Sally Hansen Gems Crush - Lady Luck

Here is another polish from the Sally Hansen Gems Crush line: Lady Luck. It is a rich magenta micro glitter with some larger holo hex glitter and is opaque in two coats (though I put it over a matching base color for the photos because I like the depth and slightly easier removal with a base color).

Sally Hansen - Lady Luck

I put this on the other night after having done my nails twice during the day (after swatching in the morning), and it was one of those days where everything just goes wrong. My first polish that day got tipwear and dents from my crazy dog and the second had bubbles galore, so finally I resorted to my "go to" favorite: glitter! So it saved my night as far as nails go.


Now is probably a good time to address my stance on the "photo editing" subject as well. I DO edit my photos:

First of all, I adjust saturation and white balance because let's face it, I'm not the best photographer and I don't have expensive/extensive equipment. I use a regular Canon SD1000 that I got for my birthday years ago and it works pretty well, but not perfectly. I also use natural light, so it's always changing and my camera's white balance can't always keep up.

Secondly, I retouch photos to get rid of lint, hang nails, random polish or glitter bits and other unsightly little things. But this is usually pretty minor and for the most part, my nails look just about exactly like the photos show. I won't take out important things like bubbles if the polish has a bad formula, but I'll take out dents and such if it was my own doing and not due to a problem with the polish.

Thirdly, I recently tried using Photoshop and have been able to better "color correct" pictures to how the polish appears in person. The reasoning is this: I'm interested in portraying what the ACTUAL polish looks like, NOT how it photographs. I will only color correct to make it as close as humanly possible to what it really looks like in real life. I will NOT enhance a photograph to make the polish look lighter/darker/more vibrant (or in any other way "better" or "worse") than it does on my fingers. For instance, my camera will not pick up purples well at all. However, I will edit the photo to bring the purple to a more authentic shade and hue that better represents the polish itself.

Overall, my position is this: I am never trying to make a polish look "better" in any way.  I only edit as much as necessary to show it as accurately and truly as I possibly can.

How do you feel about photo editing?  It is inappropriate or necessary?

Sally Hansen Gem Crush - Big Money

Here is a quick picture of the polish I ended up wearing for New Years Eve. It's from the Sally Hansen Gem Crush Collection that can be found in drugstores now, and it's called Big Money.

Sally Hansen Gem Crush - Big Money

At first I didn't think I was interested in the Gem Crush line because a lot of them look like exact dupes of other recent ones (the Wet'n'Wild Ice collection and the China Glaze Eye Candy collection), but when I saw this in the store I had to pick it up. It turns out I LOVE it (of course I do - it's a soft gold glitter!!).  I'm pretty sure the light neutral gold in this one would flatter ANY skintone - light, dark, cool, or warm!  This picture took 2 coats and it applied very easily.  It's made up of champagne gold micro glitter and medium-sized light purple hex glitter, and was so super sparkly and elegant!

Also... I know I didn't finish my 12 Days of Christmas Nails, and there are all sorts of excuses I could give, but I'm not going to bore you. Maybe I'll try again next year. For now, I'm happy that it's 2012!

Some Sally Hansen Star and Fire Opal Swatches

Although the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms are the most popular, the Star Opal and Fire Opal collections are pretty awesome, too. Here are some skittles showing a few of the cool ones: Wildfire Opal (Fire), Goldspun Opal (Fire), Amber Opal (Fire), Red Opal (Star). The order listed in the first picture is the same for all the other pics following.

Sally Hansen Wildfire, Goldspun, Amber, and Red Opals (1 coat over black)

Sally Hansen Wildfire, Goldspun, Amber, and Red Opals (2 coats over black)

And an underwater picture that shows off the duochrome:

Here they are on their own at 3 coats:

Sally Hansen Wildfire, Goldspun, Amber, and Red Opals (3 coats)

I got these from NailXchange's blog sale, and she may have some still available! She is very awesome and even threw in a couple of these as gifts (maybe because I ordered SO MANY from her :o)

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Amber Ruby Swatch

Here is another of the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms line:  Amber Ruby.  This is one I love so much I had to get a backup bottle of it.  It has a strong duochrome/multichrome shift between red, copper, gold, and green (and apparently it goes all the way to blue, but it can only be seen in the underwater pictures).  I swatched it recently but was unsatisfied in my capture of all of the colors, so I re-swatched it over OPI Royal Rajah Ruby and it seems to bring out the colors just a tad more (two coats Royal Rajah Ruby, one coat Amber Ruby).

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Amber Ruby

What can I say? It's just STUNNING. See the beautiful mossy green on the edges? Yes, it does show up like that in person. In low lighting this polish is constantly shifting between all of its colors. It also has a very nice metallic finish without showing brushstrokes. Here's a picture taken at an angle where you can see the mossy green by itself:

And now for the underwater pictures (I love taking these - it's so fascinating!)

*gasp* I can't help it - it's so wonderful.

And here is OPI Royal Rajah Ruby on it's own, which is quite nice in itself!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Midnight Sky Swatch

Another one "from the vault." This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Midnight Sky. It's darker than OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous and Chanel Graphite, and covers in two easy coats. I originally intended to layer something over this (like my Orly prismatic gold top coat, or China Glaze Fairy Dust) to make it more interesting, but as it turns out I loved it so much that I just left it alone.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Midnight Sky

Sally Hansen Burgundy Orchid

This is actually probably one of my favorites from the Sally Hansen Nail Prism line, but it doesn't get much publicity (compared to Garnet Lapis and Turquoise Opal). I love the awesome sunset colors in this one: Sally Hansen Burgundy Orchid.

Sally Hansen - Burgundy Orchid

Here are the underwater pictures for this one. Isn't it STUNNING?! I can't believe how the colors absolutely pop in these pictures (and it really does look like that in the water in person)!

One of the most interesting things I noticed is that the multichrome never reaches green. Instead, after the gold at the most extreme angles it just turns a purple grey (you can see it on the index finger in the last picture).

Someday I'll have to do a "Top 10 Favorites," and I'm sure this polish will be on the list!

Black Lace and Cafe Au Lait

First of all... I hit 100 followers last night!!! Thank you all SO much for encouraging me with your wonderful comments! Just to let you know, I read every single one (even on old posts).

Anywho...
I got this idea from Deniz's pseudo lace nails (who in turn got it from Beautopia's idea here). Unfortunately, I don't have Konad plate m71, so I had to make do with a rose design from plate m65. The lace net is from plate m57 and I used Wet'n'Wild Black Creme for the stamping.



I actually like how it turned out with the roses, but I just don't know how those girls got their lace to look so PERFECT!

I love the look of black lace manicures, but I'm not sure which "version" I like the most. The Sally Hansen Salon Effects one looked nearly perfect, except for that the base color was way too pale for my skin. It would have lasted for week and a half most likely, but I don't usually wear one mani for that long anyway. I've never tried a "real lace" manicure, but I have a feeling I wouldn't have much patience for the texture and lifting of the lace edges. I think this one may be my favorite because you can customize the lace to look how you want it - you could put any Konad flowers you want over the lace net or maybe do some lacy french tips.




The base I used was Cafe Au Lait from the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line. I think this is the closest polish to my skin color that I own, but it's still not perfect. It's a tad too peachy-pink on me. Although it doesn't show in the pictures, it matches the pads of my fingers, but the rest of my hand looks a bit more yellow-brownish (in a not so yucky-color way than it sounds). I have a feeling it would match perfectly to someone whose skin had a tad more pink in it. I just saw a swatch of Knotty from China Glaze Anchor's Away that makes me think it might be a wonderful nude color for me during the summer when I'm slightly tanned.

What is your favorite nude color? Do you have one that perfectly matches your skin? Have you ever tried real lace for a manicure?

Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Laced Up

I was so excited when I found these unexpectedly at Walgreens the other day. This is from the new Salon Effects line my Sally Hansen. Pictured here is Laced Up.



These apply pretty much exactly like Incoco, though I haven't gotten a chance to try Incoco's new Design line yet to compare. My Incoco review and mini-tutorial is here.

What I REALLY like about the Salon Effects vs. Incoco is that each "hand" of stickers comes in its own package. If you have shorter nails like I do, you can use only ONE pack at a time by cutting them in half. Of course, I ended up having to trim a couple strips to the correct nail size, but it's worth the extra effort to get double the number of manicures from each one (especially at $8.50 - $9.99 depending on where you get them)! My mom and I actually got a bunch of designs and split them up so we each had a package of all the designs. Also, I love how readily available they are. I found some at Walmart and some at Walgreens (which had a bigger selection).

They claim to last up to 10 days and I REALLY wanted to test it since I've had Incoco last 11 days for me once, but I was so anxious to try some new transfer foils that I HAD to take them off today. This was day six and they still look wonderful, although I did file some minor tipwear off on day four. I'm guessing these definitely could last for 10 days on some people.



Have you tried any of the "stick-on" nail polish like Incoco or Salon Effects? Do you like them?

Happy New Years!

I hope everyone is having a great New Year so far! Here are some of the colors my family and I sported for the beginning of 2011:

This is one coat of Zoya Trixie with two coats of China Glaze Nova on top. This is probably the most blingy mani I've ever worn. Check out that rainbow-y sparkle!

I got my sister some of the Sally Hansen Salon Effects for Christmas in Frock Star, and she decided to use them for NYE. These are really cool (very much like Incoco), and I will be doing a review post on another design from this line very soon. This one looks like a dupe for Lippmann Happy Birthday, but I don't have it, so I can't compare.

And these are my Mama's NYE nails. I used Barielle Berry Blue (2 coats), then used Nova to create the glitter gradient.

What's your favorite polish for New Year's Eve?