Sally Hansen Shimmer Frost Glitters Pt I of II

I found these at the Dollar Tree, and they are a strange combination of sheer frost, or shimmer, with silver glitter.
I mean: who the heck came up with this crazy combo? Hey! Let's take sheers and add shimmer (OK!) and call it a frost! Wait! Let's add GLITTER!!

These are so sheer! I had to use at least 4 coats, often 5, and still could see my nail through them. Worse, my nails are stained, so it just compounds on itself: sheer, shimmer, glitter, stained nails...argh!

I guess that these fall into the category of top coat. Or "affects" kind of coat.

Overall it's a bit slow to dry, and I did kind of rush between coats, although they were dry to the touch, still I got a lot of drag, or bald spots, when I added a new coat.

So, here we go! These photos were taken outside in late afternoon light.


Hi Society Frost
Mauve-ish Pink. So sheer! A little bit of iridescence. This might have been only three coats, when I was optimistic about coverage of these.

Blue Chip Frost
Pretty aquamarine blue. Five coats here and did this horrible balding in middle.
Pretty good coverage, save the balding (I guess that cancels out the good coverage!). I used Borghese Magnetico, which as been a very good soldier of a base coat, I hate to blame the base coat, but it could be a factor. I somehow doubt it!

Fil-a-Greed Frost
Gold shimmer. Decent coverage with 5 coats, less balding. I feel that this one really works. Huzzah!

Quicksilver Frost
Silvery gray shimmer. Coverage wasn't bad, I dinged my finger so there is a smudge.
Not bad. I also think this one works, too. Also, a bit of the same iridescence we saw with the mauve above.

I'm still not so sure about the glitter and the sheer shimmer combined. I wish I could filter out the glitter. Later I'll try them as a top coat. And I've still got to do part two of this little batch.


Thanks for reading!

BonBons + Cover Girl "Crystal Mist" = More Layering Fun!

I found this kind of vaguely purple royal blue at Walmart. It photographs bluer than it is, but really only a tiny smidge more so, it is very royal blue, indeed!

These are in bins and are tiny little bottles, like candy store bins. Perfect for little kids, as they are only a dollar a bottle. I think, and I have not done a comparison on the nail as of yet, that this is very similar to China Glaze Tempest. 

 

This is three coats and some tip wear from about one day's wear.

So then I wanted to top it off with something, so I grabbed Cover Girl's "Crystal Mist" which is a now-discontinued top coat that they put out. I found it for 75% off, it showed up green on the little plastic sample display they had. It is a little milky and yellow/greenish, but only faintly.

Here's an "ingredients" shot:

(I like the Sally Hansen, it's pretty good for showing up color very well. )

I put on about 3 layers of the Crystal Mist, it's not a dense glitter at all. Fortunately it dried very quickly! Quick layer count:

Base coat  1

Polish        3

Top coat    1 (because I wore if for a day, not planning this layer)

CG TC      3

TC            1

___________

coats NINE!?!?!?!?

oops!

Here are the results!!!

(bask in the bling!)

 

  

  

Below is a shot in less sunshine to see the actual array of glitter. I was outside and these are all taken on iPhone, which is turning out to be easier to use and manages to capture things pretty well.

Thanks for reading!

p.s. Welcome new follower! :D

p.p.s. I also layered Sinful Paris over it, so it really does kind of look like "faux Absolutely Alice" from OPI. I have so many polishes, I figure I should just layer and use them to get the affect I want.

Rimmel - Violet Metal Part II

I just wanted to quickly add a couple of photos I took with my iPhone.

These really show two things

1) How dark the polish is when the light doesn't hit and grab that blue flash:

 

(this is before I put the Pure Ice "Heartbreaker" as a top coat)

2) How cool the color looks when mixed with the dark:

 

Thanks for reading!

Rimmel - Violet Metal

I found this at a nearly empty display of Rimmel polish in my Walgreens.
My two other Rimmels are round bottles, I think this is a new design.
The color is a magenta purple with a heavy dose of blue flash.

I have three coats on for good coverage, otherwise I saw the nail line underneath.

 

It was very purple and dark indoors, and the blue flash really pops outside in the sunshine!

I do have to say, that I have been very hard on this poor polish. Nail wear was merciless. I type in three of my classes all my class notes, on top of that my horse has to live in his stall instead of getting turnout (wet and muddy conditions are causing a case of "scratches" on his left hind fetlock, which is a bacterial issue with the skin), so I am out there every day. It's pretty dirty. I've got to scrub my hands a lot to get them clean, gloves aside. Mud and dirt penetrate.

So I wanted to add a top coat of Pure Ice "Heartbreaker", an aqua colored sheer that really is a great top coat, but feel a little guilty because the tip wear is beyond epic.

Here's a three finger shot.

 

 It really helps bring out the blue in this polish.

Here's an obligatory macro moment!

Hehehehe....you can see the Pure Ice "particles" doing there thing.

Thanks for reading!


p.s. I forgot to mention: this is my first attempt at "clean up", I'll post more later on that. Not bad, but need pure acetone to really be effective.
:D

Melmer

This weekend I ended up buying a Michael's Crafts N' Shiz three drawer Pressed Particle Wood box instead of swatching.
I feel like a squirrel moving my nuts from one place to the other, sitting down, breathing a sigh of relief, then moving them again.
I've organized my polishes by color, which can be not only interesting, challenging, but depends on the lighting.
Some blues can go green in tungsten lighting (normal lightbulb), a violet may look gray. Curses!
At times deciphering fuschia and magenta as purple or red can make you break down and just want to donate that bottle!
Putting this thing together meant watching "A Letter To Three Wives" because 1) it's a great movie. 2) it takes your mind off of piece A, B, C, D, E, F, G and screw a b c d e f. Is it Brad?

So, now I have an Ikea Helmer. Huzzah! Love it! and a Melmer (Michael's Helmer)
(word of warning: you can pull a drawer out of a Helmer and it might fall, but it won't break. A Melmer is prone to breakage, also you need to put wax under the drawers or pulling them sounds like you are doing bodily harm to a hamster. Not so good.)

Soon I will post stash photos.

Here is the basic organizational arrangement.
Helmer (by drawer):

• Glitters/sheer top coat type of polishes
• Top Coats, Base coats, treatments. Overflow glitters, overflow neutrals
• Neutrals (gray, silver, black, white, creme, taupe, brown...brown another conundrum? Red? Neutral? Nothing is perfect)
• Blues
• Greens
• Purples

Melmer (by Drawer)

• Red (pink, burgundy, and all reddish/orange type colors)
• Red overflow and Sets I Hate to Break Up
• Purple overflow and some Maybellines from Denim and Diva collection

I might move blue up to the Melmer and use the extra Helmer drawer for Purples. Nut moving is endless. Worse, Orly and Essie have spring collections. I am also coveting the China Glaze Rodeo Diva collection, have been for a long time and would hate to miss it.

I also should think about purging/swapping/donating some stuff I just DO NOT ENJOY trying to wear, especially as I use better polish.
One example: Revlon. Die Revlon. Die! You never dry, no matter how much I baby you, you just. don't. dry. (said in a Captain-Kirk-affected voice)
But!
I'm wearing Color Club "After Hours" from their "Musique" collection and find that it's not only a great polish that doesn't shrink, it's a great polish that holds up well, dries quickly and has a smoking blue shimmer in it's charcoal loveliness!
Well, duh!
I need to swap swatch (!) that collection, it's awesome. Dark, mysterious, and beautiful!

So there will be a slight break will I catch up on photos.

Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Day Manicure

Layering!

Here are the layers:
2 coats Sally Hansen (Dollar Tree find) "Stiletto Heels" (pretty red jelly with small red glitter)
1 coat OPI Nichole's "Love My Life"
1 coat Cover Girl "City Lights" small holo glitter

Very easy! I think the Sally Hansen looks like enamel on metal, or sugar candy.

Enough with the chat, here are the photos:

 

(this one is a little blown out, ugh, need to read manual!)

  

This is using my daylight corrected fluorescent.

  

Macro fun!

Thanks for reading!

(I'm working on getting to know this camera, bear with me!)

More Layering!

Layering: a treat!
Especially those elusive sheers polishes that start out in the bottle "WOW!" and get on our nail and sputter out.
Creative Nail Design has a whole line dedicated to putting the wow factor back into sheers, they have heavily colored polishes as a base and then some sheers that are varying finishes: pearl, shimmer, etc which you put on as a top layer. Good idea!

Since I have umpteen polishes, and about 1/umpteenth of those are sheers, I better get busy!

I used WetnWild Black Cream, two coats that dried very quickly, and 1 coat of Elle Elle #434. Of course standard top coat: Vinyl Shine DT Score. The base coat was only Borghese Magnetico. I think I went ape and bought 8 bottles at Ross. yoiks.

 

See how pretty that polish is? Put in on alone and it's just sad. Add the black and Ziiiing!

 

 

Neat-o!

Thanks for reading!

Maybelline Tassled Taupeness

Hello!

I have a follower! Hello!

I am so excited!!!

Dear Follower!!! Welcome! (Don't leave! I'm a bit of a twonk!)

ahem....

Here, then, is yet another Dollar Tree item.

A little back story, only because back story is fun: I had read on the Nail Board how everyone was finding polishes at Dollar Tree. Mine was an empty shell of beauty supplies. Every lame reject from a container ship filled the beauty aisle. Then I was on a trip out of town on Thanksgiving. The place we went to stay meant we had to travel on every back road in the state, and finally, we stopped in a medium sized town. I needed a break. I ran into the Dollar Tree and found Tassled Taupe, Cocoa Bean and Touch of Taupe. I was so excited! Kind of bummed because they were all brown, AND I'd sent for Tassled Taupe off of Ebay, but what the heck. That first moment of actually hitting Dollar Tree pay dirt was fun.

Now taupe is hot. There are several brands out there with a great taupe: OPI's You Don't Know Jacques, Sally Hansen's Commander in Chic, Chanel's Particuliere, and Essie Mink Muffs, come to mind from my "want list". Of course OPI's YDKJ is legendary. I just bought it, so I have to try it out. In fact: weekend project. I will try to do a comparison of taupes.
The last post with glitters were taken actually outside on an overcast day. Maybe I'll try it again.

Maybelline Tassled Taupe is a pretty color. It's mouse-y taupe creme with gold shimmer. So, it really does feel like a shimmer creme, although I don't know if that's an actual category. The shimmer particles aren't super fine, though.
I used three coats, and had my usual case of sheet marks, despite drying drops. I really did need three coats. The first two were balding at the bottom of the nail. I used Sally Hansen Nylon fiber base coat, which kind of looks like white nail polish, I should try another base coat next time. I topped with a dose of Maybelline Salon "Vinyl Shine", my usual.
I will redo the swatch to compare. My new borrowed camera has a super macro, so look for a comparison soon.
Here's the photo:

 

You can just see the shimmer, so my unfettered enthusiasm aside, I do need to re-shoot this, and since I really want to compare all my taupes, this is a good opportunity to do it.

Thanks for reading!

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Discontinued Glitter Part 2

Here, finally is Part 2 of the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails discontinued glitters.

First, a bit of a moan: swatching is stinky, I broke my camera doing these, so they hold little fond memories, and three, they are ALL, undoubtedly, best as a layering top coat.

These are from the Dollar Tree and are sheer "jelly" based colors filled with holographic and silver glitter, larger and smaller respectively.


On to the photos!

3-D
A pinkish red base, almost a burgundy or madiera, jelly.
Not bad, but not the POP of Laser.

Electrode
A pretty purple, pure and simple, jelly base. On the red side of purple.

 

Magnet

Royal blue, almost turquoise jelly base.

Dimension
A navy jelly base that is really pretty. Glitter is also hologram glitter, but blue glitter.  There is a bright blue and a dark blue. It's pretty neat!

 

Techno
A violet blue jelly base. What's not to love? My second favorite of the batch. This one, though, took four coats. It's a very sheer jelly. Like a delicate flower of a polish!

 

Sonar
My abso-flipping-lutely favorite of the entire batch!
A teal green jelly! With GLITTAH!
It almost borders on a pine green, but it is a teal in real life. My camera just can't quite capture the difference very well.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Scherer Chameleon Blue Frost

This is a drug store nail polish I picked up at Rite Aid.

It's supposed to be a duochrome, but seems to be a metallic frost. There are pale flashes of pink, perhaps some green if I squint.

Application wasn't bad, four coats for my satisfaction. It did, however, dent after a while, so I had to be careful.

I added a little plastic nail flower to the right finger. I am starting to be a little more comfy with "nail bling", especially since many polishes in and of themselves are SPARKLE-fests!

Here's the photo!

 

Thanks for reading!

Essie's "Love, Beverly Hills XX"

 This polish is a little dream in a bottle!

Very cute name, too!

Top it off: two coats that dried fast and glow like embers on my fingertips! BONUS!
24kt gold is suspended in the polish and it adds luminescence that is so very nice.

The red is changeable, too. These photos I took in bright morning light, but in indoor or muted light it is far darker, still GLOWS, though!

To the photos:

 

  

Two coats. Dried like a dream!

I topped it with Maybelline "Vinyl Shine" and  was done! 

This kind of ease of application makes me fall in love with nail polish all over again!!!

Yay!

WetnWild Khaki

I really do want to get through the Dollar Tree finds, though I think I need to just move on to some of the fun stuff. What the heck. I worry too much.

Here's a bronze metallic shimmer called "Khaki" from WetnWild. It's "three free".  ("Three free" means it doesn't have toluene, dibutyl phthalate or formaldehyde in it. These are either carcinogens or cause birth defects. Although, to be frank, the "before three free" shimmers are some of the most coveted polishes around, go figure)

It took about 3 coats to feel right.
Also took a bit of a while to dry. I think my coats might have been too thick, I haven't figured out what makes some things dry quickly and what makes it just sit there, wet, gloopy, and not drying. This one got sheet marks, even after lots of time to dry, and drying drops. Ah, well.

 

It does have a pretty shimmer.  And I like the gold neutrals. 

I also am finally getting a handle on my cuticles. Hoorah!!! Things like cuticle oil, good "butters", hand cream, gloves, and not biting on my cuticles really help a lot.

Also, I am getting better at applying the polish itself. I have yet to use a brush dipped in acetone to clean up around the cuticle line, so I just use thin coats and steady myself to get application just right.

Well, maybe not "just" right, but very close to right as I can get it!  I will probably have a shot at it later on, I really hate to use a nice brush for dipping in acetone. Ugh. Never mind the fact that that just means breathing in more polish remover, which is not ever a pleasure.

I should post a few blog entries about nail care, as I figure it out, polish removal, application, etc. Maybe it would be helpful. Or humorous. Who knows.

Gosh, look at that righteous shimmah! I love it!

I am working on a light box for photography, but that is a few weeks down the pike.

The whole notion of a light box is this: a five-sided structure (three sides, and a top, and a bottom ), or a round one, that you set a small item in, point light so that it either diffuses through the walls or bounces off the inside, depending on the thickness of the walls, and the lights you use.
What is the problem here? Well if I am photographing a pen or a piece of jewelry it is not attached to my arm/hand/body. I can set it inside the box and have at it.
So, I am working on an idea that will facilitate photography of fingernails. Nothing fancy, but a small footprint and ease of use!

Thanks for reading!

Death of a Camera

It was very fast, very sudden and very final.

My camera fell on its nose on the pavement. I can't go into details, but I am borrowing another for now.
I was finishing up the Sally Hansen glitter collection I'd found at the Doller Tree. Wanted to get that done, and somehow the camera just slipped. Crack. Horror.

I was able to recover the card, so I will edit and post those pretty soon. I was in shock, so I didn't do that right away.

~~sigh~~