Old Sally Hansen and Her Roses

 Here I am with another vintage Sally Star Opal. 

Rose Gold 04. The Rose part is a mystery, but onward.

A deep stem green, perhaps, but a blackened green for sure. 

This is two coats over black. You can see it is a somewhat loose formula.

But the deep green satisfies.

Then the shift:

I mean, really! The deep plum with a scant pink shimmer just delights me.

I did try it alone, but there was no rose or gold.

Findable on the usual suspects for vintage polish: eBay, blog sales, vintage polish groups on Facespace. 

Thanks so much for reading my little nail polish journal!

Sally Hansen Star Opal 02 (reboot)

I am going through my older polishes with a more stern eye, so I've got a project of redoing the Sally Hansen Opals with an eye on thinning out the collection.

I purged 01, as it was too thick to layer and to unimpressive and difficult to use on its own. 

Here is Star Opal 02:

One coat over navy, the green really popped, but it's more of a chartreuse than a bright Christmas green.

Here is the more common shift:

A pretty eggplant shimmer with a silvery highlight.

I tried a second coat, but it got milky and virtually useless.

I am keeping one bottle but purging any backups of this one. The payoff just isn't there. And as I delve deeper into my duo and multi chromes I am sure there will be better representatives. 

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Brighten UP

 Bluebird Lacquer is a brand I know from Polish Pickup but I am not certain where I got this one, as my research shows it was for another "special finish" kind of group, so I may have gotten this on a blog sale. Hmm. As my collection burgeons and shifts, I really am trying to play catch up.

The polish is Can't Pee Tamed, a play on the moniker "Unicorn Pee" which is a nickname for the red to green shifting mica pigment that is both rare, and yet, oddly, somewhat rather prevalent. For being out of stock, I still see it popping up everywhere.

In most images you will find (if you google it) that it is rather deep, so maybe the blue in mine faded because it's decidedly a red shade. Though I did put it over Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Cyclamen (old, discontinued square bottles) that really pushed it brighter.

I really can't see the Red/Green shift as much, but here's another shot:

You can see the flashes of red. And you can see in the bottle it's really not very dark at all, but certainly cooler.

I believe this is two coats over the Sally Hansen Cyclamen. 

It's got some pretty flakies inside as well, that add to the dimension.

I think this is one of those "you need to find it on a blogsale" kind of polishes. Sigh!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Sally Hansen Emerald Amethyst

I have a stash of Sally Hansen Prisms that I found at the Dollar Tree (oh the day!) and realize I haven't really swatched them excessively.

Here is Emerald Amethyst:

It's a metallic purple with a hint of warmth from a wine undertone. 

I could not capture the green shift, despite my best attempts.

Three coats and no top coat here.

I really enjoy the metallic finish of the shimmer. 

These are available on eBay and blog sales on occasion, so if you are a fan or a collector you may want to keep an eye out.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

She Likes My Spark!

Pahlish came out with a collection recently paying homage to Studio Ghibli.

Superlatives abound, there are so many great movies. I love this bright fresh offering by Pahlish.

Here is Calcifer:

Two coats, glossy top coat. 

The twin delight of shifting from a modest glowing golden orange into this juicy russet and then having a wash of holo is an excellent pairing. 

I must comment on the formula. One thing I have noticed is that when I wear Polygel, I have zero shrinkage or tipwear. With my natural nails, no matter the top coat, I tend to have some shrinkage.  may just have not found the best top coat, but to be sure the same topcoats will NOT shrink over Polygel.

So you can see some slight shrinkage, this is about day two. Which for me is pretty great.

So, back to the formula: excellent. Great coverage, nearly a one coater and just as mesmerizing day three as it was day one. Nice.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal and here is hoping that 2021 will find you well, healthy, and happy.

Happy New Year! 

Zoya's Two Letter Lovely

Wanted to blog Zoya Ki forEVER, but never seemed to get around to it. 

Since it is sitting next to OPI Not Like The Movies in my duo chrome drawer I thought they might be dupes. Nope.

Left to right:

OPI Not Like The Movies

Zoya Ki

OPI Not Like The Movies

Zoya Ki

Three coats each.  No top coat. Shifting from a pretty olive into a gorgeous purple, Ki is the clear winner.

Ki just owns it. The OPI is just weak in comparison. Unlike OPI, Zoya doesn't have a glitter so it doesn't have to be sheer. Still, I think this is a frustrating polish by comparison to Zoya. 

I decided to "make lemonade" and use OPI NLTM as a layering polish:

This works! 

Though Ki stands on its own two feet and even props up NLTM, the soft glitter is very pretty and the shift comes through more strongly on NLTM.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Revisiting a Summer Polish

When I find a glass fleck that has a good color shift, I want to see what's what.

L'Oreal Blue Marine was blogged here.

I saw it had some chops, but needed to try it again under lower light.

Some kind of wonderful!

Two coats over black.

L'Oreal's formula has been quite a consistent performer.

This was a limited edition back in 2011, but there are a number that are quite affordable on eBay.

Can't deal with a SH twitchy formula? This will satisfy.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Green Fog aka Layering Over Black

When the Dollar Tree got a bunch of Sally Hansen opals, I grabbed them up. I have about 8 of what looks like at least 14 colors.  They are super sheer. What to do? Layer?

I really need to sit down and do a bunch of swatches of this.  The results surprised me on this one.

This is a base coat of WetnWild "Black Creme". Truly a dollar is never better spent than on a good black creme, and this one is it. Covers beautifully, resisted chipping and tip wear.

I put a coat of Sally Hansen "White Opal 01" over the top. These photos were taken on a day in which the sky couldn't decide on sun or clouds so put them in a bowl, stirred them and you got flashes of both. I was out with my mom walking the dogs and I grabbed a few shots.

The downside: if the brushstrokes aren't thin and well regulated, it gets milky and murky. In some light it looks like you've got a coating of milk on your fingers.

The upside: the green shimmer! It's beautiful! It is foggy and murky, which reminds you of a horror movie.

Of course the WetnWild dried very quickly, and the Sally Hansen dried oh-so-slowly, and caused a wee bit of balding when you put the brush down.

You can see the murkiness. on my middle finger, above, there is some uneven application and so it isn't as transparent as it should be.

A better view of how it looks when the light hits it correctly. Nice! I love those pine greens. Yummy!

Yes, a blurry shot! I think it shows how nice it did look at the right time.


So, do look down the road for a full swatch-fest of these, I might weed out a few that are just not me. It's so funny how without black underneath they are so blah.


Thanks for reading my journal!

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!