Sally Hansen Cognac Creme - More Dollah Tree Goodness!

A Dollar Tree find.

At first I was sure this would be a blah, brick, reddish, orange polish.
Not. at. all!

It's a gorgeous deep warm crimson with some pinkish, magenta undertone.

I want to say some berry snuck in there and that is what makes this polish pop.

This is a jelly. And a jelly glows. I am learning!

It also took a good 4-5 coats to really get coverage. I used the Sally Hansen nylon fibre base coat, it is white, so it lets the color really come through without my stained nails affecting the color.

Also: thin coats! At first I thought I wouldn't get any coverage at all, but it built nicely!

Top coat: Maybelline clear polish "Vinyl Shine" (I like it a lot because it doesn't cause the polish to shrink!)

I moisturized a LOT prior to the manicure, then afterwords I added some  cuticle oil. I really think this helped with the polish remover of the previous nail polish, a huge difference! Of course cuticle oil can not be discounted!!

These photos were taken with a color corrected lamp.

The only problem: it just took forever to dry properly. I had to use umpteen drying drops, and even then: sheet marks!
I tried to correct these with the Maybelline Vinyl Shine top coat (it's from the DT, too, it really doesn't cause shrinkage, and I love it!), which helped a bit, but in the end I wasn't able to get enough repair to get good daylight shots.

I did get one finger that wasn't mussed up some how.
This shows natural daylight:

Well, that's all for now!

I really love that color and need to figure out how to dry the polish better.

Thanks for reading!

Disclosure: I bought it, I shot it

I am sure that by now we are all aware of the need for disclosure in blogging. Conflict of interest affects everything from pharmaceutical publications to movie reviews.

Personally, I follow a number of blogs, they have been my inspiration. Without these dedicated bloggers, a whole HECK of a lot of nail polish companies would have product languishing in the bins at Ross.

I won't comment on review blogs, because, hey, it's their blog.

Here is my disclosure:

1. I  buy or trade to get polishes. That means that consideration in the form of currency or polish is spent to acquire the polish
2. I review/chat/discuss/ponder/meditate/ramble upon my own polishes. See 1.
3. All photos, unless otherwise attributed, are mine. That means I shot them, I edited them and I watermarked them. Under no circumstances are people to use them without my express permission. (I am also familiar w/copyright law, having worked in television media)
   
4. I currently do not receive any polishes for free to review or discuss on this blog. If I do, I will post that I've received free polishes or nail products. Heaven knows I am so early on in my journey that it would be a hilarious wonder if I ever got asked to review polish.
5. I don't accept advertising. a) I don't think I even have any traffic to this site, save one guy whose comment you might see if you browse back a couple of days and b) advertising needs traffic, see a. c) down the pike, sure, I might accept advertising. Right now, not worth the dribbling penny I might get for some oddball ad that shows up that I want nothing to do with. This does not mean that I can't or won't put up banners or ads for groups and organizations that I support. This seems fair and equitable.
   

I think that about covers it.

I mean, hey, when I set up some decent nails, cuticles, and a good light box? I might put it out there that I will do reviews. When I do, I won't be bashful to say where I got the product from. I am not, though, posturing to be a reviewer, expert, etc. I just have a bunch of polish and I want to post my nails on a blog!

Right now I've got over 700 polishes and about 650 or so untrieds. Now don't get me wrong, I've got a number of backups and dupes. And a whole lot to learn!


Thanks for reading!

My Humble Dupe of Nars Zulu

Yes.

Another franken!

I've had my eye on this one since I first saw it on Scrangie and Nail Polish Addict blogs. These two folks are my blog idols. I may never have the nails, the cuticles, the photography ability, or even the wit, I do have a love of polish.

I really wanted to capture the dark green. Dark and JELLY green. This meant the right starting point.

I had a bottle of this Walmart nail polish I found during Halloween. It was a dollar. You've seen the orange one I grabbed by mistake. (It's going to have it's own franken journey, too!)

This is a kelly green, kind of blue-ish. Bright. Pretty. The traditional franken recipe for Nars Zulu is using NY Summer Amaranth green. This is similar, a bit on the blue side of the NY Summer polish.

Plus, it was a dollar, so I thought, how can I fail? I had the Nars Zulu in mind when I bought it.

Dare to dream!

First I mixed some clear polish with the Walmart Halloween green polish (henceforth WHGP) and it wasn't clear enough, nor was it the right green. And not dark enough.

See, just perfect for that "chalkboard green" color, but I wasn't looking for that kind of green. I wanted ZULU!!! Shaka Zulu!!! Leader of the Zulu PEOPLE!!!

Then I left it for a couple days, and thought, dog, so close.

But I was in the Dollar Tree (henceforth DT) and found Maybelline Lemon Water.

A pathetic little bottle with some sort of rust schmutz inside of it.

I also added some Poshe nail polish thinner to the original WHNP and got the last out, adding this to the original franken made it more jelly.

Finally I added the Maybelline Lemon Water.

So, here she is! My franken! I am kind of proud. I think she's a little lighter than Nars Zulu, but on the other hand, she's a jelly goodness with loads of dark green. I am wearing it still. I can't seem to take it off.

 

 Snap-tastic!!!

My success is only mitigated by the state of my cuticles!!! Agggh! A mess to be worked on. 

Enchantingly Enchanted by L.A. Girl Nail Polish

I wanted to sit down and do a few entries that I will upload over the course of the week.

I think this is the best way to do it, I'm taking four classes that require a bunch of reading. My cuticles are a mess, it's dry out, then it rains, and I'm just having a little whine!

Products I like, so far:
Earth Therapeutics makes a little butter thing. I found it at Ross, it's amazing stuff! I also have some nearly identical formulated Sally Hansen foot butter. Both have shea butter in them. I hope this will help my cuticles. They are a fright.

This manicure is courtesy of L.A. Girl.
I am not really 100% familiar with this line.
They have some polishes that are in round bottles and some in funky shaped bottles. These are different lines like "Rock Star" and "Disco". So the one I have here is from their regular line, perhaps these are in salons. (Actually I've seen a Sally Beauty one that had the same bottle and identical formula to the round one, but with another name. So there's another case of confusion, too)

First we have the standard manicure shot:

This has been worn, and there is some chippage on the one finger. Lately I've been dinging my fingers right after I've done a manicure. I need to slow down.

Here's a comparison of the bottles:

Orly Fantasea and L.A. Girl Enchanting.

I think they are duplicates. Which of which, I don't know

 

It's a beautiful blue-ish purple base and this metallic pinkish copper below. The crazy thing is that when it's on it's a bit sheer, which might be the L.A. Girl formula, or just the nature of it, so you add layers. When you add layers you get this metal-under-glass look to the polish, with a bit of duochrome.

I do love it!

Thanks for browsing by!

Rose Ablaze, by Revlon

I wonder why I use Revlon, she can be a merciless taskmistress as far as application.

In fact, the more I think about it, how does Revlon sell so many polishes? I mean, by now there must be enough people who are "DANG! DIDN'T DRY A-G-A-I-N!!!!"

But I get it anyhow. Because I am a sucker for color.

So, here is Rose Ablaze. A hot coral rose shimmer with all the pizazz of a hot day in Juarez on Cinco de Mayo.

This is three coats. Patiently I got them to dry. Then I topped them it with Wet N Wild quick dry top coat. Of course it shrank down.

I can't figure out if it's a bit orange or a bit warm rose. I love the golden shimmer.

Will probably post on weekends more, I'm a full time student. I've got more coming though, this weekend, though!

Dollar Tree Finds...New York Color 239

I think my Dollar Tree is kind of neat. I really love finding cool old Sally Hansen, N.Y.C., and Maybelline polishes.

Here is a little magenta that has red shimmer in it, so it looks a little red around the sides and edges. It was hard to photograph, because it wanted to reflect the blue light, which does not exist there! There is absolutely no blue flash on the polish. It's also metallic, so it looks like one of those school lockers.

 

 

Then I found a little unmarked Sally Hansen bottle, which really was kind of cool. It actually looks exactly like the Revlon Glimmer Gloss line. Kind of fine flakes of unusual sized pigments.

I put it over the magenta N.Y.C.

A pretty thing, indeed!!!

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Discontinued Glitter Part 1

This is part one of two parts.

I found these at the Dollar Tree. They are from a discontinued line of Sally Hansen "Limited Edition" of glitter polishes.

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

They are three coats each, and you can see in the clear based one how stained my nails are.

I had just cut down my nails because I chipped three of them, so it's a raw and rugged manicure.

How I did it? Well, on the Makeup Alley nail board they call it "pic spam", so I just slapped on polish, and before it really dried, I rubbed it off and cleaned it with remover. It was a heady,  fume-y time, that's for sure!

Here they are!

Nuclear

Golden yellow jelly base.

Like baby poo, really. Not much else to say. I think you can get away with a lot of strangeness when you add glitter to something! I can't imagine why these were job lotted! :D

Wired

Another 'doopy' inspired color. Light brown?

But, hey! GLITTAH!!!

Hologem

Clear base.

Cyber

A leaf green base. Pretty nice. My third favorite of this group.

Radar

Puce. I love that. It's a purple-y brown with lots of oomph.

Laser

The last of this batch, and the best. Bright, fresh and red with the glitter. I love it. Looks like sugar art on my nails.

There you have it!

These went on very easily, the glitter isn't dense so three coats still looked pretty bare, glitter wise, however, they will be fun layering polishes, especially the clear. The browns and yellows are a little wacky, but I don't mind wacky!

Batch swatching is fun! I really get a feel for my polishes and I know what is out there!

More weekend projects to come!

Space. The Final Frontier...

 ...these are the voyages of the blogship Paillette...

...and often that means wearing the red jersey in the landing party!

I tried dotting my nails with toothpicks and got horrible blobs, or smears.
I used NYC West Village as a base,  a nice navy, and used some teal and periwinkle for dotting. After that perilous attempt, I topped it with Sinful's Nail Junkie and Maybelline Colorama Emerald Frost.

To wit:

 

Yeah. Kah-razy.

Looks like there is one crew member too many on this away team.

"Ensign Paillette, could you go off by youself and survey that ridge?"

"Aye aye, Captain Kirk!"

2009, Over and Out...and a little sparklish

Sometimes nail polish is like a cocktail.

I've spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect polish, I'm certainly always filling out a wish list.

I've tried to make a couple. First was a milky grayed periwinkle, taught me that tweaks must be subtly made. Then a gray teal out of a chrome, and learned that glitter does not always work, but that glitter can save the day.

I've tried to make my photos better, my cuticles and my blogging more frequent. It's a sure thing that I've got more to learn.

So, to the cocktail part. You start with some base color, in this case E.L.F. Dark Red

This is two coats, possibly three. I can't remember, but it's brighter, so I think two coats.

Then you add layers of Sinful Frenzy (two) and a layer of Sinful Paris.

Frenzy is a fuschia and blue glitter. Paris is a deep yellow gold glitter.

All together it makes a really nice foil-like affect.

A pretty warm red base with a multi-color glitter is great for holidays! Plus, as you know, glitter dries so fast!

Next cocktail.

Start with the same red, but for sure do three coats, because now it's deep, dark and perfect for glitter.

This is one coat of Nichole Love in Your Life topped with a Dollar Tree find: Planet Pluto.
Since it's been snowing and gloomy, the first is from the window and the second from the color corrected lamp on my desk.

The white at the top is not shrinkage but tip wear. I sometimes wear them a day or so before getting photos.

Happy 2010!!!

Elle Elle Nude Nail Polish

I found this polish in a 9-pack at Ross. I don't know where it's sold normally, but Ross had it.

Elle Elle has these weird dupes of other polishes. This is nice, and affordable.

So, here it is:

A fairly modest polish. Perfect for day wear.

It took five coats, but dried fairly quickly, then wore like iron.

Here's my "wears like iron" test:

Drive out to the barn where my horse is boarded. No mean feat, this means schlepping gear to my car.

Arriving and donning a pair of gloves (hey, I'm not stupid)

Getting horse out of paddock, grooming him, since he's unblanketed and he is always covered in dirt
Tacking him up, working with him on the ground or riding.
Often my hands are cold, I've got to handle sub-freezing gear, I've got to get my hands wet and I need to cut up apples/carrots for a treat. Gloves either come off or get wet, are changed. No getting around it, hands get worked.

Later I will have to get home do the usual complement of chores, including cooking, washing up, laundry, etc.

I try to keep my hands moisturized, but I use a lot of water, so my hands are dry. I'm forever trying new moisturizers, but not a lot work well.

So, wearing well means it really can take a licking.

I have a soft spot for Elle nail polish.

For the holidays I wore some E.L.F. Dark red layered with gold glitter, then some Revlon Cherry Fizz. It was nice, but my camera battery was toast.
Need to update this more often. A new years resolution!

Happy New Year!