Fantabulous Fuchsia

Here I've painted my nails pink with Sally Hansen's Xtreme wear polish in "Fuchsia Power". I have recently fell in love with SH "Hidden Treasure", but prefer it over a blue or darker color. So, when my aunt sent me Sinful's "Green Ocean", which is a slightly green base that is more clear than anything else, with a blueish flake and glitter, I was eager to try it over a pink. That is exactly what I did! It was hard for me to photograph but this is pretty close to how it looks. The glitter shifts from a green blue to a purple blue. It's gorgeous!!

sally hansen perfect pair :)

Sooo... my aunt had sent me Sally Hansen's HD "DVD", and at a first glance, I LOVED IT!! But, when I tried it on, it was a little disappointing due to it being very sheer. So, I was picking through my polishes, looking for one to layer it over, and I came across SH Intsta dri in "Grape Going".. They are the same color, from the purple base to the teal/blue flash!! The difference being that DVD is more sheer, and has larger glitter, whereas the insta dri has a smaller glitter for that beautiful flash! i didn't take any pics of them apart, but I do have 2 of them layered on my hands... here they are!

SH Spark with Sinful Green Ocean

I picked up a bottle of Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine polish in "Spark" for cheap at Walgreen's. I don't know if SH is discontinuing the line, or if it's just Walgreen's that is discontinuing the line, but all the Walgreen's here have the entire Lacquer Shine line for 1/2 off. The formula is better than decent, drying time was excellent (without a fast-dry topcoat), but I hate the tiny little brush that comes in the Lacquer Shine line.

As you can see below, Spark is your basic navy blue with a tiny bit of pinkish-purple shimmer. The shimmer only comes out in direct sunlight; in indirect light, the polish looks straight-up navy blue. (You can click on the picture to enlarge it; it shows the shimmer better that way.)



I topped it off with two coats (because I can never seem to stop at one...) of Sinful Colors Green Ocean. It's a delightful blue/green flakie polish that was available in March. I love it, and I especially love it over navy blue.

Here's a pick when I think it's at it's best, in indirect natural light:





And here's another in direct sun:



After red, navy blue is one of my favorite polish colors to wear, and I really like how the flakies really pop out and glow.

Hidden Treasure

I was soooooo excited when I was cruising the nail polish isle at the store and saw the GIANT display of the new Sally Hansen Complete Manicure polishes!! I had been waiting for Hidden Treasure to be available, and BOOM, there it was!! Honestly though, if I had not seen pictures of "Flakies" on blogs, I would have been completely uninterested by just the bottle. Now that I've seen and used it, I love it! I especially love how the flash changes from a blue, greenish blue to a yellow orangie, almost pink. I couldn't wait to bring it home and put it over a bright blue!!

This is CG sky high tops with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, one coat of Pure Ice Oh Baby, and one coat of SV: Sorry the pic is slighty dark, I took it using the light of a natural lamp and a piece of white paper to diffuse the light a little bit.


Also along with my Hidden Treasure adventure, my good friend decided to try the fabulous flake over black and mattify it!! I am not at all a fan of matte nail polish, usually with me, the shinier the better!! But, for some reason, Flakies look so cool mattified!! Here is her NOTD :)



And one more pic of our hands together to show the difference using a matte nail polish makes versus a regular clear. Oh and by the way we used CG Matte Magic :)

Dirty Red Bandana

Now that St. Patty's day has come and gone, I am a bit relieved that I don't feel obligated to wear green. I like being able to choose whatever color moves me at the moment, and that color would be red.

For today, I thought I'd use one of my Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine unnamed mini bottles for my red (actually, it was sitting on my desk as opposed to having to get up, go in another room, and search through the reds to pick out one, so I guess laziness won out and this mini bottle it is...) I got it in a cute little five pack for $2.00 at Big Lots, and I find them perfect for travelling (or in this case, perfect when I'm just too darned lazy to get up and get anything else).

Anytime I combine black and white nail art on top of red polish, I call it my dirty red bandana. The design, as you can see below, doesn't look anything like the design on a bandana.

My nails are peeling badly, and this Barielle Growth Activator stuff seems to make alot of my polishes misbehave. I'd like to start the mani over again, but alas, I have no time, so I'm stuck with it at least for all day today.



This was 3 coats of the mini red, Fantasy Makers black polish used with a dotting tool, and a little fauxnad with Konad special polish in white.

Thanks, as always, for taking a look.

St. Patty's Day Fauxnad, Part II

Even though I haven't done a lot of green manicures lately, I've got to admit that I'm a little tired of the color already. I've seen so many swatches of greens, so many reviews of different greens that I feel as though I've been wearing them.

St. Patty's Day is the day before my birthday, and for as long as I can remember I've associated all things St. Patrick's Day as sort of my pre-birthday celebration, so I can't let this holiday pass without a little painting O' the green. Today's mani is two coats of Pure Ice Wild Thing (I'd call it chartreuse creme), with a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Ivy League on the diagonal of the nail. I used a fauxnad plate with Konad special polish in dark green for the design.





I have to admit that I really like Ivy League over Wild Thing. Ivy League is pretty sheer, and it would take several coats to build it to any sort of opacity, but it has such a pretty gold shimmer that's hard to resist.

Just in case I don't get in another mani before the holiday, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

SALLY HANSEN SALON SHRIMPLY DEVINE

Today I am sporting a polish I picked up at Big Lots for a buck, Sally Hansen Salon Shrimply Devine. Again, I don't get this name...it's certainly not the color of shrimp swimming here in the Gulf of Mexico, nor is it the color of cooked shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps it's the color of some type of shrimp I'm not familiar with, from some far away place I've never been. Or perhaps, it's the color of a type of shrimp that is now extinct. But I digress....

I must say, while I like looking at other people's pink polish, I'm generally not a pink polish kind of a girl. I'm making a concerted effort to work my way through my stash, and try to get used to seeing my fingers in colors I don't normally wear.

This applied pretty easily. I used two coats, but kind wish I had gone for a third. It has a slightly long drying time, so I used a coat of Seche Vite to help speed things along. Without further ado, here she is:





I have issued myself a personal challenge to try to wait at least three days before changing a mani, instead of my usual change-it-daily routine. So tomorrow, unless I take a visit to chip city, I will probably just layer something sparkly over it, and the day after that I'll probably break out the ol' Konad. It's going to take me a little bit of time to get used to this color!

Finally a decent Dollar Tree Score!

I'm a long-time lurker over on the MUA nail board, and I've read several posts over the months about all the wonderful dollar polishes people have been finding over at the dollar store. Every time *I* manage to go, there's nothing...nada...zip, EXCEPT FOR THIS WEEKEND!

This is a picture of my Maybelline Express haul, as well as a few Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's I managed to snag at the flea market. Everything pictured cost a grand total of $9.50. The Maybelline's actually came with a matching mini lipstick. I'm so happy I could cry....(figure of speech, of course I'm not gonna cry)

Blinged Out Purple

OK, since I have about 15 different purple polishes in my collection, you would think that it would be safe for me to say that I like purple polish. I do like purple polish...on everybody else that is. Whenever *I* wear it (which is probably 3 times a year), I feel like my hands belong to somebody else.

I put on this Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine unnamed mini bottle of purple and after approximately 10 minutes of staring at my fingers like they were alien creatures, I decided I needed to do something that would help me own this mani. I have no *before* picture to show just the purple, but the bottom picture shows the two coats of Sinful Colors Frenzy glitter layered over the top (please excuse the lack of clean up).

The second photo shows the addition of two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear glitter over the other glitter. Wow...speechless, and not in a good way. I knew I should have left well enough alone.

Top picture shows the products I used. The first two polishes are pretty color accurate, but the Strobe Light is a slightly darker pink than this picture shows. Be sure to come back tomorrow for a good laugh when I Konad over this...

It's too late for me, so save yourself!

Today I was out scouting for cheap nail polish finds, when lo and behold, I spot this at Bealls Outlet for a mere $2.99. I'm thinking I just got a great score here, until I got it home and opened it that is.

I wish I had a picture of the mess inside, but alas, I do not. Let me just say that a 1/4 inch layer of the product stuck to my finger as I was rubbing across the top of it like it was some sort of epoxy. Even worse, it smells like something you'd use to, I dunno, compost with?

So, if you see one of these in your travels, beware. And if you do buy one and it turns out like what I've described above, don't say I didn't warn you.