Negative Space Chevrons

I feel like life has just been insane after getting back home from vacation last week. Hence the blog radio silence and some slacking on IG as well! To top it off, I got a new cell phone yesterday and I jumped ship from iPhone to get a Samsung galaxy s6.... so I'm learning a completely new device and feel like an idiot. More time playing with the features than instagramming sadly! I needed something simple and quick, but still interesting. So I finally did my own negative space chevron mani! 

Products Used

Color Club Angel Kiss

Sally Hansen Coral Reef

Chevron Vinyls (get some in my shop!) 

essie Good to Go

I'm not 100% I love the colour combo I chose, but it's growing on me. What do you think?

Are you an iPhone, android or neither?

xo Shawna

Vintage Floral Stripes

I've always had mani envy when I see pretty, vintage inspired floral manis in my feed. I decided to rectify that and use my straight vinyls (two birds one stone!) with soft pastel stripes and pops of neon pink for the flowers.

Barry M Coconut

Kicks Mint Gelato

Color Club Neon Pink (unnamed mini)

OPI Mod About You

China Glaze Be More Pacific

essie Good to Go Topcoat

My Nails Did Straight Vinyls 

This cute little mint polish was brought back for me from Sweden. Adorbs! I only wish I had skipped the leaves detailing on the striped nails, it looks like I just slipped while painting the lines. 

xo Shawna

Braided Mani for TGIF

Oh hey guys! So my shop is open. Link is overhead or you can click right here--> My Nails Did Vinyls.  Use code "OPENING" to save 15% off your entire order, and if you order 2 sheets or more you'll get a free sheet of decals (TBD)! Prices are Canadian, so if you're from the States or international, the exchange is probably in your favour ;)

Today's nail art was literally done in a car. I didn't feel like joining my dad inside the chaos that is Costco, so I sat in the car with the windows down, enjoying the sunshine and painting my nails like the crazy nail lady that I truly am. The theme for week one of May's #TGIFnailartchallenge was Braid, which I've seen done so many times but never done myself! I decided on a pink monochromatic look.

Products Used

Finger Paints What a Night

OPI Suzi Shops & Island Hops

Color Club Miss Bliss

INM Out the Door Topcoat

I love this look! It's pretty simple to create but packs a lot of punch. 

Go check out the shop!

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

Nimbus Quintuplet Mani

A few of my besties from Insta decided to collar on a bestie quint mani! We decided to do a nimbus mani (you might remember I did my first one back in January) using a pale pink as the base to tie them together, and then whatever colours we wanted as the nimbus shades. Neon was mentioned somewhere in there, so I decided to run with that and reached for my Color Club neon minis! (Sadly, most of them are unnamed on the bottle).  The resulting mani is gorgeous, and brighter than the pictures capture. Scroll to the bottom for the collage! 

Products Used

OPI Mod About You

Color Club Warhol

Color Club Unnamed Neon Purple

Color Club Unnamed Neon Pink

INM Out the Door Topcoat

(I think the unnameds may be Kapow! and Right On!)

My second go at Nimbus went much quicker! I think I was less concerned about perfection (it's laundry night!) and the result is just as great as when I stressed about the placement of every single dot. I will definitely be using this technique on a more regular basis now that I know how quickly it can go! 

Check out my babes on insta:

Sammy

Maz

Angel

Bambi

Have you tried this technique from the Nailasaurus yet?

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

Chevrons & A Review

Press samples

 Good evening! (I feel like a newscaster. Except I do have good news). I did some fresh, simple nail art tonight and finally got around to testing and reviewing my final item sent to me courtesy of born pretty store! This was the item I was most excited to receive, the floral handled liner brushes. 

Products Used

OPI French Quartier For Your Thoughts 

Zoya Yuna

Color Club Kismet

China Glaze Fast Forward

Born Pretty Floral Liner Brushes

This mani was great because 3 of the 4 products were untrieds, and my goal is to work through all of my untrieds by the end of March!

I started with a layer of French Quartier which is a pale grey. I was glad it didn't seem to wash me out as some greys can. Then I painted on a chevron half-moon using Yuna, and the brush right from the bottle. 

Lastly I painted on the holo stripe with the short thin brush. The brushes are stiff when you remove them from the package, but rubbing the bristles between your fingers soften them right up. I was really impressed how soft the bristles are! Once I'm done using them, I clean off the polish with some acetone and then wash with soap and water. I find this keeps the bristles from hardening. I've also heard some girls using a bit of mineral oil when the bristles start to splay after a couple of uses- I have yet to try this myself! 

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these brushes. Don't forget you can save 10% off regular priced items with my code SDPX31 and shipping is free!

xo Shawna

*post contains affiliate link

Holographic Watermarble

ALL THE HOLOS!! I received my halo hues collection nearly a month ago now, but just hadn't had much opportunity with all the Christmas manicures to use them. So, I figured- why not use them all at once?! 

Products Used

Color Club Halo Hues 2013:

Beyond

Cosmic Fate

Miss Bliss

Over the Moon

Eternal Beauty

Kismet

China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

Cuter Cuticles Cutie Guard

Hopefully photoshop fixed most of the issue, but I ate a snack after doing my nails and proceeded to wreck the tips of all 4 fingers on my swatching hand. I touched it up but it's still visibly messed up- thank goodness for the "healing brush"! I clearly still need practice swirling the marble but it's still a fun effect. 

xo Shawna

holo christmas sweater

I've been wanting a solid collection of holographic colours for a while, and while I have one gorgeous shade and a topper from echoes polish, I wanted more. As much as I would love to support more indies, currently my budget is should be on lockdown to save for our wedding. So, I decided to order a color club halo hues (2013) collection from amazon (free shipping!) and get a jump start. 

I finally went to pick up the order yesterday and I'm thrilled with the gorgeous holos. The black one, Beyond, was my most coveted and I had to get it on immediately! The photos (and indoor lighting) don't do it justice, this one was hard to appreciate in the dreariness of mid December weather.

I wanted to use my new zodiac plate from MoYou (woot Sagittarius!) but seeing as I was going to our annual family Christmas reunion the next day, I opted for sweater stamping instead. 

Products used

Color Club Beyond

Ciate Speed Pro Top Coat

Mundo de Unas Forest

HK Girl Top Coat

MoYou London Zodiac 11

The line on my ring finger went a bit wonky as I tried rolling the image instead of pressing straight into the squishy pad. Results from stamping: roll when doing someone else's, press in when doing your own. I actually loved my cindy hand as well, which had completely different designs. I didn't do a great cleanup but I included a pic as well! 

Do you love holo or are you over it?

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

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

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

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!)