Pixel Love for Sammy

Today is my bestie Sammy's birthday (remember Cuter Cuticles? That's her!) so I decided to organize a collab with a bunch of nailistas in celebration. I suck at coming up with themes, so I decided to go with the same idea I used for her custom mug I made, which is her pixelated heart tattoo. A ton of girls accepted the challenge (I know there were more that would have been happy to participate, but I was having trouble remembering everyone to ask!) and we came up with a ton of gorgeous manis to say happy birthday. 

Here's the collage.  Lots of girls who have never done nail art stepped up- well done! 

Products Used

Daily Hues Nail Lacquer Julie

Pure Ice Siren

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

Ciate Snow Virgin

essie Good to Go

Born Pretty Store Hex Glitter

I attempted to make a decal but it wasn't really working out for me, so I freehanded the heart. This was my first glitter placement as well. I'm happy with how it turned out!

Happy Birthday Sammy!

xo Shawna

fireworks for TGIF

So I have issues with looking at this thing, called a calendar. When I made the May #TGIFnailartchallenge prompts, I just assumed the May long weekend would be closer to the 24th so today's prompt is "Fireworks" despite the Canadian holiday actually being last Monday. Duh. 

Anyways, this was pretty quick to do, although its one of those "looked better in my head" manicures. 

Products Used

China Glaze Up All Night

Sally Hansen Hi-Ho Silver

OPI Sheer Tints Be Magentale With Me

OPI Sheer Tints Don't Violet Me Down

OPI Sheer Tints I Can Teal You Like Me

essie Good to Go TC

I did however love the use of sheer tints over the silver hand painted fireworks, changing up the colour of 3/4 of the nails for a varied look. 

Happy belated Victoria Day and happy Memorial Day to my American readers!

xo Shawna

Go Gens Go! TGIF Ruffian Mani

Happy Friday! I'm always proud of myself when I'm punctual with a challenge. That is kinda of sad as it speaks to my punctuality in general. Oops! Today's theme is "Ruffian".

I'm so excited for today's nail art, because it's in support of my favourite hockey team, the Oshawa Generals! I grew up in Oshawa and have been a longtime fan of the junior (OHL) team. Tonight they head into game 5 of the finals with a 3-1 series lead. Can they take Connor McDavid down? I am not sure but i will BE THERE to cheer them on, sporting my festive mani!

Products Used

Daily Hues Nail Lacquer Willa

China Glaze Up All Night

White Acrylic Paint

INM Out the Door Topcoat

This was my first time using acrylic paint in a mani. It was pretty easy to work with and I love that if you mess up you can wash it off with water before you seal it all in with topcoat. I also found the white paint really pops over the dark base in a way that can take many layers of polish to achieve. I'll be doing that again!

Do you use acrylic in your nail art?

xo Shawna

Cherry Blossoms for TGIF & My Engagement Shoot Mani

I'm late! That seems to be a theme in my posts lately - life is definitely crazy this spring!

Friday's theme for the TGIF nail art challenge was "Cherry Blossoms". I actually spent Friday playing with cherry blossoms at our engagement shoot in High Park. We had to move the shoot up an entire week at the last minute, because the blossoms happened much earlier this year compared to the last few springs! So, I wore a classy and timeless mani for the shoot and my challenge mani was put on hold. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the engagement shoot mani!

Products Used

Ciate Chinchilla

Nicole by OPI Hard-Kourt Kardashian

OPI Mod About You

Ciate Snow Virgin

essie Good to Go Topcoat

I freehanded the branches and dotted on the blossoms. I am absolutely in love with the look and it was fairly simple! 

Here's the mani for my engagement shoot. Mod About You base with a China Glaze Fairy Dust glitter tipped gradient, and a simple red holo heart with Daily Hues Nail Lacquer in Willa, made with a dotting tool. 

Check out this gorgeous shot our photographer Jacqueline from Injoy Imagery snapped for my instagram. 

Stunning! Are you in love with cherry blossoms like I am?

Happy Mother's Day!

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

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

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

#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

Candy Hearts Mani

I saw this stamping plate from Bundle Monster when I placed my order in December. I knew I had to have it for some Valentines nail art! I've seen these candy heart sayings stamped over solid nails, but I wanted to do something a little more creative. So I came up with a negative space half-moon sweetheart mani! (I don't know if there's a name for it that's less of a mouthful- I'm sure someone else has come up with this idea before, I just haven't seen it!) This also worked perfectly for this week's theme for the twinkie nail art challenge of "hearts". 

Products Used (thumb - pinky)

Essie Lapis of Luxury

OPI Panda-monium Pink

China Glaze For Audrey

Barry M Coconut

Deborah Lippmann Shoshanna

OPI Manicurist of Seville (stamping)

China Glaze Fast Forward

Bundle Monster 425

I love this mani! I think it's super fun and it turned out exactly like I envisioned. I love all the pastel colours and it works well with the almond nail shape! I just wish the letters stamped a little bit more solid. 

Are you rocking V-day nails?

xo Shawna

zig zag stripes

I was on the fence about even sharing this manicure, as I really wasn't too fond of it. I started with a gorgeous base of Butter London that was in my stocking (thanks mom!) although the brush had a chunk out of it so it was a bit finicky to apply. (I emailed them and they're going to send me a new bottle!) I thought I would try this hand painted design, but my brush was just too thick to get the delicate variations I had seen and was attempting to emulate. 

Products Used

Butter London Stag Do

Finger Paints Striper Hip Hip Hue-Ray

OPI Sheer Tints I Can Teal You Like Me

China Glaze Fast Forward

The white stripes seemed too stark, so I slicked on a coat of OPI's sheer tint. Unfortunately the top coat caused a few smears of the white paint - I had to get to bed! It definitely reduced my dislike of the mani, but not enough to keep it on more than 24 hours! Also - this bottle is really awkward to pose with, haha!

So- yay or nay?

xo Shawna

Rainbow side frenchy

I decided to get back into the nail art challenges, although I like the weekly challenges as opposed to the ones that are every few days. So I'm back to the twinkie nail challenge! This fridays prompt was "rainbow". When I think rainbow I think skittles nails, but I didn't want it to be in your face. Enter the sideways french manicure! 

Products used 

China Glaze Tip Your Hat

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

L'oreal Orange You Jealous

China Glaze Tree Hugger 

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

Nicole Pretty in Plum

Nicole Gumdrops Silver (unnamed mini) 

China Glaze Fast Forward

I love how the rainbow effect is subtle and the look changes depending which angle you're looking. I didn't even realize until after the fact (and after i top coated) that the gumdrops is a textured polish. That explains why it was so bumpy even after topcoat, lol! 

Hope you like! 

xo Shawna 

christmas eve water marble

So, I am newly obsessed with water marbling after figuring out it's all about the polish. China glaze seems to be great so far, and thus made the base for a christmas coloured mani which I wore to church and the movies on Christmas Eve!

Products Used

China Glaze Snow

China Glaze Be More Pacific

China Glaze Tip your Hat

Seche Vite Top Coat

Dotting Tools from Amazon

I didn't really have an appropriate christmas green, so this ended up being a lighter coloured mani. I added accent nails of a gift wrapped thumb and polka-dotted pinkie.

Water marble is so fun!

Merry Christmas!

xo Shawna

Christmas Plaid Mani

The other night I was a disaster, one of the reasons being I went to hang out with my friend, promising to do sweater nails for her- and then forgot the plate. (I actually thought I had lost it- literally and figuratively!) The plus side was, it gave me a chance to do a Christmas plaid look I had been envisioning, with the bonus of using a few of her colours which really made the whole look.

Ciate Glametal

Sally Girl Green

essie Blanc

China Glaze Out Like a Light

China Glaze Tip Your Hat

essie Good to Go Topcoat

I absolutely love the ciate base colour, and in general how it all works together. Cute! Testing out the essie top coat as well. 

Do you revisit your favourite designs in different colour schemes?

xo Shawna