Review: Sally Hansen Petal Pusher

Bought this as part of my little holiday haul while at home in Chicago; at the time I was mainly after the topcoat (which turned out not to be a topcoat at all, just a clear polish), figuring I could just bust this out for work every once in awhile.  I never thought that plain, flesh-colored nails would appeal to me so much, but I already can't wait to wear this color again!

Holiday Haul

Holiday haul!

Happy Belated Halloween!

Colors used: OPI Alpine Snow, Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Sun Kissed and Mellow Yellow

Promised you a treat, didn't I? :)

I've received so many compliments in the 2 days I've been wearing these, from men and women alike.  And the best part is that they're so simple!  I painted the entire nail white, then covered the bottom half with yellow, just eyeballing it.  After giving that ample time to dry, I taped off the top and bottom portion of my nails with scotch tape and added the orange stripe across the middle.  And voila!  They're not razor-edge perfect if you inspect them close-up, but I'm okay with that; not many people are going to be inspecting my nails close-up besides myself anyway.

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween, however you chose to celebrate it.  Tomorrow it's back to the grind, but this mani has been worth it for the mere 48 hours I was able to wear it.

Coming up next: Essie Fiji

Review: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure First Kiss

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been drooling over this color for quite some time.  At the end of the day it wasn't exactly what I had hoped for, but I'm still glad I made the purchase for the wear time alone.  For reference, I usually take pictures on the 3rd day or so of my mani, and by then I'm having to twist my fingers into awkward positions to hide the chips.  I'm okay with this, though - I usually buy cheaper brands of polish, and I'm not very careful with my nails.  These pictures were taken on the 5th day, and even after an afternoon of scraping my nails against concrete doing chalk art with kids at work, I still only had 2 small chips and some minor tip wear.  I think if I had added an additional layer of topcoat halfway through wearing the mani I would have fared even better.  So that alone makes me hold the Complete Salon Manicure line in very high regard; next time I'm itching for a new color I know where to look.  In fact, there was a baby blue that caught my eye last time....

CVS Mini-Haul

I keep going into CVS for random things and passing by the Sally Hansen display, where I get distracted by the Complete Salon Manicure color First Kiss.  I kept talking myself out of buying it, because I had no money and more than enough nail polish that I haven't even used yet.  But I'm finally OK financially, so I figured what better way to waste my hard-earned money?  And of course, I couldn't just stop at one bottle; I ended up walking out with 4.

So in addition to First Kiss, I picked up Essie Fiji.  I'd been planning to eventually get OPI's Mod About You, then MissGlamorazzi mentioned this color, which is extremely similar.  And at the end of the day, CVS is closer to me than Ulta, so decision made.  Lastly I discovered a whole display of different colored crackles!  Yellow, green, purple...I really wish I had my camera with me.  And they must have put it out very recently, because every slot was filled.  I did a little test on one of my fingers with the pink (Hot Coture), and it was much more opaque than the Sally Hansen Vintage Violet I've got, so I decided to go ahead and try it.  I got the pink crackle for a specific manicure that I've got in mind, then the blue (Strike a Pose) I grabbed on a whim.  Looking forward to doing that pink mani, it's one I've been thinking about for awhile now.

Next up: Sally Hansen Salon Manicure First Kiss.  Right in time for the work week to start again.

Review: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Emerald Express

Colors like this are what make me desperately wish I had a job that allowed me to wear whatever I want on my fingers, because only 2 days before I have to remove it?  Not enough.

Review: Sally Hansen Salon You-Gurt Style

If you'll excuse a picture taken after nearly a week of wear, as well as sloppy application to begin with thanks to my own clumsiness and complete lack of experience with jelly polishes (this is the only jelly I have ever used), allow me to review one of my favorite colors, Sally Hansen Salon You-Gurt Style.  I've had this bottle forever; I was honestly about to pitch it, it had gotten so old and gloopy, but sure enough, a bit of Seche Restore and I was good to go!

BIRCHBOX #1!!!!

Last month, I signed up for Birchbox.  Check out the link if you don't know what it is, it's a pretty cool service.  Especially for someone like me, who doesn't spend a lot of money on beauty - it's a fun and cheap way to get small amounts of a variety of high-end products.  Last month's box was a Cynthia Rowley collaboration, and though the boxes differ from customer to customer (you fill out a short quiz and they try and tailor the items to you), most that I saw included mini bottles of Zoya colors.  So that's a double win for me, polish + Cynthia Rowley, whose family I've gone to church with since forever.  Not that I've ever met the woman or reap any sort of benefit from my 3 degrees of separation, but it's still cool to me, and I like to support a family friend.  Plus her stuff is adorable.

In any case, they sold out of the July box faster than anticipated, so I didn't get my first shipment until August.

Camera battery charger is currently MIA, so please excuse crappy webcam pics!

Review: Sally Hansen Golden Cinnabar

So for my first real polish review, I'm going with an older Sally Hansen color of mine: Golden Cinnabar, from the Nail Prisms line.  When my Seche Restore came in the mail, this was the one I first thought of trying to salvage.  I've had the thing since high school, it seemed a shame to see it go to waste.  I think it could still use another drop or two, but overall Seche Restore seems to be just as magic as Seche Vite!

Disclaimer of sorts before I continue:  I have been a loyal follower of All Lacquered Up for several months now; as such I feel like it's kind of inevitable that my reviews will end up being similar.  I'm not aiming to copycat, I just find the separation of the review into separate categories like application and color to be very helpful.  Also it will become painfully clear that I am nowhere near as informed or professional as Michelle, so there's nothing to worry about.

Additionally, apologies for this being later than I intended; I was waiting for some sunlight so I could get a decent picture, but sunlight is something we have not been having an abundance of lately; ironic given that I live in Florida.

Now that all of that's out of the way, I shall proceed.

Where's My 12-Step Program?

At what point do you throw in the towel and admit that what was once a casual interest has spiraled into full-blown obsession?  Because I'm pretty sure I've hit that point with polish; as evidenced by the fact that I went into Walgreens with the intention of buying a soda and walked out with 6 bottles of nail polish.  Sigh.  I won't photograph them all, and I've just been playing with them on my nails, haven't actually applied any of them properly, but my haul consisted of:

• Sinful Colors Quick Dry.  Affordable drying drops??  Who knew?!
• Sinful Colors Summer Peach, a neon orange.  I was going to get the neon yellow from the same collection, but the salesgirl warned me that it doesn't turn out as bright on the nails as it looks in the bottle, so I passed.
• Milani Jewel FX Gems, which is about as close to a dupe for the overpriced Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday as you can get without being totally identical.
• Milani Jewel FX Gold, a simple large hexagonal gold glitter.  I plan on painting my nails with Ulta 14 Carat, then layering the Milani over a single accent nail.  Bling!
• Sally Hansen HD Digital.  Whatever, it's pink and it was on sale for $1.99.
• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Sheer Strawberry.  On sale for $0.50 and I've been thinking about a pale pink jelly since seeing someone wearing a similar color this weekend.

If only I actually made the kind of money that would allow me to support this habit...as it is I'm struggling to pay rent every month, so constantly buying nail polish is not helping me out.  So here's my resolution:  I will stop buying and start blogging!  Because really, what's the point in having a nail blog if I just keep hoarding all this polish but never properly review any of it?  So my goal is to go through my entire current collection and review everything.  When I'm done, I'll give away what I don't want, and then I can start buying more if I feel like it.

...Just realizing that I have Ulta coupons, and my rewards points to spend.  ...Damn, this is going to be harder than I thought!  OK, maybe I can do some buying every once in awhile...if I have a really good reason...

Confessions of a Polishaholic

Hello, my name is Rachel, and I am a nail polish addict.

Spent the day with a friend yesterday, just chilling out and relaxing - shopping, eating, and watching DVD's.  After getting frozen yogurt from Menchie's, (which you should absolutely try if they have one in your area, btw.  Menchie's is amazing.)

Afterward, I insisted that we needed to hit up the Ulta next door.  Correction: I needed to hit up the Ulta.  Correction:  I wanted to hit up the Ulta, but did not need to and in fact probably shouldn't have, given the current state of my bank account.  This sobering reality did little to stop my feet from entering the door, and I walked out with OPI Significant Other Color, a great layering color.

I've seen it worn over OPI Mod About You, in particular, and it was a gorgeous look.

Pretty and Witty and...

And so Gay Days come to a close.  Got just a small taste, didn't get to do as much as I would have liked, but lots of different things ended up coinciding on the same weekend.  Still, I managed to see the Disney-themed show on Friday, which was a complete blast - we thought our friend Sandy was going to pop a vein laughing so hard - and hit the parks on Saturday.  Next year I'm hoping to be free for the big bash at Typhoon Lagoon, and not too sick to enjoy the grand finale that was going on tonight!  In honor of the weekend, I wore the following:

The execution could have been much better, and I need a better green and purple - I used Zoya Caitlin, which obviously isn't supposed to be a bright color, and my Skin Food green, which was surprisingly weakly pigmented, compared to all of my other Skin Food colors.  The original plan was to do one rainbow nail and leave all the rest white, but six stripes ended up being too much effort for me, and in the end I did this pattern in about five minutes before rushing out the door.  Still, I liked the effect.  (The other colors are e.l.f. Light Red, then Sally Hansen Sun Kissed, Mellow Yellow, and Blue Me Away!  The white is OPI Alpine Snow.)

So Much Polish, So Little Time!

Oh my.  Over the past few days I've acquired a veritable treasure trove of new polishes to try out.

While shopping at Downtown Disney, Sam and I stumbled across an entire rack full of OPI's Silver Shatter!  I suppose it makes sense, given that it's part of the Pirates of the Caribbean collection.  So not only was I able to snag a bottle, but I got it with my 20% Cast Member discount.  Excellent!

C-ya Real Soon!

Been getting tons of compliments about my nails - I'm really not looking forward to taking them off when I go back to work!

Sam let me do her nails, which unfortunately didn't come out like I had hoped.  For starters, she only wanted one coat of red, and I think she could have used another.  Secondly, the combination of my shaky hands and old, thickened polish did NOT make for very nice dots.  Sam didn't want the bow on an accent nail, and we didn't have time for topcoat.  So by the time we snapped a picture the next day, they looked like this:

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

Finally free of the company rulebook for the week, so I decided to go all out!

By far, this is my favorite manicure that I've ever had.  (Close runner-up was the red nails/black tips combo my sister did for me for prom.)  And it's even cooler because I did it myself!  I used Chloe's Nails' scotch tape method, and it worked like a charm!  I need to get better about getting the lines straight and the proportions even from one nail to another, however.

Yellow: Sally Hansen XTreme Wear Mello Yellow
Orange: Sally Hansen XTreme Wear Sunrise, Sunset
Pink: Skin Food PK202
Topcoat: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails

The color combo may not be for everyone; I just spoke with a co-worker who was expressing disdain for these very three colors paired together.  But personally, I love them.  To me, pink/orange/yellow says FUN, HAPPY, BRIGHT, SMILE!  And, even more, to me they say summer!

Practice Makes Perfect

My Tart Deco mani was finally so terribly chipped that I had to take it off completely, it would not stay on - on one of my nails the polish even popped right off, like the entire nail at once!  Definitely need to use a topcoat next time I try Matte About You, but I'm also wondering if I was using the Orly Bonder properly.  Are there any tips or tricks for that?

In any case, I know that I won't be able to do my fun-color vacation mani for a few more days, and I was getting bored of bare nails in the meantime, so I decided to do a test run for Sam's Minnie-Mani.  I'm thinking red nails, white polka-dots on the fingers then a yellow bow on the thumbs.  Dots are easy, but I've never done a bow before, so here was my attempt.

No clean-up, because I'm just going to have to take this off before work tomorrow morning.

Hmmm.  Needs work, clearly.  Plus the wide brush in the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear color I'm using wasn't really made for fine-tuned designs.  I'll have to keep experimenting.

Dollar Store Finds

Most of the time, the makeup section at my local dollar store is pretty useless.  But every once and awhile you find something fantastic.  Like these blinged-out nail files that are SO much fun!

Or a bottle of e.l.f. Light Pink, which is somewhat similar in color to my Sally Hansen Yo-Gurt Style.  It also reminds me of OPI Mod About You, a color I've been lusting after, which made me really excited to find it.  I also really like e.l.f.'s bottle design.

In unrelated news: if you live in a wet climate, BEWARE OF YELLOW FLIES/DEERFLIES!!  I was supposed to run a 5k yesterday morning, but instead ended up popping Benadryl and elevating my ankle, which was swollen huge, as well as itchy and painful.  The friend I was supposed to run with also managed to come down with strep throat, so we made a pretty pathetic pair.

But, friends come into town in a little over a week, and I just found $100 in my budget, so time for a completely guilt-free staycation!

Tart Deco update

Survived work with my nails - even training under what's supposedly a stricter department than ours, but based on the people that I met today I'm beginning to question that; they were very cool and laid-back.  In any case, one of my bosses had a shimmery reddish color, and another girl had a purple holo, so I guess my worries were unfounded.  I'll just stay away from really bright eye-catching colors like white.

Tart Deco never really grew on me, I'm just not a fan of the color.  I'm considering putting a layer of white underneath it sometime to see if that will help lighten it up.  Next time, I'm also going to wear a topcoat!  I was under the mistaken impression that Matte About You was a topcoat, not just an effect to be added over a topcoat.  The result?  Quite a bit of chipping the first day alone.  Go ahead, laugh it up - I'm sure it's not the only rookie mistake I'll make.

In the meantime, I added an orange stripe (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed) on my thumbnails just for fun.  My first time using the Scotch tape method (as displayed so masterfully by Chloe's Nails) - it'll definitely need perfecting.  Not too easily noticeable, and I like the contrast of the shine and the matte (that you can't really see in the picture).  Plus, having a bit of fun makes me feel like I'm sticking it to the man.  Kinda.  Buckle up people, this is about as rebellious as I get.

In other beauty news, finally got mah hair did.  Hooray!  I didn't do anything fancy - just reshaped my bangs and added some layers - but oh man do I love the smooth feel of freshly-cut ends with no splits. 

Additionally, I let my friends who will be vacationing with me later this month know that I'm doing their nails.  Yay!  Something fun for me, and more content I can post for you guys without getting spoken to again.  Win-win!  Sam is getting a Minnie Mouse manicure - we found several pictures online that look absolutely adorable.  Ashley is really intrigued by the OPI Shatter topcoat, and if I can't find it at Ulta before they arrive she thinks her mother may have a bottle we can borrow and experiment with.  Their mani styles are so them - bright and cute vs dark and funky.  I'm looking forward to it!

...In With the New

This is how long it's been since I shopped for makeup anywhere other than the drugstore:  I wandered around for a good ten minutes before I figured out where the nail polish section was - and that was only because I asked someone!  FAIL.  I saw small collections with other makeup from their respective brands, but I wasn't finding very much selection - until I asked, and was directed to the back of the store where there were three giant racks full of polish.  I AM VERY DUMB.