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

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

Quatrefoil Vinyls Mani

I love quatrefoil. Like, a lot. But I find doing it by hand with a dotting tool (which I've done a few times) just never looks as nice as I want it to, and it's also tedious as hell! So one of the very first stencils I designed was quatrefoil, of course. (I even made two different designs!). 

When I first designed the stencils, the lines were a little thin and tore pretty easily - I made them thicker and had to test them out! So I can say my vinyls are new AND improved, which I always laughed at as a marketing gimmick before. But it's totally true! They're a week old and already improved! And wow, am I in love. 

Products Used

Finger Paints Night Lights

OPI Love Angel Music Baby

My Nails Did Vinyls Quatrefoil 02 Stencils

essie Good To Go Top Coat

(code OPENING for 15% off and free decals with min. 2 sheet purchase - until the end of the week!)

I sponged the gold overtop my completely dry base. Shhh, I was able to use each stencil 2-3 times and my whole mani took only 4 stencils! Talk about value. Is it narcissistic to say I freakin love my own product? Hope you love it too!

xo Shawna

Mani Swap with NailsTori

It was so hard to choose which mani to recreate when NailsTori & I decided to do a Mani Swap! Eventually I settled on a pretty creme to glitter gradient Tori did around Christmas time, while she chose one of my Halloween manis. We got creative by changing up the colour palettes and the result was two gorgeous new manis! Check out the collage at the end of the post. 

Products Used

Bonita Hostess With the Mostess

Bonita Penny For Your Thoughts

MTL Creations Tara

INM Out The Door Topcoat 

Cuter Cuticles Cutie Guard

I love the springy shades of these Bonita polishes I picked up when I went shopping in the states a few weeks ago. The peach is a bit sheer but luckily the gradient covered up any VNL. I forgot foil polishes almost work too well for sponging on, so the colour is super dense and doesn't blend as well as a gradient. Oh well! 

Check out the collage. Originals are on the left, and recreations on the right. The colours Tori used in her recreation are gorgeous! Love it!

Do you like foil polishes?

xo Shawna

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

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

Glittertastic Stamping

Another weekend coming to a close! After complaining about my 5 day work week... I picked up a temp shift at another dental office yesterday. (insert frowny emoji here!) Moral of the story... it can always get worse, lol. 

I did a little nail shopping yesterday and picked up some yellow stopper. Word on the street is that as a base coat, it's peel/pop off. So I figured I would try it out with some blingy glitter polish from Barry M! 

Products Used

Barry M Socialite

Barry M Catwalk Queen

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

China Glze Fast Forward Top Coat

Lou It Yourself Straight Vinyls

Bundle Monster 502

I was worried that stamping over it would detract from the glittery gorgeousness. However it shines through! Totally happy with the result.

Have you tried yellow stopper?

xo Shawna

Black and White Forest

Happy Friday! Goodness am I glad it's the weekend. I only work about one 5 day work week a month, and of course in January it's the first week back after the holidays - boo hoo right? Anyways, I'm wiped! 

Today's manicure is for week 2 of the January twinkie nail art challenge - the theme being "black and white". The timing couldn't have been better - I got a bunch of stamping plates I ordered in yesterday's mail (both MoYou and Bundle Monster, which is a new-to-me brand). I had seen the gorgeous, ethereal tree design in my feed a few times and just had to have it. Black and white was a perfect palette for this stamping mani! I sandwiched the stamping with a few different glitters and this is the first manicure all week that I have kept on for longer than a day!

Products Used

China Glaze Snow

Sally Girl (unnamed) Silver Glitter

Wet n Wild Black Creme

China Glaze Fairy Dust

China Glaze Fast Forward

Bundle Monster 407

I hear that BM plates can be hit or miss with the quality, but this image stamped like a dream. (I also tested out a second plate, and it was slightly more finicky but I still got quite good transfers. It was the sugar skull design - notorious for people having issues with). 

Any plans for the weekend?

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 

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

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

Walking on a Spiderweb

I love the look of all the spiderweb manis I've seen on Instagram! I have a China Glaze polish, Fortune Teller, that I only can wear for this time of year - it's a black base with loads of orange glitter - and I wanted to showcase it with some nail art that wouldn't obscure it. 

Polishes used:

China Glaze Fortune Teller

Finger Paints Striper Hip Hip Hue-Ray

Ciate Speed Pro Top Coat

The CG has amazing glitter payoff with loads of small and micro glitter and medium hexes. Full opacity reached in two coats. Unfortunately when I applied my top coat, the white polish smeared so the nail art is not as clean as I would like! I generally don't wear dark polish, and especially not black on it's own, but this is such a fun shade. 

Are you taking advantage of the holiday to wear dark polish or do you rock it year round?

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

Autumn Inspired Gradient Manicure

I wasn't in the mood for anything complicated tonight, and I haven't done a gradient in a while, so I had a pretty easy time deciding what to do for my newest manicure! 

Seeing as tonight is the autumnal equinox, it only seemed fitting that I break out some of my more autumn-like polishes. 

Polishes Used:

OPI You Don't Know Jaques

OPI Wocka Wocka (I'm pretty sure... it's an unlabelled mini!)

Sally Beauty Gold Glitter Topper

HK Girl Top Coat

I used the sponge technique where you paint the polish directly on, I find it a lot quicker than dabbing the sponge into the polish on plastic. 

I love the look and think perhaps I might not miss my summer palette of pastels as much as I thought! (And who am I kidding- I don't follow the rules anyways :-P)

Do you let seasons dictate your colour palette?

xo Shawna

Pacific Blue Holo + Racing Stripes

I can't believe this is my first time using my pacific blue as the base colour for a manicure! I thought it would be too bold for my taste (I've really been into pastels lately)- but I actually love it and totally get the hype now. I'm rethinking all those bottles I left on the shelf at walmart the other night...

This was a late night mani so I wanted something simple and quick. The stripe was inspired by The Nailasaurus. I had heard pacific blue was a one coater so that's why I chose it- although I ended up using two. A quick swipe of holo topcoat and a simple straight line for a pop of interest. Pacific blue was practically made for a holo topper!

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

China Glaze Fairy Dust

Finger Paints Striper Hip-Hip-Hue-Ray

HK Girl Top Coat

Are you on the (original formula) pacific blue bandwagon?

xo Shawna