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?

Surprise Love - Wet n Wild Blitzen

Honestly, I just bought this one for the name (of course, because I have a white shepherd named Blitzen). This sat in a drawer since last Christmas, untried because I wasn't actually interested in the color.

Wet n Wild Blitzen (over HITS - Hermes)

I was wearing HITS Hermes earlier and just wasn't feeling it (actually, I was ready to take it off right after swatching it yesterday, but chose to give it a chance), so I decided to try and save it by putting Blitzen over it. It definitely helped. I'm putting off more swatching now just so I can wear this a while longer because it's just too pretty! Blitzen has a sheer cream shimmery base, with gold micro glitter and a dash of magenta hex glitter. It was a bit of a pain getting the magenta glitter onto the nail, but I discovered a trick. After wiping the brush on the bottle edge, the magenta glitters tend to stick to the bottle, so if you wait for the nail polish to run down, you can scoop up some extra glitters pretty easily. It took a little pushing around to get it even, but it didn't take long and the result looked flawless.

This was from Wet n Wild's Megalast collection for Christmas 2010, but I think looks more like a Valentine's Day polish. In fact, I'll probably wear this again for Valentine's Day but maybe I'll try it over a pink or a red!

Wet'n'Wild - Back Alley Deals

I love glitters, so when I found the Wet'n'Wild Ice Baby collection, I was thrilled. This one is one of my favorites: Back Alley Deals. It's hard to grasp just how vibrant this is without seeing it in person, but let me tell you, it is amazing!

Wet'n'Wild - Back Alley Deals

First of all, for some reason this doesn't dry as quickly as most glitters. And as it dries, it eats top coat like crazy! This is shown with a coat of Gealous with an immediate coat of China Glaze Fast Forward, and it was still lumpy. I ended up adding another layer of Gelous and Fast Forward after this pic, and it was STILL a little lumpy (though not nearly as much so). Oh well, I still think it's gorgeous.

Oh!  Also, check out my guest post over at Sparkly Vernis if you get the chance!  It's one of my favorite manis that I've done so far!