Sally Hansen Salon Effects Speed Dating

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

I was actually able to find a full display of the Valentine themed Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips.  After never being able to find the winter ones, I was treated to two of these patterns by the DH.  I decided to wear Speed Dating for the week leading up to Valentine's.

This pattern are red hearts of various sizes on a light gold background. The hearts have a textured appearance like they were made out of pieces of red foil. The light gold has a metallic finish that looks a bit smoother in comparison.

 

After the temperamental application with Ghoulie Girl, I skipped the base coat this time.  I think that was the trick because these went on nice and easy. These strips are shiny enough that a top coat didn't really add to the shininess on my first day of wear.  Top coat helped to refresh the shine on my third day of wear, but it didn't improve overall wear time because these strips resisted tip wear even on the nails that weren't top coated.  After almost five days of wear, these were still a good looking mani.

...and in case you thought I forgot this year... It's here at last!  Happy Centennial Day in Arizona!!  I hope everyone's getting their fill of celebration on our state's 100th birthday.  I know I'm optimistically looking forward to a second century based on progress, hope, and cultural understanding.

Wet N Wild Ice Baby Collection

I have a fabulous friend who gifted me with the entire wet n wild coloricon Holiday Glitter 2011 Ice Baby Collection.  The entire set!!

Let's get started with a look at these cute little bottles...

Rockin' Rubies - Believe Me, It's Real - 24 Carats - Give Me A Price Quote

It's All In The Cut - Back Alley Deals - Cost Is No Issue - Diamond In The Rough

Here's one coat of these glitters over one coat of black creme polish.  All of these polishes are clear-based and their opacity varies, but I wouldn't describe any of them as sheer.  They are gritty, top coat-sucking glitters so I think layering makes wear and removal easier.  If you want to wear them solo, you'll only need two or three coats to get full coverage.

Rockin' Rubies - red microglitter with pink hex holo glitter
Believe Me, It's Real - blue microglitter with purple hex glitter
24 Carats - yellow-gold microglitter and bar glitter
Give Me A Price Quote - warm gold microglitter with gold and orange bar glitter with pink flash. I can't tell where that pink is coming from, but it's there.

It's All In The Cut - lavender microglitter with pink hex glitter

Back Alley Deals - purple microglitter with red hex glitter

Cost Is No Issue - light greenish blue microglitter with blue hex glitter

Diamond In The Rough - charcoal microglitter with silver holo hex glitter

As a glitter fan, I love every single one of these polishes. The colors are bright, the color and texture combinations are creative, and the overall feel is so playful.  They cover the nail easily, dry quickly, and wear for days without chipping.

If I had to pick my Top 3 Favorites from the Ice Baby collection, I'd go with... 

Back Alley Deals - It's like an awesome glitter version of China Glaze Flying Dragon.

Believe Me, It's Real - Blue and purple and it's all glitter? oh yeah! 

It's All In The Cut - It's so girly and Lisa Frank-like.

I'm wearing these all as NOTDs, so I'll have future posts showing them off on their own.  If you live by a Walgreens and find this collection, buy these polishes! Pick up your favorite colors and I'm positive you'll be wearing them non-stop through the winter/holiday season.

Cult Nails Get It On & Wicked Fast!

I was lucky enough to be one of the few people chosen to test drive the new base and top coat from Cult Nails!  Are you ready to see what Maria's come up with this time?

I've never done this before, but... here are my bare nails (eep)!!  

I had some funky staining awhile back so I lightly buffed my nails.  As you can see, there's now a clear line straight through the middle between buffed and unbuffed nail.  I've been using a ridgefiller base coat while the buffed part grows out to make the surface even again.

Here are my nails with one coat of Cult Nails Get It On Perfecting Base Coat.

Where's the uneven line between buffed/unbuffed?  Where are my minimal ridges? Perfected! One coat and everything was smoothed over.

Get Even has a shiny finish, but not in a slick way. The dried texture is slightly rubbery so it's ready to grab on to the polish.  It also dries quickly - I can't stand base coats that take forever to set. Get Even is one of those base coats where Finger 1 is dry by the time you're done putting it on Finger 10.

It was Friday, so I was ready for fun weekend nails.  I decided to try out Get Even and Wicked Fast with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away.  This shade was released in Spring/Summer 2009, but I didn't buy it until it recently made it back on to drugstore displays as a featured shade of the season.  It's very pigmented, so some people can get away with just one coat.

I wore it here with two coats and one coat of Wicked Fast.

Here are my tips with Blue Me Away after four full days of wear.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of wrapping the tip of the fingernail with polish and top coat to my friends who want to make their manicures last longer. It really works! Don't leave the edge of the nail bare - seal that color on!

Normally, tip wear is minimized but the combo of Get Even and Wicked Fast cemented Blue Me Away on. Even after days of cleaning, typing, dish washing without gloves, there's still polish on the nail edge.

Here are my bare nails right after I took Blue Me Away off.

Four days of wearing a bright blue shade over only one coat of base coat and there was no significant staining on my nails themselves.  I even got crazy smurf fingers when I was taking Blue Me Away off - there's still a touch of blue staining on the right side of my cuticles visible - but my nails were fine!

I think one of the best tests of base/top coats is how they act with cremes because it's a very unforgiving finish.  Jellies would have to be the next hardest finish because of its tendency to bubble and pull away from the tips.  Next up was my manicure to celebrate "the end of summer" over the long Labor Day weekend.

Here are my nails with two coats of New York Summer Hot Orange, one coat of Cult Nails Captivated, and one coat of Get Even and Wicked Fast each.

Here are my nails after five full days of wear.

My nails grew out but the polish didn't go anywhere!  I wore Get Even and Wicked Fast for a day or two with other polish brands and finishes.  The results were consistently the same - once the polish dried, it stayed put nice, shiny and smooth.

I loved Get Even Perfecting Base Coat from the second it dried on my first nail.  I had to get to know the Wicked Fast! Quick Drying Top Coat before I grew to love it.  Why?  Because it's not a thick quick drying top coat, so it shouldn't be treated like one!  That seems like a logical no-brainer, but I've been using thick top coats like Seche Vite and Poshe for a few years and old habits die hard.

Wicked Fast is a thin top coat. You don't need a large bead to be slathered and oozed on the nail for it to work.  The more you put on, the slower it'll dry and the more likely it'll bubble. You don't need a thick layer or multiple coats of Wicked Fast.  One thin coat.  That's it.  Really.  That's all you'll need to make this work!  Put it on thinly and it'll dry quickly to a hard glass-like finish.

After trying Get Even and Wicked Fast for the last few weeks, I know that I'm in love. So far, they get along with all of my polishes, they make them last forever, and they're so easy to work with.  I love the Cult Nails bottle and brush and I love their formulas. Once again, Maria has blown my mind with her creations.

Get Even and Wicked Fast are expected to go on sale at the end of the month, so keep your eye on the Cult Nails shop and definitely plan on getting your own!

Catching Up - China Glaze Classic Camel

Part One - Starting a New Job...

After being unemployed for way too long, I'm finally going back to work! In Arizona. In August. None of my New York work clothes felt light or bright enough to wear. When I first started working in NYC, I tried to wear my AZ khakis to work. They were quickly replaced with darker trousers that could hide the random subway schmutz. Now that I'm back, so are my khakis!

I also had to pick out my first day at work polish. It had to be something work appropriate but special. Riding the khakis high I was on, I went with related shade for my mani - China Glaze Classic Camel from the Fall 2010 Vintage Vixen collection.

Like its name suggests, this is a light camel shade. It's a yellow-based beige filled with gold fleck shimmer. My bottle was separating a bit and I didn't roll it as much as I should have to get it back to smooth consistency, so I had to put on three coats for full, even coverage.

I know this collection was supposed to be 40s themed, but this polish looks like the 70s on me and I love it! The gold shimmer is subtle indoors and the polish takes on more of a beige look. With full sunlight hitting that shimmer and my undertones, Classic Camel becomes more yellow/golden.

When I have to do work appropriate, this is how I like to do it. This shade looks like a nude on me at first glance, but the gold shimmer and slightly quirky base color still keep it interesting for me. I'm still rocking full glitter on the weekends, though!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Purple Gala

What to wear for Mardi Gras?  Something purple, something gold, something festive & sparkly... time for Purple Gala!!

This is a limited edition polish from the Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear line. The display didn't specify a season and it started popping up in July and August, so I'll say it's from their Fall 2010 collection.

Purple Gala is a sparkly foil with purple, silver, and gold glitter in a smoky purple base overlaid with lots of larger gold glitter pieces. You'll see more purple versus more gold depending on the lighting. This polish was opaque in 2 coats, but I put on a third coat for a little more depth.

This was a challenging polish to find even after it was recently released. Since that was almost a year ago and this is a limited edition shade, it might be near impossible to get Purple Gala now.  But never fear! If you like the look of Purple Gala, I recommend picking up Hard Candy's Mr. Wrong, which is close enough in color and finish to be a dupe to the casual observer.

China Glaze Ahoy!

I'm going to try and be really brief because I gotta get to the TV. Two of my favorite shows are on tonight - Community and Parks & Rec! It's the D&D episode on Community and would I really be a good MPA if I didn't LOVE Parks & Rec?

Know what else makes me smile like these funny shows? A really pretty polish! I heard an ice storm was going to hit the city this week and Ahoy! was bright enough to counter the freezing weather.

This pink is one of the big stars from the China Glaze Anchors Away Spring 2011 Collection. Even though it's from a spring collection, I think Ahoy! looks like the winter cousin to CG Strawberry Fields.

This is a bright magenta jelly infused with tons of orange-gold shimmer (see it towards the bottom of the bottle - that's what the shimmer looks like on the nail in daylight). The shimmer is almost always visible at every angle. Indoors - even in dim lighting - the shimmer keeps on sparkling but it looks more red-fuchsia.

Also, I believe that Ahoy! is related to OPI's Let Me Entertain You, but LMEY is a cooler shade that leans toward purple-fuschia with a more foil-like finish.  Definitely not dupes, but I think they can be called 1st cousins.

Off for TV time!  But I will be back tomorrow with something fun for all - be ready!!  **EDIT: I'll be back NEXT Friday - I'll explain the delay then ;) **

China Glaze Medallion

I really love the glitters from the China Glaze Specialty Collection.  I saw them on Scrangie, got some to try for myself and I've really been hooked ever since. Honestly, NYC weather can make me feel pretty gloomy.  I don't like gray clouds and drizzle for days and days. I like putting on glitter polishes when I'm feeling kind of down and China Glaze Medallion helped me make it through the dreary, cold winter.

Since it has been a pretty dry summer in the city, I haven't worn it in a few months, so I decided to wear it for a very happy weekend just to celebrate. What was I celebrating? A roadtrip to DC to see Idina Menzel and Marvin Hamlisch in concert for my birthday!!

This is a clear-base cool gold glitter. There is a ton of holographic and larger hexagonal glitter thrown in among smaller gold and silver glitter. It's a rainbow of glitter. Blue, pink, green - you see something different sparkle up at you every time the sun hits it.

This swatch is taken with two thick coats. That's it. And check out the coverage! China Glaze didn't promise full coverage in two coats and I definitely wasn't expecting it since this has a clear base, so I was surprised and very pleased when I put on the first coat, let it set for a minute, put on the second coat, and... hey, it's time for a thick top coat - already?! - incredible.

The first time I wore this, I kept looking at my nails and thinking BLING-TASTIC!!! That's why I wore it for New Year's, my birthday, and every other time I wanted to feel extra sparkly.