Sally Hansen I Lilac You

I bought Sally Hansen I Lilac You at CVS the weekend before last, and I used it right away for a manicure.

I really liked the formula.  I used two coats.  The first coat was almost perfect, though, and it was mostly self-evening.  I had no flooding.  It was also very shiny.  I had to redo three nails, and there was no difference between the shine of the polish and the shine on the other nails with Seche Vite.  The finish was very smooth.  The brush is the wider brush, like the Dior brush.  Cleanup was a breeze as there was barely any.  The polish looks more lilac (blue-leaning) in some lights and more lavender (pastel purple-leaning) in others.

This polish really inspired me and made me think of many different nail art looks.  I thought it would be nice with stamping on top, and eventually, that's what I did.  Originally I thought white stamping with a delicate lace-like pattern would be nice, but I ended up using UP Colors Laser Lilas Holo to stamp over I Lilac You.  It was my first time stamping on my nails!  I will show you the results in my next post, but for now I have a preview photo on my Facebook page and on Instagram.  I also thought that the polish would look nice with a coat of Sally Hansen Snow Globe over it, or with striping on it, or with holo dots, or with a glitter gradient, etc.  So, I will definitely be wearing this polish again.

I am still wearing the polish today, the tenth day since I put it on.  I have not had any chips, although I did break the corner off a thumbnail . . . while putting on baggy gym shorts for goodness' sake!  So, the polish wears really well.  I did have a little shrinkage from fast-drying top coats, but it only happened after I showered.  The shower caused a dramatic shrink-back on my nail tips, but then the polish seemed to settle back to a regular look of minor shrinkage or tip wear.

Here are some photos:

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indirect Sunlight

Indoors, Office Lighting

Sunlight

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Rainbow Honey XOXO over Sally Hansen Satin

My last post was a preview post of Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk Collection for Valentine's Day.  If you click through, you can see pictures of the adorable packaging for XOXO and Sweet Talk, and you can see pictures of swatches on my nail wheel of each of the polishes by themselves and in combination with other polishes and with a matte top coat, and you can see a picture of the third polish in the collection, Be Mine, that I don't have right now.  My past few posts before that have been reviews of Rainbow Honey polishes, too, from the Yokai Collection for Halloween.

XOXO is a gorgeous glitter top coat.  It has red glitters in medium and small sizes.  Sometimes they came together to form a heart-like shape here and there on my nails.  There is also a gold shimmer or gold microflakes like tiny little pieces of gold leaf, and there is holo glitter in the polish.  The holo glitter is what I call the "pastel" holo glitter.  I've seen holo glitters that flash in pastel colors and holo glitters that flash in brighter primary colors.  The holo glitter in XOXO flashes appropriately in pastel shades.  The base of the polish is clear and not too thick but just right so that it goes on smooth and shiny, although even with one coat of Seche Vite and another of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, it's still not perfectly smooth, but it's very smooth without any jagged edges to the glitter.  It's not top-coat hungry, it's just that top coat doesn't sit perfectly smooth over the glitter, similar to but much less pronounced than the effect of top coat over flakies.  The red glitter flashes a gorgeous purple at times.  I used two very thin coats.  I tried to be subtle for work and used only one thin coat at first. One coat provided enough coverage, but then I wanted more glitter!  There was no shrinkage from either top coat; I love that about Rainbow Honey polishes.

I have seen a couple of other reviews of this gorgeous top coat on other blogs.  On the Galactic Lacquer blog, there are gorgeous pictures of XOXO over a strong pink polish.  I don't own a lot of pink polishes, so I didn't have many to choose from in my stash.  The result on Galactic Lacquer's post is what my ideal would have been if I had the "right" pink polish.  The Lacquerologist also shows XOXO over a perfect pink polish and also has pictures of Sweet Talk.  On the Nails in Nippon blog, there are pictures of both XOXO and Sweet Talk, and she has a picture of XOXO over black polish that is AMAZING!

In addition to being perfect for Valentine's Day, I think XOXO would also work nicely during the Christmas holidays, and I wonder what it would like over other colors like maybe a medium blue polish.

Here are some pictures of my XOXO mani:

Sunlight
Seldom seen right hand
You can see some of the gold micro flakies and how the red glitter flashes purple at times.
You can also see the holo glitters flashing in pastel shades.
Please excuse the cuticles; I had moisturized and was about to walk out of my house when I spotted a doggie peepee accident, and my OCD wouldn't let me not clean it up right away, and scrubbing tile and tile grout with cleaners is rough on my right hand, and I was running late and couldn't stop to moisturize again.

Left hand
Even in very low light conditions, this polish magically sparkles.
Didn't use this hand to scrub after the doggie accident,
but I did wash both hands and with that washed a lot of my prior moisturizing efforts away.

Seldom seen right hand
Indirect Sunlight
Sparkly even in low light
This picture comes closest to showing the true color of the pink "underwear" polish; the sunlight washed it out in other pictures.

Indoors
Seldom seen right hand
Camera was too dazzled by this polish indoors to take a better picture

I used Sally Hansen's Satin as "underwear" for XOXO.  Satin is a very pale pink with a peachy tone from the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line.  I had wanted those pastel polishes ever since last Easter, and around Christmas they went on clearance at CVS, and I bought the pastel pink, orange, green, blue and purple polishes.  Now I'm all set for Easter this year!  I used two coats of Satin, and I still had visible nail line, but it looks nice.  I had heard other bloggers complain about the formula in the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line pastel colors, saying that the formula was thick or difficult to work with or dragged or left bald patches.  I didn't have any of those problems.  The only issue I had was a couple of small bubbles, but I had just shaken the bottle before applying the polish, and you couldn't see the bubbles after I applied the XOXO top coat.  I thought the formula was good, not too thin or thick, and it didn't pool or flood my cuticles, and I barely had any need for cleanup.  There is a bit of a frosty shimmer to the finish, but it's not too brushstrokey.  The brush is wide and the end is curved like my cuticles, although that curved end is trimmed unevenly in places and looks like it has jagged edges, but the brush worked well with the formula, and the polish went exactly where I wanted it to go.  Below are some pictures I took of Satin while I was doing my nails, so it's pre-cleanup, and it's very poor quality indoor lighting:

Very poor indoor lighting -- left hand -- one coat of Satin
Pre-cleanup, manicure in process
The pale pink polish has a bit of pearly shimmer to it.

Very poor indoor lighting -- right hand -- one coat of Satin

Very poor indoor lighting -- left hand -- two coats of Satin
Pre-cleanup, manicure in progress

Very poor indoor lighting -- right hand -- two coats of Satin
You can see one of the small bubbles on my pointer finger, on the far right. 

The Sweet Talk Collection will be sold in a private sale at fab.com from January 16, 2013 through January 19, 2013. The Collection will be officially released on January 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM EST at rainbowhoney.com and participating Retail Partners around the world. Rainbow Honey generously shared a promo code for $5.00 off a purchase on their website.  PROMO CODE = SWEETTALK$5 (promo code expires 2/28/2013). Thank you Rainbow Honey for the promo code and for letting me review these lovely polishes!

I should have a review post of Sweet Talk by next weekend.

Note:  I received a free bottle of XOXO polish from Rainbow Honey and was asked for my honest and unpaid review of XOXO.  I am not affiliated in any other way with Rainbow Honey other than as a regular customer because I do buy, love and use their products.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Halloween Giveaway

I have a quick giveaway for Halloween for you because I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy some polishes and nail polish strips at really great prices.  These prizes were purchased by me specifically for this giveaway.  You don't have to be a GFC Follower or Like my Facebook page to enter this giveaway.  Follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below to enter, and please give the Rafflecopter widget a few moments to load on your screen.

This giveaway is open internationally as long as it is legal for me to send you nail polish in your country.  For the full terms and conditions, please click on the terms and conditions link in the Rafflecopter widget below.

There will be two winners.  The prizes are explained in more detail in the Rafflecopter widget below, but here are some pictures of the prizes, starting with WTFuschia:

And also Party Action, with lots of really pretty glitter in there.

And also Deceit, a favorite of mine with its gorgeous flakies.  I have a post on the blog comparing Deceit to Finger Paints Twisted and I have another post with pictures of my own bottles of Blackheart Beauty and swatches of those polishes on nail wheels.

This picture is from Hot Topic's website.

And also the Sally Hansen nail polish strips in the skull & crossbones pattern.

I have my own bottle of Deceit.  I don't own the other two Blackheart Beauty polishes, and I don't own the skull & crossbones nail strips; I bought them just for this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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SoFlaJo Blue Martini over Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Teal with It

I didn't want to take off my Teal with It nail polish strips (reviewed here), even though I had messed them up by using Orly Smudge Fixer on them.  They still looked pretty from far away.  So, I topped the strips with SoFlaJo's Blue Martini, a glitter top coat that I reviewed here.  Definitely click through to see how pretty it looks over a black creme.  I love the shimmer in it, and I love the holo and the blue glitter and the diamond glitter!  There is short bar glitter in Blue Martini, and although I usually don't like large bar glitter, I did like the short bar glitter in Blue Martini.

The Teal with It strips had quite a bit of wear before I topped them with Blue Martini, so you'll see lots of wear in the pictures, especially where I may have tried to clean up around my cuticles only to remove the polish from Teal with It which then seemed to reveal sticker backing.  In the pictures below, I added a coat of Gelous and then a coat of Seche Vite, and the mani was very smooth, and you couldn't feel the glitter.  The strips lasted the full week that I usually take to redo my manis.

Sunlight.
You can see the shimmer from Teal with It combined with the very similar colored shimmer from Blue Martini.

Sunlight.

Sunlight, blurry, but you can see the holo effect from the glitter.

Indirect sunlight.

Indoors, office lighting.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Teal with It

The Sally Hansen Salon Effects in the Teal with It shade are my favorite nail strips.  The day of the office holiday party last year, I told my husband that I had read about Salon Effects nail stickers online, and I wanted to try them.  While I was getting ready for the party, he went out and bought me the Teal with It nail strips and surprised me with them at home.  That was the first time I wore blue nail polish.  The strips were and are gorgeous and always get me compliments on my mani.  The color is very attention-grabbing, even from far away.  It's quite a bright blue.

Unfortunately, I was not able to capture the color in photographs, and I didn't see any pictures online that showed the color accurately.  The color is more like turquoise in real life, and it has a greenish teal shimmer, and it looks metallic, but without any of the pesky brush strokes that I get so often with liquid metallic polishes.

This mani did take me a long time.  I took 90 minutes, and I only had one perfect nail this time, my right pinky.  All my edges were covered, though.  I did have to use little slivers of strips here and there to patch up any parts that the strip didn't cover right away.

Even though these Salon Effects manis take me a long time (and I'm including the prep time in there), my sister-in-law just whips them on in 15 minutes.  And, you can't beat not having to do any cleanup and not having any stains with gorgeous blue nail polish.

Last year I bought Orly Smudge Fixer because I read online that if the nail polish strips dried out, you could revive them by brushing Orly Smudge Fixer on them after placing them on your nails.  Orly Smudge Fixer has a thinner-like effect.  In the past, I have used Smudge Fixer to smooth over a seam where I have added a sliver of strip to patch up an empty spot.  I had read it was good for smoothing out the wrinkles in the polish strips, but DON'T DO IT!!!  It removed the polish quite a bit and let the sticker backing show through a little in a spotted effect.  Instead of wearing away the color, I would have rather just worn the strips wrinkled.  From far away the polish strips still looked nice, though.

I use top coat on my nail strips to help them last.  I added one coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat to the Teal with It strips.

I only use the Teal with It strips when my nails are short because then I can cut each strip in half and use it for two nails.  I am hoarding my last few strips of this shade because it's not sold anymore.  If you cut your strips in half, just make sure you remove the plastic cover on the strip first because it's hard to remove after cutting.

Not only was I using the Teal with It strips because my nails were short, but also because they have another added benefit.  If I have a tear in a nail, even a really bad tear, the strips will hold the tear together until it grows out enough to be cut or filed off without pain and without looking bad.  I had a very bad tear in my right index finger, well above the edge of the nail bed, and yet my nail was still perfectly attached below the tear.  Weird.  It didn't even hurt when I used acetone, which surprised me.  The Teal with It strips held the nail together perfectly.  You couldn't even tell there was a tear beneath the strips.  The strips hide ridges in nails, too, which is quite impressive given that you don't use base coat underneath the polish strips.

I did get some crinkling around my cuticles and some lifting at some edges, but I used nippers to cut off any pieces that stuck out.  I got some minor chips near the tips of the nails by the third day.

This "polish" had the honor of being the first polish I wore twice since becoming obsessed with polish.  I last wore it nine months ago to my office holiday party, the last time my nails were this short.

As for removal, the first time I wore the strips, I removed them with regular polish remover, not 100% acetone.  The "polish" came off, but I had some sticky bits to deal with.  This time I removed the strips with pure acetone, and everything came off easily, leaving no residue behind, sticky or otherwise.

In the pictures below I have the Teal with It strips and two coats of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.  The pictures were taken on Day Two and Day Three and afterwards, so they show wear.

Indoors
This is a macro shot of one of the strips, a little blurry, but it's the closest I got to the true color of the polish strips, and you can see a little bit of the green teal shimmer in the turquoise polish.

Indoors
Another macro of the same nail polish strip.

Sunlight. Left Hand.
You can see a little bit of the shimmer effect.
The background color is not accurate; it's lighter and brighter in real life.
I patched up my pinkie a lot near the cuticle, and it really shows.

Indirect Sunlight.  Right Hand.
You can see a little bit of the shimmer effect, especially near the cuticle on the pointer finger.
You can click to enlarge the picture to see the shimmer a little better,
but then you'll see the bubbling I caused by using Smudge Fixer

Thank you for reading my blog!

Nail Mail

My first blog sale purchase! I love orange polishes and copper-colored ones, too. I had seen Sally Hansen's Pumpkin Spice on blogs, but it was not sold in stores anymore. I saw it on a blog sale late last week, and I got it on Wednesday this week!

Here are some photos of Pumpkin Spice:

Pumpkin Spice is not easy to photograph, but it's a copper glitter in a dark, smoky base.


Then today I received an order I had placed with llarowe.com.

Hits Speciallita Glitter Forte Punk Rock 614 (above) is a polish with bright orange glitters. I got it on sale for $3, but as of yesterday it was down to $2 on llarowe.com.

Hits Speciallita Hula (below) is a great flakie in very vivid red-orange shades. Anyone younger than 30 years old probably won't know what I'm talking about, but the color reminds me of the mercurochrome that was put on our boo-boos when we were kids.  I got Hits Hula on sale for $5, but as of yesterday the sale price went down even lower to $4.

Up Colors Lilas Holo (below) is a different shade from what I expected. I had thought it would be pale lavender or a bluish lilac color, but it's much more purple than I expected. I thought that I might give it away or swap it, but it's growing on me, especially when I noticed it's a complex color with some gold shimmer to it.  It looks very classy and pretty. It was $7 on sale on llarowe.com.

Shipping was very fast from llarowe, about three days from when I placed the order, and the shipping cost  was under $3 for all three bottles combined.

Below are pictures of the three polishes I received today swatched on a nail wheel, two coats each.  #9 on the nail wheel is Glitter Forte Punk Rock 614; #10 on the nail wheel is Hits Specialita Hula; and #11 on the nail wheel is Up Colors Lilas Holo.

Indoors, no flash.

Indoors, no flash.

Indoors with flash.

The glitter coverage was pretty thorough at two coats of Hits Speciallita Glitter Forte Punk Rock 614, but it doesn't feel very gritty on the nail wheel.  It's just slightly grittier than Sally Hansen Pumpkin Spice (#8 on the nail wheels above) which was hardly gritty at all.

Hits Speciallita Hula is such a juicy and shiny color!  The flakies have more of a glitter sandwich look rather than the more prominent look of flakies that I'm used to seeing.

And, the Up Colors Lilas Holo has a slight holo visible indoors and the holo effect is more visible using flash photography.  All my pictures above were taken indoors.  I haven't seen Lilas Holo outside in the sun, but I would guess the holo would look amazing in the sunlight.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Nail Mail and Beauty Mail!

I left work a little early today because I was feeling ill, probably from the lunch today in honor of our administrative assistants for Administrative Assistant Appreciation Day.  It was just the best day for me to find nail mail waiting for me at home!  And, I got beauty mail, too!

The nail mail is very special because it's from a fellow blogger here in Florida, Jody of SoFlaJo.com, who also has her own indie line of polish.  She sent me a mini bottle of Blue Martini from her newest Happy Hour Collection for me to try.  Blue Martini is a blue jelly filled with multiple sizes of diamond glitter, short tinsel, and round holo glitters.  All of Jody's polish is made from natural pigments and glitters with bases free of Toluene, Formaldehyde, and DiButyl Pthalate.  Mini bottles are $5 on her site, and full sized bottles are $10.  Her shipping charge is low, too, and she has promotions at times where shipping is free!

This nail mail just means so much to me in so many ways.  This is the first time I have received a sample of polish to review!  I can't believe she gave me a bottle to review when my blog is so new, and I don't have anywhere near as many followers as a lot of other blogs. And, I was waiting until the end of the month (pay day) to place an order for some SoFlaJo polishes, and Blue Martini was my #1 choice!  How does Jody know me so well???  You can see the Happy Hour Collection here.  She has done an amazing job with pictures of swatches on a nail wheel of the polishes by themselves and also layered over other polishes.  Go look!!!  Her macro shots of the polish colors are so sharp and amazing!  I wasn't able to take pictures even half as good as hers of the Blue Martini polish.

I'll be buying Pink Lady and Grasshopper (and maybe some more from this collection) after payday.  This week is a no-blue-or-glitter-manicure week for me because of an important hearing tomorrow morning and a conference/seminar on Friday, but as soon as this week is over, I am going to do a manicure with Blue Martini, maybe layered over black. I've never worn black polish before, layered or alone.  Double firsts this weekend!

Here are some pictures of the awesome nail mail from Jody of SoFlaJo.com:

The bottle was very secure in bubble wrap and was sealed with bright and beautiful , colorful tape!

It's like she delivered a mini-party to me!  The bottle has a very pretty label, and it has a very nice color-coordinated ribbon around the handle.  And, there was party confetti and a magic wand in my favorite blue color again!  The wand has a hibiscus on it, I believe.  That's a very pretty flower we see a lot here in South Florida.  And, the confetti is awesome!  I scrapbook, so I will be using the confetti in a layout, maybe a layout about receiving this first polish ever to review!

I tried to get some bottle shots of the polish, but Jody's pictures on her website are much better.  Here's the best I could do with my iPhone's camera:

DIAMOND GLITTER!    Oooooh!!!

And, although the swatches on a nail wheel are better on Jody's website, here are some pictures I took at home, because, of course, even feeling ill, I couldn't wait to swatch the GORGEOUS bottle of happiness that Jody sent to me!  On top is the polish by itself, two coats, and below is just one coat of the polish over one coat of black.  Can you believe how gorgeous it is over black and how much glitter is packed in one coat?

Application was super-easy.  You don't have to worry about not getting enough glitter or having to fish for any particular shape of glitter in the bottle!  And, there is no problem with placement of the glitter; it goes on evenly with the first brush stroke.

I compared the Blue Martini polish to a few other polishes I own.  There were no dupes, and nothing is as dazzlingly beautiful, not even close.

Top left is Blue Martini over Wet N Wild Black Creme.  Top right is Blue Martini by itself.  Below that is Sinful Colors Kissy on the left and Nail Junkie on the right.

On the left, top to bottom, is Essie School of Hard Rocks, Revlon Radiant, and OPI Austin-Tatious Turquoise.  On the right is Blue Martini over black and by itself.  The closest polish I own is Revlon Radiant, and it is nowhere near as beautiful as Blue Martini. Revlon Radiant doesn't have diamond glitter, either!

And now for the Beauty Mail!  I can't believe I got Nail Mail *and* Beauty Mail all on the same day!  The beauty mail was the free Beauty Bag from Target that I mentioned in this post on April 6th, the day I ordered the free Beauty Bag.  The samples I got were different from the samples in the picture of the offer from Target, but they are very nice samples.  Here are some pictures of the Beauty Bag and its contents:

The bag is pretty, and it's nicely padded, so I will probably use it to transport nail polish when I go on trips.

On the upper-right of the picture above, that's a coupon booklet with discounts for beauty products at Target.  I looked through it, and there are some nice $1 off and $2 off coupons for brands like Cover Girl and Maybelline.  But then I got to a coupon that made me stop and pull out my camera again:

Oh my!!!  I may be a lover of nail polish, but I'm a magnetic polish junkie!!!!  I have 15 bottles of different magnetic polish from different brands.  I cannot wait to see these Sally Hansen magnetic polishes at a local store!  Please, if any of you see these polishes in your local stores, let me know where you spotted them!  Wow, these will be the first magnetic polishes available at my local Target, Walgreens and CVS stores!  Up until now, when I've asked salespeople whether they will be carrying any magnetic polish, I have had to explain to them what magnetic polish is because they had never even heard of such a thing, let alone heard of them planning to offer it in the future at their stores!

Oh, thank you so much, Jody, for your incredibly thoughtful, sweet, and very special to me nail mail!  I am no longer feeling sick, so your nice surprise cured me!  :-)

Thank you for reading my blog!