Sally Hansen Kitty, Kitty!

Hi everyone! I'm not sure if you all have heard about this website or not, but if you haven't, I suggest you join! It's called Influenster, and they have themed boxes known as Vox Boxes. It's free to make an account, and once you have one, you can unlock various badges that pertain to your interests. Then, when Influenster has a new box, they pick people to review it that have unlocked badges that match the products in the box. I got my first Vox Box, which was the spring beauty one. Here is a picture of everything that came in it:

Bath & Body Works Twilight Woods Body Spray, Dr. Scholl's Ball of Foot pads, Aveeno Body Wash, Sheercover Concealer, Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail strips, Chap Stock Shield 365, and  Soy Joy Bar

I already have the concealer, and I LOVE IT. So I'm glad to get another one. It is a very lightweight concealer, and feels sheer on your finger, but it actually has really good coverage! The body spray is a fragrance I hadn't tried yet, and it smells really good, so that was a nice surprise! The scent doesn't last as long as a perfume, but I was able to smell it for a couple of hours after I sprayed it. 

What I want to share with you today are the nail strips! This was the first time I had ever tried them. Here is what the contents looked like:

The color I got is 320 Kitty, Kitty. It is a leopard print pattern - - How did they know I was from Jersey?! :) It came with a cuticle pusher stick, nail file, 16 strips, and an instruction pamphlet. Basically, you make sure your nails are free from debris and oils, and your cuticles are pushed back. Then you take a strip closest to your nail shape, peel off the plastic, stick the decal on, smooth it out and over the tip of your nail, and file off the rest. Here is my nail strip journey:

Pretty neat, I think! Overall I liked these! Once I got the hang of applying them, it was rather quick and easy to put them on. 

Pros:

No drying time - that is awesome! 

Awesome patterns - it's really easy to wear intricate nail art!

Long lasting - I wore mine from Wednesday night to Sunday night with only one small chip

Cons:

Takes a while to get the hang of applying these - it took me about 3 nails worth of strips to get how to apply these. I wasted one decal in the process

Doesn't perfectly cover the nail - As you can see in my last picture, there is still some nail showing on the side of my ring finger nail. If I went to a larger size, the decal would have gone onto my finger itself.

You get 16 in a pack - You only have 10 fingers, so you are paying for 6 extra stickers that you may not use. But since there are only 16, you can only get one application out of them. I suppose if you cut the strips in half you could get two manicure's worth out of one package, but that's extra work on your part.

At the end of the day I love these for the cool patterns and no dry time. I probably wouldn't use them for just a plain color look, since applying actual nail polish does that better.

Thanks for reading!

Duo-Chrome Holo LOVE

Hi guys! So in my last post I mentioned that I was going to layer a duo-chrome polish atop the color I had on (China Glaze "Let's Groove"). Well today I have that for you, and then some! First, I applied Hits Mari Moon in the color "Cutie Pie". This polish shifts from teal to magenta. The polish itself is somewhat sheer, and putting it over a dark base really helps all the colors shine through.

Black Magic Friday

Happy Friday everybody! Have you ever walked into a store, saw a polish that looked absolutely GORGEOUS in the bottle, and bought it on the spot? Then, when you get home, so eager to paint the glorious beauty on your nails, experience utter disappointment? The polish is thin and almost invisible, and you feel as though you might as well have painted water on your nails? Well, this post is for you, my friend! All hope may not be lost! There is a well known trick/secret amongst the nail polish community, and that, is black nail polish. Yep, that's it! Just black lacquer! It doesn't have to be anything fancy, in fact, the cheaper [as long as it is opaque in two coats] the better, because the black is just the catalyst for your poor, sad nail polish to show it's true pop of color! Duo/Multi Chromes really benefit from the black polish trick. You can usually see every facet of color over black, and it really makes each shade stand out depending on the angle of your nails. 

Here are some examples of how black can transform different colors of polish. Unfortunately I don't have swatches of all of these colors on their own... I can make a swatch wheel for you, or you can google the colors and will mostly likely be able to see how they fare on their own two feet. I love looking at these pictures and seeing the magic transformation of colors that, on their own, are nothing special, but when layered over black, become a magic, enchanting display of razzle-dazzling beauty.

Flash

(1) Essence Holographic 03 Blueray (2) Pure Ice Busted (3) Pure Ice Spitfire (4) OPI Sugar Plum Yum (5) Golden Rose Scale Effects 14 (6) Kleancolor Starry Meteor (7) Kleancolor Silver Star (8) Kleancolor Chunky Holo Black (9) Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple (10) Color Club Magic Attraction (11) Color Club Wild & Willing (12) Misa Mega Margarita (13) Misa Denim & Lace (14) Orly Rock Candy (15) Sally Hansen DVD

No Flash

This is very picture heavy, so if you want to see more, click below!

Top Coat Swatches

Hey guys! Quick post! I just took a bunch of polishes I have that I think might work better layered over another color. To compare, I put together a nail wheel swatch of them over black. Maybe this will give you some ideas, or at the least, how some of the glitter top coat colors compare and contrast!

No flash

A clearer picture... with flash

1. Orly Shine on Crazy Diamond
2. Orly Prisma Gloss Silver
3. Orly Love Each Other
4. Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat Silver
5. China Glaze Fairy Dust
6. China Glaze Shooting Stars
7. China Glaze Luna
8. China Glaze Pom Pom
9. China Glaze White Cap
10. Nubar 2010
11. Color Club Covered in Diamonds
12. Pure Ice Busted
13. Pure Ice Spitfire
14. Freshcover Pegasus
15. Freshcover Hard Grape
16. Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters
17. Sally Hansen Ice Queen
18. China Glaze Electric Lilac

Pink Wednesday! + BM Stamp & Nfu Oh 61!

Here we are, another Wednesday in the books! Next Wednesday, it will be June! I can't believe how fast time is going by! Today, I have a Golden Rose color for you. These have numbers, not names, and this one is 108. It's a rosey pink color, and is holographic.... although none of my pics do it justice! Maybe if it didn't constantly rain and storm here I could get better pictures, but alas, all I have are indoor shots. 

In other news, I decided to stamp with Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in the color "Black Out", over my Nfu Oh 61. I used the Bundle Monster plate from the first collection that has the zebra stripe (Sorry, I can't remember the plate number!). I ended up putting some Seche Vite over top, so the holo is dulled, and I couldn't get a sunny picture this morning because it is storming the MOTHER LOAD outside. Anyway, here is a recap of the lovely Nfu Oh 61 from yesterday:

Oooooohhhhh look how pretty!!!!

And now with added stamp:

I like this, I just wish I could have captured a bit more of the holo from underneath! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Ok, one more swatch post!

Today, I have two colors that are similar in idea, but very different in application and consistency. The first polish is Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri polish in the color, "Grape Going". This is a purple/blue duochrome, and has a shimmery finish. I can't believe I waited so long to try this one, I absolutely LOVE IT! The bottle is interesting in that it's square, and the brush surprised me too.. it's flat and has a triangle-ish shaped tip? I'll show you in a pic below. I don't like it, honestly. Maybe I just need to get used to it? I don't know, but whatever, I don't even care about the brush because I love the color so much. A friend of mine picked it out and gave it to me as a gift, and I couldn't have asked for her to pick a better color! It's magnificent!!!

Eeeeee! I love it! Hopefully you can see both the purple and blue in it! This is 3 coats of polish. It applied sheer at first, but was very easily build-able.

Next up is a color by Orly from their Cosmic Line. It's called, "Lunar Eclipse". I wish this color looked more like what's in the bottle, while on the nails. It's another purple and blue duo chrome, except this one is more of a glitter than shimmer. In the bottle, you can clearly see two distinct colors. 

Unfortunately, once on the nail, it looks almost all blue. Maybe I can't twist my hand in a certain way to see the purple, but if it's that difficult, forget about it anyway! Argh, I'm so frustrated because I want to see purple! Purple is my absolute FAVORITE color ever in the world. So anyway, here are some pics of it:

All blue!

Still blue... but see, purple in the bottle!!

More blue again....

Ooh, ooh! Is that a HINT of purple sparkle I spy?

Still not purple...

I am still trying every which way to maneuver my hand to see some purple in the polish but it's not working out. I see flashes every once in a while, but I guess I'll have to settle for a pretty, sparkly blue!