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 | Oscar the Grouch #CBBxManiMonday

One press sample*

My baby nails are still growing their way back to fullness so I was sort of at a loss for what to do for today's last day of green manicures. I suddenly thought of Oscar the Grouch and then found this manicure from 2 years ago from @aculednails on RedditLaqueristas and thought I would give it a go!

NAILS | Happy St. Patrick's Day! #CBBxManiMonday

 

Some press samples

I have not painted my nails in a month and I missed it! As you can see, my nails are much shorter than usual as they have been suffering from multiple breakages in the last few weeks. They have been really weak and my cuticles have also been a bit of a mess so it's going to take some time for them to come back, but at least they have some shape to them for me to do a bit of nail art for St. Patrick's Day! 

NAILS | Happy Lunar New Year! #CBBxManiMonday

 

Purchased by me

Happy Year of the Horse! It has been a little bit too busy in my day job to have the energy to do #LunarFebruary this year, but I couldn't miss out on doing some red and gold nails for LNY today!

NAILS | Sally Hansen Gem Crush Be-Jeweled Swatch #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me

Throwing it back again to Sally Hansen Gem Crush this week because this collection was truly an amazing release over 10 years ago now! I only wish I had gotten the whole collection back then, but I just had too much self-control LOL! 

NAILS | Purple and Gold Glitter Gradient #CBBxManiMonday

 

Some press samples

I just did a mass reorganization of just one small section of beauty goods and it honestly took a whole afternoon! I also have four different medium size bags of cosmetics that are being given to various work colleagues and friends. Thank goodness I know people of all different ages, skin tones and types because much of this would then go to waste! 

NAILS | Sally Hansen x Stranger Things "Missing" Crackle

 

Purchased by me

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

Purchased by me

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 | Neon Polka Dots #CBBxManiMonday

Some press samples

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 | 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 | Sally Hansen Satin Glam in Taffeta #CBBxManiFriday

Purchased by me

As you can see, I have baby nails (for me) as I had to chop everything off after suffering 6 broken nails! The December season was not kind to my nails and I am hoping they grow FAST so I can do some beautiful nail art on them! I went with a blast from the past today with this polish from the Sally Hansen Satin Glam collection from 2014. I had yet to even try this polish so while my nails are growing back, it called to me as a swatch!

NAILS | Christmas Lights #CBBxManiMonday

Some press samples

I am determined to stay on track with having nails every Monday and as we speak it is 1am and I am typing this out because I just painted these two hours ago! I hope I have the energy to continue being punctual because it makes me feel better about everything else in life in general. I think it has been awhile since I have done Christmas lights so I figured it was a good time to bring them back!

NAILS | Sally Hansen x Reese's Peanut Butter Time Swatch #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me

My nails are in AWFUL shape right now and this is the last backup photo I have of me wearing any nail polish so I am hoping that by next week I will have some semblance of a manicure to share with you! They are currently too short to even shape after going through multiple breaks due to the very dry weather so even after missing last week's ManiMonday, they are still in recovery mode. 

NAILS | Glow-in-the-Dark Ghosts #CBBxManiMonday

Press samples and self purchased

FINALLY! A true Halloween manicure from me! Nail art has been getting tougher and tougher for me to sit down and do over the years, but I keep reminding myself that once I sit down and get it done, I'm always so happy with the results and though I have done ghost nails in the past, I really like how these turned out!

NAILS | Sally Hansen x Reese's Halloween Nails #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me

I adore Halloween makeup collaborations probably even moreso than Christmas and and when I was lurking on Amazon the other night, I came across the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri collaboration with candy company Reese's! I thought this was one of the cutest collaborations for Halloween and ended up getting four shades from London Drugs - two of which I will share with you today!

NAILS | Let the Halloween Glitter Begin! #CBBxManiMonday

Press samples

This is my first week where I have some breathing room and time to catch up on things at work. I had today off after working Sunday (normally we are closed) for the most dreaded retail event of all time - INVENTORY! We decided that we would start at 8am and power through and we were mostly done around 12pm. The other manager and I stayed until 2pm as we were still looking into some discrepancies, but we were able to sort them out and all in all our Inventory was near perfect!

NAILS | Pencils for Back to School #CBBxManiMonday

 

Press samples

Even though I have long been out of school and do not have kids of my own to remind me that "Back to School" season is upon us, there is something about having been a student for so long that makes me feel like I am still part of the Back to School madness! I am sure I am not alone in this as many of us still have that recurring dream of showing up at an exam and it's the wrong room or day!

NAILS | China Pattern-Inspired #CBBxManiMonday

Press samples

August is going by WAY too quickly for me as I am not quite ready to think about Back to School season (even though I haven't been a student for over 10 years!). It's amazing how Back to School will forever stick with you long into your adult years. One thing I have been seeing A LOT of this summer is the blue floral print on white on dresses and bags and thought I would try it out on my nails!

NAILS | Man, It's a Hot One! #CBBxManiMonday

Press samples

I feel like I can relax now that I have worked a whole week without my other manager. I feel like I can never get any of my client stuff done when I am alone because the team tends to need support that is now falling solely on my instead of divided between the two of us. We used to have a Floor Manager dedicated to helping the sales team, but she left recently and so we are having to recalibrate our energy and resources. I think what makes me sad about our current team is that two senior members of the team always need help AND refuse to help others or give them terrible or wrong answers so the rest of the team has been forced to rely on us for proper guidance. I always live in fear whenever a new hire starts because they just don't know who to trust and you can't be the crazy manager who says negative things about their own staff. I'm not in charge of hiring or firing so sometimes I also feel like I am just working with the cards I've been dealt. Anyway, somehow I managed to find it in me to put on some nail polish yesterday ONLY because I know how much better I feel whenever I have fresh nails!

NAILS | Inspired by My June Ipsy Glam Bag #CBBxManiMonday

Press samples

I just got back home from a lovely facial with Dior at Holt Renfrew and I feel SO relaxed that I want to have a nap, but as I work the next five days in a row without my other manager, something tells me that I am going to feel like total crap by the time this week is over. Well, at least I will have pretty nails because I am really happy with how these "inspired by my Ipsy bag" nails turned out!