn Blood from Bree, and can't wait to rock it!)

What else do you do with your sheer polishes?

xo Shawna

TGIF: Negative Space Manicure

If you've been playing along, this week's TGIF Nail Art Challenge theme is negative space! This was actually my second attempt, my first mani was a definite flop after trying out double stamping with a cherry blossom image. (The real issue was that one of the Konad polishes I recently purchased is decidedly sheer and not so great for stamping - so it kind of looked like crap). Thank goodness for acetone! 

Products Used

OPI Manicurist of Seville

INM Out the Door Topcoat

MoYou London Pro Plate 04

Cheeky Beauty Gems

I chose the houndstooth pattern because I wanted a bold design to stand out against the bare background. The look is growing on me, but it definitely needed the gems to jazz it up. Very business chic! 

Have you stamped over negative space before? What do you think of the look?

xo Shawna

Watermarble & Glitterbombs

I went shopping across the border on Friday and picked up a few new polishes! I exercised some serious restraint and ended up with 3 new funky fingers shades, 2 Bonita colours, and an INM out the door top coat, which I've seen plenty of raves over. (Kmart had a ton of clearance options but they were all pretty similar to what I already have, or colours I didn't love- so I decided to put them back! I'm so proud of myself!) Upon arrival home I knew I had to get right into them - and what better way to do some water marble practice which I have been itching to do. 

Products Used

Sally Hansen Hi-Ho Silver

Funky Fingers Life's a Beach

Funky Fingers Bezerk Turq

Funky Fingers Sand and Stillettos

Sally Hansen Babe Blue

INM Out the Door

I love the colour palette- a perfect celebration of spring! And I'm happy to see my water marble skills are improving. Not perfect, by far, but these are the first marbles that came out relatively like I actually planned. Can anyone recommend a good tool to use for marbling? 

Hope you enjoy :)

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

Extravagant Stamping

My version of celebrating St. Patricks was drinking a guinness, adding Irish cheddar cheese to my dinner (which was leftover Kangaroo bolognese- very international!) and painting my nails about as far from green as possible! These pretty patterns from an untried Born Pretty stamping plate were perfect as they don't obscure the base colour by being too dense of a design. Use my code SDPX31 to save 10% off your regular price purchase :) 

Products Used

OPI DS Extravagance

Konad Princess Polish Metallic Silver 

China Glaze Fast Forward

Born Pretty Plate BP-17

I received my very first Konad stamping polishes in the mail today and just had to try them out ASAP. I dug back into the untrieds box for the base colour and emerged with this gorgeous OPI I scored from winners for only $5! I think i've actually had this done on my toes at the spa before and loved it. It is such a stunning holographic plummy shade! And the Konad stamped like a dream. The silver stands out much more than the regular silver polish i was previously using. Those were also great bargain from nail polish canada! 

So, todays question: Guinness beer - yay or nay?

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

St. Patricks Waterfall for #TGIF

Today marks week two of the #TGIFnailartchallenge and very excitingly, someone else besides me played along this week! :-D The theme is waterfall, so I decided to bust out some of my greens that don't get used very often in celebration of St. Patricks day - which is getting very close!

Products Used

Zoya Chantal

Sally Hansen Striper Lime Green

Beyond the Nail (Unnamed)

China Glaze Be More Pacific

China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard

China Glaze Fast Forward

Striper Brush eBay

Dotting Tool Amazon

I used a dotting tool to create the shamrock leaves, drawing 3 hearts and then adding on the stem with the brush. The paler greens don't really pop against the nude base (which is gorgeous,btw) but they are there IRL! 

Do you go all out for St. Paddys?

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

#thedress bestie twin nails

Now I'm on a  roll with bestie twin nails! Kaitlyn and I decided to collaborate this week. She was more than game to go along with an idea I had (although is it already irrelevant this week?) to do a mani inspired by "the dress"! 

Products Used

China Glaze Snow

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

OPI Golden Wing

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

China Glaze Fast Forward

Brush eBay (trimmed)

And here's the collab. I love how different nail art can turn out running with the same idea! I knew Kaitlyn had a bottle of Pacific Blue so of course we had to use that as the base. Originally I was going to stamp before this became a twin mani, so I decided to hand paint instead! It was kind of fun actually! 

For the record, both Kaitlyn & I see white and gold, screw the evidence!!

Are you team white and gold or black and blue?

xo Shawna

Turquoise Water Marble turquoise #TGIF challenge

Happy Friday! My go-to monthly nail art challenge has been disbanded, so I decided to create my own as a great way to knock some to-do manis off my list and start exploring new techniques and styles. I've dubbed it the #TGIFnailartchallenge, so you can search the hashtag on IG to see more! It'll still be weekly, on Fridays. Of course if you're playing along it doesn't have to be done on the Friday, so you can jump in whenever! Week one is a technique that has been on my list for quite a while: the turquoise water marble. I used this tutorial. 

Products Used

Rimmel Do Not Disturb

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

L'oreal Because You're Worth It

China Glaze Fast Forward

Cuter Cuticles Cutie Guard

Non-Aerosol Hair spray

A million q-tips!

While this was definitely a "messy-mess" (as I would say to my nephew), boy do I love this one! I found my hairspray was a bit finicky for the technique so I had lots of do overs and had to clean the water quite a bit. I liked that, unlike a traditional water marble, if I wasn't satisfied with the coverage I would just dip my nail back in and catch the tiny little floaty bits to get more on the nail. My Cindy hand actually looks better, I may end up posting a pic on IG so go follow me over there!. 

Have you tried this technique? 

xo Shawna

Peacock Stamped Gradient

Happy Hump Day!

This mani is my first foray into gradient stamping. I'm kind of on the fence about it. I think next time I use this technique I will centre the division better colours on the nail better, and I will be happier!

Products Used

Ciate Spending Spree

CND Vinylux Rock Royalty

Rimmel Do Not Disturb

China Glaze Fast Forward

Born Pretty Plate BP 30 (SDPX31 for 10% off)

I do love the colours together, and think they work great for the peacock pattern! Can I tell you how awkward Ciate bottles are to pose with?

What do you think of the technique?

xo Shawna

Bows & Dots Twin Mani

I am so excited about today's manicure! You've seen me talk about Sammy's products before, and she was one of my very first followers when I created my IG account in August. We talked about doing a mani swap way back when, but I didn't really have a whole lot of manicures done to swap. Well, we finally got around to collaborating but did bestie twin nails instead of a swap. Sammy suggested a dotticure of some sort, and I had pinned this design on pinterest months ago, so I suggested it as an accent. And voila, a gorgeous collaboration was born! 

Sammy made the gorgeous collage. 

Products Used

Polish My Life Nude Lace

OPI Mod About You

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

Dotting Tools amazon

Striper Brush eBay

Oh my gosh. I am in love with this one! I always end up hating my dotticures because i crowd the dots too much, so I really exercised restraint and used the smallest dotting tool as well. Finally, a successful dotticure! The bow is super cute as well (although you should see it on my other hand.. LOL!) 

Are you a dotticure fan? Yay or Nay?

xo Shawna