Yogini Mani + 100th Post!

Tonight's post is extra special! It marks my 100th post since starting this blog in August. That's a lot of posts- and a lot of manicures! Thanks to all of you who pop in to check out my nail art and comment from time to time. I appreciate you all!

My next few days will be spent at the Toronto Yoga Conference, 12 hours of yoga over the next two days! So I wanted to do a mani to fit the bill. Very appropriate for my 100th post as yoga is one of the other big parts of my life (I'm a hot yoga instructor part-time as well as my day job)!

Products Used

Polish My Life Nude Lace

OPI Barefoot in Barcelona

Rimmel Sage All The Rage

OPI Golden Waves

Nicole by OPI Hard-Kourt Kardashian

INM Out the Door Topcoat

MoYou London Explorer 27

I loved how easy the nimbus nail art from a few nights ago was, so I decided to use earth tones to create a neutral base for some stamping with my MoYou plate. Since the colours used are pretty delicate, they melded together amazingly to create a gorgeous watercolour effect base. I have to say, the Nicole polish was amazing for stamping with my creative stamper. I am so happy with the overall effect and will be proudly rocking these in downward dog!

In honour of my 100th post, I would love if you left a quick comment telling me what country you're reading from!

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

earthy ruffian nails

This week's theme for the twinkie nail art challenge was "earth tones". I actually don't really like most earth tones for myself (other people rock them, but not me!) so I decided to go for one of my favourite stormy blues (the sky is an earth tone, right?!) and layer it over a rich chocolate brown in an easy-to-do ruffian manicure. 

Products Used

Nicole by OPI Hard-Kourt Kardashian

Polish My Life Storm Clouds

China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

The ruffian technique was pretty easy to do, and didn't require any tools. I'll be doing this again in different colour combinations, I think it would look great with a metallic polish!

Are you a fan of earth tones? Either for polish or in your wardrobe?

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

dry marble for nail art november

I will start right off by saying my thoughts on this mani can be summed up in the word "meh". The prompt for #nailartnov is "dry marble", which basically means adding lines or spots to your still wet base colour, and swirling them together to create different designs. If you saw the swirl mani I posted on instagram last month (there was no blog post - I did it in Cuba!), it's the same thing. I wasn't a huge fan of the swirl either, so I wanted to play around with a different design. I had seen a few cool looking designs on instagram but of course I couldn't find the tutorials, so i settled on this one inspired by Sveta Sanders.

I painted two stripes onto the base and then dragged a nail brush side to side. I must have a heavy hand because I ended up with a lot of bald spots, which I did my best to fill in.

Products used:

Polish My Life Storm Clouds

China Glaze Up All Night

HK Girl Top Coat

Nail Art Brushes from eBay

Meh. Do you like the design?

xo Shawna

Watermarble Mani for Nail Art Nov

I've come down with a sinus cold and feel and sound awful, so I took Monday as a sick day from work. Since it was a decidedly lazy day, I chose to finally tackle one of my "to-do" manis which also was the day 16 prompt for nail art november (after briefly considering just skipping a few days that I've missed due to the wedding festivities!)

Products used:

Polish My Life Nude Lace

Ciate Snow Virgin

Essie Mint Candy Apple

Rimmel Do Not Disturb

Born Pretty Store Gemstones (SDPX31 saves 10%!)

HK Girl Top Coat

I love the colour palette so despite the designs lacking interest, I'm pretty happy with my first ever attempt at water marbling. Hopefully one day I will be making awesome flower designs with the technique :)

Have you tried this technique?

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

To-Do List Mani: Ikat Print

Today I've got another mani ticked off my "to do" list! I decided to tackle Ikat print, after hearing it was one that was actually a lot more simple than it looks. I followed this YouTube tutorial, the only difference being I made the diamond shapes smaller to fit more onto the nail. 

I am in love with this mani! The rumours were true, it's not too difficult because it is imperfect on purpose. My right hand looks just as good as the left... which almost never happens!

Polishes Used:

Polish My Life Nude Lace

Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver

Finger Paints Hip-Hip-Hue-Ray!

Finger Paints Ch-Art-Coal Black

HK Girl Top Coat

What nail art techniques have you found are a lot easier than they look?

xo Shawna

Splatter Nails + Cuter Cuticles Review!

I've got a two-in-one post for you tonight! First I have a single shot of my nails for this week's twinkie nails art challenge, which was splatter. I have never done this nail art before and I had an awful time of it. First I could barely get any nail polish to get off the straw, and when it finally started working the polish would literally get everywhere (skin, paper underneath, etc) EXCEPT the nail. Finally a few blobs made it onto the nail so I called it a day. This one came off immediately which is a first for me - usually I'll wear a mani at least for one day!

Polishes used:

Polish my Life Nude Lace

Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver

Rimmel Do Not Disturb

HK Girl Top Coat

But onto the better half of this post... my Cuter Cuticles cuticle oil review! Sammy aka Canaildian_Girl (one of my instagram besties- I hope she doesn't think I'm weird for considering her a bestie for someone I've only every "met" through social media!) asked if I wanted to be a tester for her new cuticle oil line, Cuter Cuticles. Of course I was all over that, I may or may not have a slight addiction to cuticle care products...

Don't mind the look of the labels... I got cat fur all over them!

I was sent a list to choose a few scents from, but they ALL sounded amazing so I asked for a surprise. I received them ridiculously quick. The oils come in a 5mL rollerball package, which I will admit I was not sure I would like for application as I had never tried them before. I was very pleasantly surprised with how easy the rollerball is to use, and can I say the scents I received (death by chocolate & coffee) are AH-mazing! The oil itself is also fantastic, it's not too greasy and absorbs well within a few minutes. 

There's a ton of amazing sounding scents to choose from, and Sammy says more are likely on the way! I'm including a list to tempt you all. Each oil is $4 and shipping is very reasonable!

Death by Chocolate

Chocolate Covered Strawberry

Cinnamon Sugar

Maple Kisses

Gingerbread Latte

Coffee Bean

Lavender

Lemon 

Unscented

Do you use cuticle care products regularly?

xo Shawna

Disclaimer: These products were provided for testing purposes. There was no expectation of any review as compensation, I am doing so because I truly enjoyed the product! 

Polish My Life Swatches

A few weeks ago, indie polish maker Polish My Life had a free shipping weekend so i was all over it! Especially since her speciality is my favourite finish - cremes.  I exercised restraint and only purchased two shades - a lovely pale nude, Nude Lace, and a gorgeous soft greyish blue, Storm Clouds.  Take a look!

I am IN LOVE with this indie. The formula is great and looks fantastic in only 2 coats- the other indies I've tried so far, albeit gorgeous, are much thinner and take a lot of layering to achieve opacity. Not to mention, the COLOURS! I've actually been wanting pretty much these exact shades before I even knew about PML. 

Storm Clouds

I haven't done a direct comparison, but this reminds me of my Ciate mini in Chinchilla. I was debating buying the full size bottle at Winners, which was the same price as this baby. I eventually decided against it, and I am glad because this is SO much better! 

Nude Lace

I have a darker nude/tan polish and was after something lighter yet still opaque. I had a few fails, purchasing shades I thought would look like this but turned out very sheer, with VNL (visible nail line) even after multiple coats. Nude Lace is perfect!

Definitely recommend this indie seller. If you follow her on IG, she occasionally advertises sales as well so check her out! 

xo Shawna

Simple X's Mani

Happy Hockey Wednesday, readers! The big news in Canada today is definitely the official start of the NHL season. That has nothing to do with my manicure, but I am Canadian after all, and I'm typing this post as we watch the game! 

I've got a pretty simple freehand mani today, but I'm still quite pleased with it! I know this pattern can be achieved much more precisely with striping tape, but I am still waiting for my nail mail for that so I decided to give it a shot. Not too bad!

Polishes used:

Polish My Life Storm Clouds

Finger Paints Ch-Art-Coal Black

Echoes Polish Holo Cow (on index)

HK Girl Top Coat

If you've got a striping brush or polish, this design is super simple to create. You just draw a big "X" in the centre of your nail, and then outline using two stripes on both sides, the top and bottom. I added a coat of holo to my index finger for a bit of sparkle!

Would you try this design?

xo Shawna