Sally Hansen Coral Reef (Original)

Purchased

Hello, everyone. I hope you all had a nice, long weekend. I actually just got back from my vacation last night. Nothing too crazy but I went to visit family about 5 hours away. It was nice to just hang out and relax for a few days. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to do my nails before I left so they were bare all weekend.

Today's polish is an oldie but goodie. I am sure that some of you are aware of the recent hooplah over Sally Hansen changing some of the formulas and shades on really popular shades. Sally Hansen Coral Reef was one of those shades. I managed to snag a bottle of the original formula (even though I am pretty sure I have a bottle in my stash somewhere).

Coral Reef is, unsurprisingly, a coral shade that is that perfect spot between pink and orange. It is a creme finish and the formula was good though not fantastic. I used 3 thin coats to get the finish you see here. Topped everything off with one coat of Out the Door topcoat.

I am a sucker for a good coral so it's no surprise that I really like this one. It's great for the summer or for when you need a punch of color. I am not the biggest fan of the Xtreme Wear bottles or brushes, but I will put up with them for this polish.

I am really glad I was able to get the original formula of this beautiful polish. I had given up hope of finding the original Pacific Blue but I found one bottle just last week. I hope to have a swatch of that one up soon. Happy hump day, everyone!

Sally Hansen Liquid Gold

Purchased

Hi, guys. Look, I'm back! I had a really fun, whirlwind trip to Atlanta last weekend. I can't believe that I am back already. My polka dot manicure held up really well and was oohed and ahhed over. I am probably going to take it off tonight but I had a lot of fun wearing it. So today I have another of the Sally Hansen Color Foils to show you. This one is called Liquid Gold and, as you can imagine, it's a gold chrome.

As noted in my previous swatch of another Color Foil shade, this one had a slightly problematic formula. I originally tried this over base coat and that was a big mistake. It was super patchy and weird over base coat so I took it off and had a much easier time applying it. For this swatch I used 3 coats without top coat. 

You definitely need a steady hand when applying this, as every little bump and mistake will show. It does smooth out a bit as it dries so it wasn't too bad. 

Chromes aren't for everyone but I think this will be good for stamping. I haven't tried them for that yet but I'd like to soon. 

That's it for today, folks. Hope you're all having a great hump day!

Sally Hansen Minted Metal

Purchased

Good morning! Look, posting twice in one week. I wonder how long I can keep this up. :) Today I have Sally Hansen's Minted Metal from the most recent Color Foil collection. Foils and chromes are coming back with a vengeance and I like them. Sure, application can be a bitch but it looks really cool when it's done right. They are also great for stamping. I only picked up 2 polishes from this collection because they were kind of pricey ($6.99 I believe).

Minted Metal is a blue-green foil. I tried this over base coat first and that was a big mistake. It was really patchy and weird so I switched to no base coat, which worked a lot better. Minted Metal is a weird shade and looks green in some lights and blue in others. This dried a lot lighter than I thought it was going to and it ended up being a sort of seafoam silver. The formula was pretty pigmented and I only needed 2 coats for the swatches here. No top coat used. I don't know if it really would have affected the finish but I didn't feel as if I needed it so I just skipped it.

As with most chromes, application was a bit tricky but if you're careful it should not be too hard to get a smooth finish. Just be sure that your nails are smooth and free of any bumps or even dust, because this polish will showcase all of your nail imperfections. 

 

I haven't tried to stamp with this yet but I plan to soon. This is a very fun polish that requires a bit more work but is worth it in the end. 

What do you think of the new chrome trend? Do you love it or hate it?

Stashed (18): Sally Hansen

Hi, guys, Sorry I've been MIA lately but I have been super busy and haven't had much time for swatching or editing photos. I am going to try to get some stuff scheduled for this week but we'll so how the week goes. I hope you're all having a good summer though. I don't know about you, but warm weather definitely makes me want to break out all of my brights and neons.

The past few weeks I haven't done much stashing. It's better on my budget this way and I have so many untrieds that I really need to focus on. I did do a small haul the other day at CVS though. As you can see below, I picked up the entire Sally Hansen Palm Beach jellies collection.

I wasn't planning on picking up any of these initially but I've been seeing some really fun watercolor manis using super sheers like this. When I spotted the whole line at CVS and on sale, I caved and just got them all. I am hoping to have time to play with them soon.

That's all I have stashed lately. What have you guys stashed? Have I missed any good collections?

Best of 2013

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone. This post is a bit late, as you can see. These polishes are just those that I have tried in 2013, but they were not necessarily released in 2013. I didn't try very many indies this year but I hope to next year. High on my list to try are KB Shimmer, Picture Polish and Pahlish. Hopefully I can save enough money to splurge a bit on some new brands. Alright, here is my list of favorite polishes in 2013. Enjoy!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Killa Red
I snagged this during the RBL sale and am so glad I did. I don't have a shortage of reds but there's just something about this rich red jelly that I just love. I am totally considering a backup.

Maybelline Emerald Elegance
This whole line was gorgeous and I especially loved this beautiful emerald green. Look at all the glitter!

Maybelline Crushed Crimson
Another polish from Maybelline's Brocades collection. I love how rich and opulent this looks. The gold and red go together perfectly.

China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle
I love these pastel neons and Too Yacht to Handle was a super gorgeous addition to my collection this year. Formula was a bit fiddly but the results are stunning.

Sally Hansen Red-io Active

I hate the SH Insta-Dri brush but I will suffer through it for this gorgeous, glow-y red. Ugh, so beautiful.

Dare to Wear Ready For My Close Up

So. Much. Glitter. I love the mix of glitters in this polish and it really sparkles in the sun. 

Salon Perfect Playful Plum

Another polish that seems to glow. The purple lover in me is really happy that I found this one. Perfect for fall or any other season.

Nicole by OPI Cinn-a-man of My Dreams

This one stands out from the other textured polishes because of its unique color. I don't have anything like this in my collection. I love how warm and shimmery it is.

Cult Nails Fetish
This black wax finish polish is so sexy and edgy. Love it a lot.

Illamasqua Fragile

This was my first Illamasqua polish and I immediately fell in love with it. It's unique and delicate looking. 

Zoya Carter

Zoya does texture so well. Carter is beautiful and complex. 

There's my list of favorite polishes of 2013. Did any of these make your lists? What must have polish am I missing?

Have a safe and happy new years, everyone. See you in 2014! :)

Stashed (11): Sally Hansen, Essie, Orly

Hello! I hope you're all having a good weekend. After a brief cold spell the temperature is back up to a balmy 70 degrees here in Southern California. It seriously does not feel like Christmas with this warm weather, but it only 10 days away. That's super crazy. This week's polishes are all gifts that I received this week. I love getting nail polish as a gift!

My friends saw my mention of Twitter or Instagram that I wanted to try the new Sally Hansen Triple Shines so they gave me a few as part of my Christmas gift. I think this is a nice assortment of colors and I am excited to try all of them. Shown are Red Snapper, Sparkling Water and Dive In.

Up next is an awesome swap package that I received from Pamper With Polish. I am part of the Hobby Polish Bloggers group on Facebook and they recently did a holiday swap. I got this awesome box of goodies from Mira and I love everything in it. The polishes I received were Orly Angel Rain, Orly Digital Glitter and Essie On A Silver Platter. There were other fun items thrown in as well. Thanks so much to Mira for this fantastic package.

That is my haul for this week. What new polishes did you receive this week?

Stashed (6): Sally Hansen, Orly, Wet N Wild, butter LONDON

Hi, everyone! Polish diet had been going so well but I fell off the wagon ab it with some drugstore shopping and an Ulta sale.

I used to use Wet N Wild Black for all of my black polish needs. However, the last bottle I bought was kind of thin and not really opaque like my original bottle. So I have been on the hunt for a good black. I heard that the Kleancolor back was good for stamping and suck and I found it in a random dollar store at the mall. Since it was so cheap I picked up two bottles.

Also picked up some of the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes. The new collection is so glow-y and I love it. Also got a couple of Wet N Wilds from their new Tough Girl (or something like that) collection and one of the new Orly matte flakeys.

Then this happened to me at Ulta and TJ Maxx. I went to Ulta to see if there were any butter LONDONs I might want during their $10 sale. I had been looking for Trout Pout for a while and also picked up Giddy Kipper, which I had never seen below. I also found the new Sally Hansen X-Treme Wears with the bar glitter. I tried to be good and only got 4 of them. Closer pick of them below.

At TJ Maxx I picked up an Orly duo with Harmonious Mess and Fowl Play in it. They had some great duos including on with Sparkling Garbage I would have gotten if I didn't just buy it. The packs were only $6.99. Lastly I picked up 2 tubes of H20 hand and cuticle scrub. I have heard good things about it and I need to use a scrub more to keep my hands soft. This seems good and smelled pretty nice.

Here is a close up of the Sally Hansens. I am pretty excited about the white/gold combo and the orange/black. I kind of want to go back for the green one. I refrained from getting the black and white one even though I wanted it since I already have several variations of it. The one above is black and silver, which totally isn't the same thing. :)

That's my haul for this week. Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend!

Sally Hansen Red-io Active

Happy Monday, everyone. This weekend seriously flew by. The heat wave continues here and I have spent most of my time indoors. I did try to do some swatching this weekend but the sun was so bright that even that was hard. Today I have a beautiful new polish from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dr line. I usually avoid this line because I hate the bottles with their long, skinny necks and the super wide, flat brush. However, this color looked too gorgeous to pass up.

Red-io Active (I have the hardest time saying that) is a dazzling red that is one of those lit from within shades. It has a serious glow to it that can be seen even in the shade. The sun was super bright out so my swatches are probably a little warmer than the actual color. The formula was great and I only used 1 coat below. There were a couple of nails that could have used 2 coats but I did not want to deal with the brush and bottle so 1 coat it was.

lighting: shade

You do have to be a bit careful when applying or you may get some brush strokes. But I literally slapped this on before work and it looked pretty good. I used top coat to make it extra shiny but you might be able to get away without it. All in all I am very impressed with this color. I picked up one other shade from this collection but I may be back for more since they were all pretty awesome looking. I still hate the brush and bottle but this color is worth it.

Have you picked up anything from this collection yet? Does the Insta-Dri bottle annoy anyone else as much as it annoys me?

Stashed (3): OPI, China Glaze, Salon Perfect, Zoya

Hi, guys! I have another Stashed post for you today. It's been a while since I have done one and I have some pretties to show you. Most of this is from a big haul I did over 4th of July weekend when I went to visit my family.  If you like stash/haul type posts (and awesome manicures), you should check out Mandee at The Bookish Manicurist. Her Polish on Parade post videos are super fun and I really do love seeing what people are hauling. On to the polishes!

So the first part of this haul came from a personal sale. When I got home, my mom told me that our neighbor had been trying to sell some polishes at a recent yard sale. The daughter of the house is a formal nail tech who is going back to school and was getting rid of a lot of polishes. She told my mom that I should come by when I was back in town to see if anything was left and she would sell it to me. My mom said she knew she had some brands I liked and that she was only selling for $2. A few days into my trip I finally managed to see my neighbor, and I totally hit the jackpot. She had a bunch of OPIs (lots of new collection stuff) and I snatched up almost all of her OPI collection.

l to r: OPI Got A Date To Knight, Pink Friday, My Very First Knockwurst, Meet Me On The Star Ferry

l to r: OPI Ink, Funky Dunkey, The Color to Watch, Cuckoo for this Color, Just Groovy

l to r: OPI Servin Up Sparkles, Number One Nemesis, The World Is Not Enough, Light My Sapphire, You Don't Know Jacques, Skyfall

l to r: Borghese Capri Coral, Revlon Mistetoe

I also got 8 or 9 mini Sephora by OPI polishes that have no names. All of the polishes about I got for $25! $25!! Can you believe that? Yes, awesome haul.

So the next batch I picked up at the local beauty supply near my parent's house and drugstore shopping. As you can see, I am very much in summer mode.

l to r: Dare to Wear Honeysucks, Dare to Wear Upper East Side, China Glaze Shell-O, China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle, Orly Mayhem Mentality

I don't have any Wal-Marts near me so I went on a mad hunt for the Salon Perfect matte glitters while I was at home. Unfortunately they were super hard to find. I did manage to find a few though they were hidden in the cosmetics section and I only found like one bottle of each. I am going on the hunt for more today.

l to r: Salon Perfect (no label but reminds my of ChG Flying Dragon, Kaboom, Jolt, Bang

l to r: Sinful Colors Star Dust (1164), High Strung (1125), Eva So Bright (1158), Maybelline Spotted, Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Pink Sprinkle

l to r: Zoya Chyna, Zoya London, Essie Naughty Nautical

I also picked up this nail art brush set for $5. I needed some finer brushes and the ones at the art supply store were more expensive so I gave this a go. And so far I really like them and use them a lot. They had other sets as well and I may pick one up the next time I am at that supply store.

That's my long overdue haul post. Of course I have bought more since I took these pics, but those will have to wait for another day. Have a great Sunday, everyone!