Halloween Nails - Candy Corn!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I present to you the third and final installment for this year's Halloween themed manicure - candy corns!

For this manicure I "free handed" the design. I applied each tier of nail polish in the same way that I would apply nail polish near my nail bed - only about half a centimeter from the previous color. The application is far from perfect, which is why I chose to apply opalescent flaky polish to help blur the lines of polish.

I started with white polish - Orly's White Out. I really could use a new bottle of white polish. This bottle is quite old and took three coats to get the streaks near the nail bed out. Next I applied my orange - Orly's Sol Cabana. This is a nice happy shade of orange, and while I don't wear orange polish regularly, when I do wear it, I should reach for this color more. My nail polish collection began in Sally Beauty Supply and so my polish collection includes Orly. Once I realized I didn't have to buy all my polishes from Sally, I pretty much stopped buying Orly as I found their polishes to be thick, goopey and streaky all at the same time. A good polish should be opaque in one coat, and maybe only need a second coat to achieve a completely even coverage. Orly's performance is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Now I only buy Orly when I will simply die without their unique colors. When Orly came out with their Cosmic FX Fall 2010 collection, I needed it. I knew I would probably have application issues, but that nail polish finish was so unique (at the time) that I happily plunked down my $40+ on the Sally checkout counter for the collection. Other than those rare occasions, I steer clear from Orly.

My final color was Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Sunflower. You know, this manicure made me realize that there are some serious gaps in my nail polish collection. I didn't realized that I had only ONE white and not a single, vibrant creme yellow polish. Zoya's Pippa has been on my need to get list for a while, but I'm not sure if I can stop at only that one. Though Sunflower was the closest shade of yellow I own, it has an opalescent finish to it which is why I opted to put a top coat of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Hidden Treasure to add the opalescence to the other colors on my nail.

Let's tally up the coats of polish, shall we? Three white, two orange, two yellow, two Hidden Treasure = 9 coats. I topped this all with a final thick coat of Seche Vite. It got my nails dry to the touch, that was certain. However, I fell asleep before my nails really hardened and some of the polish "moved." My middle finger was dented and nicked so badly that I just scraped the polish off the tip. Instead of trying to build up a new corner of yellow onto my nail, I took a black striper and turned the missing tip color into a bite mark. I know, candy corn are bite size and you really wouldn't bite into one, but you know what? Shut up. It was late last night, I realized my screwed up finger nail early this morning and didn't have time to fix it. This polish will be coming off tonight and I will be giving my UV free gel nail kit a go! I'm more excited for that than this candy corn mani, so sue me!

Just kidding! Love ya and thanks for reading!

I think I've Moved On Enough to Post This...

This was my FIFA World Cup manicure. Orange to represent the Huis van Oranje and the red, white, and blue for the flag of the Netherlands. Oh, what could have been. True, both teams had never won the cup before, but why couldn't it have been the Netherlands. They are a teeny, tiny country with a little over 16.5 million people inhabiting an area only slightly larger than Maryland, so to make it as far as they did is awesome. And the game was well matched (and both goalies PHENOMINAL)...but...but...why couldn't it have been us? Third time was not the charm.

C'est la vie...or whatever the Dutch equivalent is.

Anyhow, the manicure was awesome. I used Zoya's Sienna for my orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Nail Color in Red Carpet, Orly's White Out, and Sally Hansen HD Nail Polish in Laser.

I needed to breakaway from my tribute to the red, white and blue (first for July 4th, and then for the Netherlands) so I decided to test out my grabs from the L'oreal Passport to Paradise Collect. I did Ocean Breeze for my manicure and found myself with a HUGE FAIL:


Indoor Lighting


Outdoor Sunlight

Look at the fail that is this polish. Boy, was I bummed. This was some lovely color in the bottle (and lovely swatches on other nail blogs) but a disaster on the nails. This was a heinous polish to work with - it was runny and goopey all at the same time and dried with bumps, lumps and ripples. Ugh...I took this off the very next day. I don't know about this. I was so disgruntled that I am reluctant to even try and save this with a little polish thinner. Maybe I got a rogue bad bottle. I picked up another bottle from this collection, so maybe the next one will be better (though with my past experience, I am reluctant to use the next bottle.) I have one other L'oreal polish from their regular line...a purple and the name escapes me. I swatched it on ONE nail when I first got it (for swatching purposes only) and it seemed OK and I do plan on wearing it in the future. I feel I owe it to the bottle to give it another shot. When I run across my polish thinner, I will give this bottle another go.

One last bit...I am going to cut my nails. (LOL, I love how this is "news worthy" to me. I am convince that the reason my nails look so bad is because of the salon manicure I had at the end of May. The picture I posted in my Seche Fail post is still pretty accurate of how the nails look. I have stopped using Seche Recondition (I can only take so much insult to injury) and started using Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Hard as Wraps Powerful Acrylic Gel (does anyone else find SH names to be obnoxiously long?) to strengthen my nails because they are peeling and shredded in certain areas. Though the condition is pretty bad, the nails hold up fairly well with polish on them. But enough is enough. I am starting fresh (well, as fresh as I can...I think I would need to let more nail grow out to completely start fresh.) But maybe I will keep them short until all the damaged nail grows out. I don't know why I opted for the salon manicure - I almost never do. I guess because I was wrapped up in the "special occasionness" of graduating and thought "what the hell." I don't know why I am surprised. My toenails look that bad too without polish on them, and I get pedicures far more often than I get manicures (and then I don't even get pedicures too much. Do you realize that you can buy 3-5 bottles of polish for the cost of one salon pedicure+tip?) Ugh... I must start my quest for healthier nails. When I was using Nailtek I had very happy results. Maybe it's time to dig that stuff out again.

Until I regrow my length, here is the last shot of my long nails, wearing Essie's Lapis of Luxury - tipwear, crusty cuticles and all!



Fear not! I will still post nail pics. I will use this opportunity to test out more loud and vampy shades that some would consider obnoxious on longer nails (not me though...nope...I don't discriminate based on nail length.)

Fourth of July Manicure

I have to say, I am pretty proud of this one:



I created this manicure with Sally Hansen HD Nail Color in Laser, Orly White Out, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Nail Color in Red Carpet. I also used Sinful Color Nail Art stripers in their red and blue colors as well as a Migi Nail Art pen in white.

This manicure was very intimidating to do...it is probably the most intricate nail art I have ever attempted. I first saw this kind of art in a video by Julieg713 on Youtube. Her nail designs always look so effortless. The nail design was very hard once it got going, but once I started on my right hand, I couldn't stop shaking!

And just to prove I DID do it on my left hand...



I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July. Getting started on my next NOTD right now.

Thanks for reading!

NOTD...a week late.

Hey there! Last week threw me for a loop, but I am trying to get back into the swing of things. This is the manicure I wore all last week:



For this manicure I used Essie's Looking for Love as the base (which looks like a lilac in the bottle, but as blue a lilac as you can get before turning into an actual blue), Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Brisk Blue for the french tip, and Orly's White Out for the polka dots!

I enjoyed wearing this manicure so much this past week. I have tons of colors to swatch coming up and will try to post once a day for the rest of this week. I am already backlogged terribly and don't want to fall any further behind! I can't start swatching tonight for the sun has gone down and I really want nice pictures of these swatches, but tonight I will paint my nails Mr. Wrong from Hard Candy. It's one of my newest bottles and I am very excited to acquire this lemming.

In unrelated news, my financial aid came through today and Igot my student teaching assignment! No high school (which is a major bummer because that is the grade level at which I wish to teach) but I got paired with some really good teachers.

That's it for now, I will be back tomorrow with some awesome bottle shots (at the very least) of the newest bottles I have purchased!

Night!

The NOTD that went one day too long...

This manicure morphed over the course of a week:

Day 1: Nailtek Foundation II Base Coat, 3 coats of Sally Hansen HD Nail Color in DVD, 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Day 3: Reverse French Manicure with Sally Hansen HD Nail Color in Laser (3 coats), 1 coatof Seche Vite.

Day 5: Refreshed the reverse french manicure (touched up tipwear) and added 1 coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Color in Shooting Star, 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Day 5, later on that day: Added several layers of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Color in In the Spotlight to tips of thumb and ring finger, 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Day 5, still later: Removed all polish with foil method. The weight of all that polish was too much for my fingertips, LOL.

I often employ techniques such as these to extend the life of a manicure. When I am busy during the semester and only have time for a polish change once a week, these are all things I havce done to extend the life of my manicure. I did go a little over thie top this time, but that is the beauty of nail polish: you can change it as often as you change your mind! (And for me, that could be a lot!)

Thanks for taking the time to read my little beauty musings. If you have any questions, comments or requests, please leave them below!

Bet You Can't Swatch Just One! And NOTD!

Ok, so I may have a slight tendency towards hoarding. It's not a big deal. I have it under control.


While stopping off at my local pharmacy last night, I saw another Sally Hansen HD Nail Color that I had not seen on Tuesday.

Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definiton Nail Color in #16 Laser

I thought I would add this to my collection. I haven't been able to stop looking at my nails with the DVD on them. Since I couldn't bear to take it off, but NEEDED to swatch my newest color I came up with this:

Sally Hansen HD polish in DVD, tipped with Laser, topped with SecheVite.

I think I did OK for my first reverse french manicure with homemade janky nail guides. I'll give my DIY nail guides another shot. I have to find a better stencil to draw my guides before I cut them out. I need more of a moon or crescent shape to follow rather than the slight curve, which would be more appropriate for a regular french manicure.

It seems that I am on quite a Sally Hansen kick. While searching the SH section for the illusive Hidden Treasure polish, I had never realized that the Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear line was so affordable. At only $2.99 for an almost full sized product, I thought why the hell not. This is my first experience with the Xtreme line from SH and I can't wait to give it a go.

Shooting Star, In the Spotlight, Disco Ball, Going Green

I can't wait to test out the formula on these polishes. I am seldom disappointed with SH polishes and have found that their formula has only improved over the years. I did decide to get some "effects" polished over regular polishes. I had to throw one in there. I missed out on China Glaze's Four Leaf Clover. I hope this is a close dupe.


I'm happy to take swatch requests if there is one particular polish you would like to see first!


Thanks for reading!

First Beauty Related Blog Post!

(LOL, a font to choose for blogging is Webdings. Can anyone actually read Webdings? If you can, you're my hero!)

I finally have time to sit down and write a beauty related blog! That seems to be what always happens, I start a blog only to have it fall by the wayside because of life, jobs, school, etc. Anyway, this is not a complain post. This is a NAIL OF THE DAY POST!

As most other nail blogs have posted, the new Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Nail Color polishes are amazing. I have passed by these time and time again because of the eye-catching sparkly colors.

But each time I saw them I kept passing them up because of my first experience with Sally Hansen HD polish. I first bought SH HD when launched about 2 years ago. I picked up Hi-Def because it so closely resembled the polish that Elphaba from the musical Wicked wears in costume. (I will fill you in on my healthy obssesion with Wicked and the Wicked Witch of the West another time.) When I first applied this polish, I was not pleased. It took more than four coats for an even coverage. The polish was thick and difficult to work with. It ruined my manicure, even though the green nails would be the last thing people would be looking at on me. (Again, I will tell you about Wicked and myself another time.)

So with my past experience, I was weary. However, after reading other nail blogger's reviews and seeing their swatches, my willpower during my last trip to CVS was not strong enough. Being partial to the non-traditional nail polish colors, I had to pick up these beauties:

(Pictured from left to right: #13 Resolution, #14 Spectrum, #15 DVD)

These are so pretty, I didn't know which on to try first. I decided upon DVD because...I was wearing a purple shirt today, hee hee. I used Nail-Tek Foundation II as a base coat, 3 coats of polish (though are still some bald spots that can be seen in the pictures, 4 coats would have been best, but I did this manicure during my 30 minute lunch) and topped with Seche Vite. The polish applied fairly easily, a bit on the thicker side. A single coat of DVD could be used as a glitter top coat in layering. Maybe I will try that sometime. Drying time was pretty fast between coats. Lastly, the Sally Hansen website says that this polish acutally contains liquid cyrstal particles. That at least sounds cool.

Anyhow for your viewing pleasure and consideration, Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Nail Color in DVD:

Under florescent lighting

Florescent Lighting^

With Flash^

In bright sun

Yeah, I picked a great first polish to blog about. Purples are notoriously difficult to photograph in respects of color accuracy. All these pictures are acurate. The polish shines differently in different lights. The purple is cool toned, but photographs almost blue. When the polish is looked at on it's own, some might call it blue. But when set next to a true blue color, it is obviously purple. It even photographs as steely silver. So if you decide to buy this polish completely based upon my review, plan on getting a multi-dimensional purple. Another note: in some pictures, the polish appears to have a gritty or grainy finish. It does have a bit of grittiness to it, but under a thick top coat dries completely smooth. The grit is what adds to the dimension of the polish.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. :-)