NAILS | Neon Flower Nail Art for Summer #CBBxManiMonday

 

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I swear I bring this nail polish out every summer because it truly is a perfect neon to wear when the sun is out and the temperature is well into the mid-20s! It has also been about a month since I have even painted my nails so it felt like a good way to start the month!

NAILS | Pixyls Rainbow Nail Art #CBBxManiMonday

It was another beautiful weekend in Vancouver at 20 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and a cool breeze from the water. If everyday in summer were this, I would be in heaven! When it starts creeping closer to 30 degrees, that's where you lose me! My husband and I decided to spend our Sunday afternoon at Uniqlo as we had a number of summer basics we wanted to stock up on. I have gained 10lbs since last summer so none of my work summer clothes fit anymore and I was tired of feeling "stuffed" into everything especially as the weather gets hotter!

NAILS | Hoppy Easter to All #CBBxManiMonday

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I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend and if you have today off as well, lucky you! I only had Sunday off, but I enjoyed it nonetheless as it was a glorious 19 degrees and sunny in Vancouver! My poor baby nails are growing back at a snail's pace so maybe I should start looking into nail art for short nails because I feel like many of the things I am used to doing look better on long nails. What do you think?

NAILS | Happy Valentine's Day! #CBBxManiMonday

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It has been a weird week for me. Throughout the years, I am sure I have mentioned Inventory on this blog many times and as of last year, we started doing it on Sundays when we are closed. We used to do it over two days - Saturday night and Sunday morning, but now it's all done on just the one day. While it's great to do Inventory on a day where we don't have to open the store, it does screw us all up for the week in terms of all of us thinking Sunday was a Monday! 

NAILS | Holly Berries #CBBxManiMonday

 

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Happy December 1st! This is the first holiday season in YEARS that might be the best one yet! Last year, on December 12th, a horrific employee finally disappeared from our lives after two continuous years of making life hell and now the whole time is fairly nice. There are always going to be people that are "meh", but I'd rather have that than someone who is screaming at us or sending malicious emails multiple times a day. I know, I know - the bar is REAL low! It has been deliciously busy with clients, people in the holiday spirit and generally a sense of busyness these last few weeks which I cannot complain about! 

NAILS | Cozy Fall Argyle Sweater Nail Art #CBBxManiMonday

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I am super proud of myself for painting my nails every single week this month! It has been a long time since I have been consistent and it has felt really good! This week's manicure is inspired by a manicure on the cutepolish YouTube channel from 2023 that I thought was very cute and went well with my current nail shape - Argyle Sweater Nails!

NAILS | Red Cap Mushrooms #CBBxManiMonday

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I just had the dreaded Inventory and thankfully the store was closed and we could just focus on that for 6 hours, but it is such a tiring activity! Then today, I got my Covid shot which has knocked me out with extreme fatigue since noon. I almost didn't get the shot this year (I just got the flu one), but seeing as how I have caught Covid at work every year (even multiple times in one year) since the mask mandates were lifted, I figured I would get it just to minimize the possibility of it getting any more serious!

NAILS | Fall Leaves with Biosculpture #CBBxManiMonday

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I am so proud of myself for getting my nails done on time again! The motivation to paint and blog is real and this week I had fall on the brain as it is well into November and we are in the double digits for temperature! All the leaves are still on the trees so we can still see shades of red, yellow and orange every day. I'm sure at some point the rain will start washing everything away, but for now I really cannot complain! 

NAILS | Pumpkin Spice Latte Nail Art #CBBxManiMonday

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After months of not feeling motivated to do my nails or blog or do beauty things, in the last two weeks, I have slowly felt like I have gotten my act together with MULTIPLE scheduled posts and sticking to my to do lists. I have also been going to bed earlier (before 1am) as I have always been such a night owl, but I know that going to bed late and not getting a the proper amount of sleep is unhealthy and I am starting to really feel those days where I don't sleep well! 40 year old Jayne cannot get by on what 30 year old Jayne used to do!

NAILS | Sally Hansen x Stranger Things "Missing" Crackle

 

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Happy Halloween! When I first started my nail polish journey in the 2010s, crackle polishes were VERY popular! They came in all sorts of colours and I think I even have a crackle polish that crackles into a crocodile print from BarryM! Then they disappeared for 10 years and have recently come back (since we are all into nostalgia now ) and I could not be happier!

NAILS | Jack O' Lanterns #CBBxManiMonday

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It feels like an eternity since I have done my nails, let alone nail ANY nail art! I couldn't even find my nail art brush so now I have to buy new ones from Amazon because I have looked everywhere! I felt incredibly rusty trying to draw so these warped Jack O' Lanterns are as good as they are gonna get!

NAILS | Hints of Flowers #CBBxManiMonday

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I will keep this short as it took me TWO hours to get home from work today due to Lions Gate Bridge being closed in both directions. I ended up turning around and taking the Seabus, but THAT also was delayed and packed with people and tourists so right now I am trying to decompress still at 11:30pm.

NAILS | Neon Polka Dots #CBBxManiMonday

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Look at that! I am on time! I was watching a replay of Stage 2 of the Tour de France all Sunday afternoon as we finally decided to subscribe to Flobikes which is the only way you can see TDF in Canada, but at $50 for the month, it has been worth it so far! We watched most of the 4 hour ride which ended around 7pm and then my husband started making dinner. I was about to do TDF-themed nails like I did back in 2023, but as it was already late by the time I cleaned up, I decided to stick to something bright for today as this month's CBBxManiMonday theme is "Brights"!

NAILS | Pink Abstract #CBBxManiMonday

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It is the last day of June and one day before my 42nd birthday! I have been off work the last few days celebrating and every day has been pure joy spending it with people I like and doing things I enjoy! It's hard to believe that the first birthday I celebrated here on Cosmetic Proof was my 29th birthday and here we are at 42. It's sobering how much time has passed and how things have changed and yet stayed the same. This is a place that anchors me and where I can happily sit in nostalgia with "how things used to be". With the way AI is going, people won't even have to read makeup reviews anymore, but I like having things here for me. I have always said this place is my diary, my online journal and even my own personal database of swatches and beauty products I have tried so I feel like I will continue to write here even if more and more people go towards TikTok and Instagram for their makeup reviews. I am here for all of us who are in our 40s or more!

NAILS | Glitter Pride #CBBxManiMonday

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Today was my day off and I had high hopes that I would wake up at 7am and start the day early with a cup of Nespresso (I just recently started using my machine again) and then leave to run a bunch of errands. I ended up getting up at 9am after falling back asleep and even though I had my coffee, I felt like a snail all morning. I did end up completing my errands and even ended up doing a little bit of beauty shopping at Shoppers and finding a good read at my local library! I came home, made some lunch and then had a little nap. I ended up getting a second wind of energy around 4pm and then made dinner early so we could eat at 6pm and have an early night. My husband just got back from a work trip in Australia so his jet lag has been pretty awful so he tends to want to crash at around 8pm so I figured if we had dinner early, he could sleep if he wanted to. And that, everyone was my very boring day as an adult!

NAILS | Mermaid Scales #CBBxManiMonday

 

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I am very excited to share today's mani with you because it is the first time I get to try BKIND's nail polishes! BKIND is a Quebec-based, woman-owned, vegan and plant-based beauty brand and in today's economy and trade war sitch, I am all about supporting Canadian brands! While I will have a separate post for BKIND's hair products and skincare, the nail polishes were the first products I literally GRABBED!

NAILS | Dior Coral Pop with Butterflies #CBBxManiMonday

 

Purchased by me

June is here and we are officially halfway through 2025! How crazy is that? The last 6 months has absolutely flown by both at work and in my personal life and I am looking forward to summer! My birthday is in a month which means vacation and annual birthday shopping spree is coming up so lots to look forward to. It has also been 6 month at work where for the first time in YEARS, I am actually enjoying the "managing people" part of my job in terms of educating the staff by putting together what I think are fun features and benefits emails, but for jewelry! It is the first time I have ever seen anyone do this in our location and I can only hope that the staff find this information useful. We have almost the perfect team and I say that in the sense that we have half a team of people who are keen to learn and care and the other half who are riding this job out until retirement so it is extremely hard to get ANYTHING from them. They make mistake and they don't really care to improve or apologize, BUT they are the most senior members of the team and currently the most knowledgeable since everyone else is so new. This situation is definitely loads better than the having the awful and toxic employee we used to have (thank God she left in December!), but still leaves us with questions on how to move forward.

NAILS | Polka Dot Pink #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me

It is now evident that I have a cold and even on Day 6, I am still exhibiting more and more congestion and now coughing. Most of the time, colds move WAY more quickly than this and I should be at the recovery stage by now, but instead I am wasting my beautiful 3-day vacation trying to do the things I had planned on doing, like walks in the sunshine and blogging, and sleeping when my body says it has to. And the worst part is that I don't know where I caught this from! No one at work is sick, my husband isn't sick and it doesn't seem to cold season. I feel like my body just invented this to tell me to rest even though I don't think I have been putting it through too much to begin with! I felt crappy enough to say to myself, "Jayne, you need to at least do your nails for today!" 

NAILS | Money Nails #CBBxManiMonday

 

Purchased by me

For this week's last week of green nails, I was kind of at a loss because once again, I was feeling quite lazy with what I wanted to do. What I did have a craving for was digging out my OPI 18K white gold flakes as I was feeling bougie after my little Dior shopping spree last Friday!

NAILS | Inspired by Pacifica Beauty Scalp Love #CBBxManiMonday

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I was looking for inspiration for this week's #CBBxManiMonday when I suddenly looked at the Pacifica Beauty Scalp Love serum I have been using like crazy and realized just how PRETTY the bottle was! It was also incredibly convenient that it matched our theme of "Green" for the month!