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

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

NYE black and gold

Well here it is folks, the last post of 2014. I am happy to say I am still just as in love with nail art as when I started this blog in August, and excited to bring you my final manicure of 2015! Ask any of my family members, and then will tell you I go through phases where I become obsessed with something only to move on from it in a few short months. I'm sure know they thought my nail art obsession was another one of those. Well, 5 months on at least I can justify my rapidly growing polish collection at least slightly! 

This manicure was inspired by So Nailicious. 

Products Used

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby

Finger Paints Striper Hip Hip Hue-Ray

China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

China Glaze Matte Magic

This look was super easy to create with minimal or no tools and cleanup. (I love stamping, but it really makes a mess!) I highly recommend getting striper polishes in basic black and white if you're into nail art. It makes it much easier to create a lot of looks, and reduces the need to buy or dirty nail art brushes! I got my finger paints stripers from Sally Beauty, but you can also get Sally Hansen brand from any drugstore. 

I love this look! If I can transfer the larger file to my computer for upload to YouTube, I'll have a tutorial soon as well. 

Happy New Years to all of you lovely readers!! I thank you so much for your views and comments. I hope you'll continue to return to the blog in the new year! 

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

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

To-Do List: Gold & Green Quatrefoil Mani

I recently started a note on my iPhone to keep track of all the different manis (or variations on ones I've already done!) that I want to try out. One of the accounts I follow on IG mentioned she's doing a blog post series on her "wish list" and I thought that was a great idea. One that has been on there for a while is quatrefoil, which makes use of a dotting tool - and after my "dots" manicure the other day, I was ready to go!

I wish I had a larger dotting tool, but I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out! I based my colour palette on the dress I wore at my nephew/Godson's baptism today. These are two of my favourite polishes I own!

Colours used: 

OPI Thanks a Windmillion

OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby

HK Girl Top Coat

Born Pretty Store Dotting Tool (use coupon SDPX31 to save 10%!)

Do you have a mani to-do list?

xo Shawna

Simple Duochrome & Teal French Manicure

I found a bottle of Sally Hansen Lustre Shine in my dollar store yesterday for a steal of $2, so I grabbed it. It looked pretty in the bottle, with a base of gold and a green colour shift. 

However, once I got it on the nails, the colour shift was practically nonexistent! The shade is "Plume". This swatch is two coats and you can see there is definite visible nail line.

So, this turned into the manicure I couldn't leave alone. First I added French tips in my new Rimmel "Do Not Disturb" teal. Then, I decided it was still too plain so I fully painted accent nails on each hand (ring finger on the left, index on the right). 

Lastly, this morning I still wanted more, so I added some Gold glitter top coat (Sally Beauty brand) and finally satisfied, finished off with HK Girl top coat! It's not my favourite manicure, but it has enough interest now for me to leave it alone for the rest of the weekend. 

Do you ever do a manicure you just can't leave alone? Do you wear it for a day or take it off immediately? 

xo Shawna