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

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

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

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

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

Pink on Pink Chevrons

So, I swear my life has been taken over by my wedding planning the last few weeks. (Well, actually the last few MONTHS but we are currently in the process of booking our room block, which means invites are being mailed out soon, which means I need to make the invites since I'm going the DIY route!) The designing process on photoshop literally took hours of resizing, test printing and cutting, overanalyzing which fonts looked the best (let me tell you- that website 1001fonts.com is WAY too many fonts, haha!). Long story short. They are not done yet but the designing is - so now it's the manual labour left, and I took a much needed break to do something more exciting to my nails than I have been over the last week! 

Products Used

OPI Passion

OPI Manicurist of Seville

MoYou London Fashionista 05

Cheeky Gemstones

China Glaze Fast Forward

I ordered this chevron plate at Christmas, and still haven't unwrapped the blue plastic until today! I actually wanted to do a gradient stamp but it wasn't working the the other polish I chose so I decided to save that for another day. (side note- i just can NOT get MDU to work for me, so I'm destashing them). Passion is a very sheer soft pink, but I think it looks really sophisticated as a base for the bolder stamping colour. I received Passion and the cheeky gems in my canuck swap package. I'm in LOVE with those gems, there are so many great shapes in the wheel!

Are you a DIY kinda gal (or guy) or do you like other people to do the legwork for you?

xo Shawna

Valentines Collaborations

*disclaimer: the first mani was done a month in advance!

A few groups of us on Instagram collaborated for Valentine's Day (collab pics below!). One was typical v-day lovey dove hearts etc, and the other was the opposite - Anti-Valentine's Day! 

For the first collaboration, organized by @nebularnailz, we didn't have any specific theme. I didn't want to do your typical in-your-face pink and red palette -  so after I painted on a coat of the gorgeous chrome Push and Shove by OPI, I decided dry brushing would provide just the hint of colours I was after. 

Products Used

OPI Push and Shove

OPI Mod About You

Deborah Lippmann Jessa

China Glaze Fast Forward

Dotting Tools from Amazon

I actually tested out painting little hearts and it was a very pathetic attempt.  (This was before I discovered how to use a dotting tool to make the entire heart). So, instead I went for a more abstract look by dotting an outline of a heart on a few accent fingers. I actually liked the way it turned out, and it was pretty simple and very quick to do!

And here's the final product of the first collaboration.

Next up, we have the Anti-V-day Collab! This was put on by @vampireprincessheart. I was thinking along the line of a "blackened heart" so I used saran wrap to create the effect on the two middle fingers. I was hoping the hearts would be more distinct so I don't completely love the way they turned out, but the amazing girls I collaborated with assure me it's great! Thanks ladies you are such sweethearts! 

Products Used

Deborah Lippmann Jessa

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

Finger Paints Striper Ch-Art-Coal Black

Cuter Cuticles Cutie Guard

China Glaze Fast Forward

And this is the result :)

Did you do anything to celebrate (or protest) Valentine's this year?

xo Shawna

Valentine's Plaid

So I ordered the MoYou hipster plate with all the plaids back in December, and am just using it now! As much as I love stamping, a lot of times I just don't want to deal with the cleanup. (And I mean actual cleaning up, not just the cuticles!) However, with all the pinks and reds I've been rocking the last week, a plaid mani was stuck in my mind so I finally made it happen. 

Products Used

Orly Rage

Daily Hues Nail Lacquer Willa

China Glaze Fast Forward

MoYou Hipster 06

Dotting Tool from Amazon

I received my swap package from the Very Canuck Swap that I helped organize with Sammy (owner of Cuter Cuticles)! I got so many great goodies, click on over to my Instagram to check them out. My girl even included goodies for my fur babies- what a sweetheart! Thanks Kait! I have been lusting after Orly Rage, a gorgeous rose-gold foil, for quite some time. It did not disappoint! 

I've got one more mani coming tomorrow as well as a few collaborations in celebration (or the opposite!) of V-day. 

Any exciting Valentines (or singles awareness day) plans?

Valentine's Pond Mani

I don't get enough use of the gorgeous pink jelly I got from Echoes polish months ago. (I guess that's the sad reality of a polish stash of 100+!). So when I saw a gorgeous pond mani with hearts on IG the other day, I just had to recreate it. Props to @nails_by_noemmyy for the idea!. 

Products Used

Echoes Polish Pink Freud

China Glaze Snow

China Glaze Fast Forward

Dotting Tools from Amazon

I never understood what people meant when they said the jelly sammiches/ pond manis were "squishy". Now I totally get it, this has about 9 layers of polish and top coat! It's so thick! 

On another note- thank goodness for photoshop. My cuticles are so horrendous right now. Thanks winter!

xo Shawna

P.S. - a pond mani is the nail art version (vs. glitter) of a jelly sandwich- layering nail art between layers of sheer polish!

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

Striped Mani for Nail Art November

Theme for day 10 of #nailartnov is "Tape Mani". This could be interpreted a few ways (I've used scotch tape before!) but today it was the perfect reason to use my striping tape I received a few weeks ago. The design isn't groundbreaking, I've seen it various times on Instagram, but it seemed like a good basic design for my first time!

Colours used:

Deborah Lippmann Marnie

OPI Wocka Wocka (I think... it's an unlabelled mini)

Echoes Polish Holo Cow

HK Girl Top Coat

I added a holo top coat, although I instantly regretted it. I should have just added a few gems instead but live and learn! It's not the most unique manicure ever, but for my first time I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out. 

Have you worked with striping tape before?

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

Pink & Gold Chevron Stamped Mani

I loved my chevrons and the colour palette from my last manicure, so I decided to keep the accent nails for tonight's fresh manicure!

I knew I wanted to stamp, but wasn't quite sure which image to pair with the chevrons. Lightbulb moment! My new chevron patterned plate from born pretty store (item 15090) fit the bill perfectly - and let me practice centering my stamps!

Polishes used:

OPI Mod About You

OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby

Essie Lilacism

HK Girl Top Coat

I wasn't sure how effectively the gold OPI would stamp, but it did pretty well. I made sure not to scrape too hard, after my first attempt fell flat!

I love the pastels and don't want to put them away for fall! Do you follow seasonal colours or use whatever your mood is calling for?

xo Shawna

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