Metallic Momentum

MyOwnJudge Sally HansenAdults have been telling me to eat and drink my vitamins for years now. You would think that a progression from chewables (they never tasted right to me) to ones you could swallow would be a little less drama, but now there’s the matter of being too busy to drink vitamins. When I think about it, I realize how foolish it is. Really? I don’t have spare time to remember to swallow something good for me? But enough about my vices.

As I attempt to better my vitamin habits, I am starting to try out the new polishes in my collection one by one, in between overhauls of going back to nubs and growing again.MyOwnJudge Sally Hansen MyOwnJudge Sally HansenI love the smoothness and opacity of this polish. It makes me think of Minx manis, although this isn’t as perfect. No flash on left, and flash on the right.

What’s on your nails?

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Sequin Scandal NOTD

MyOwnJudge

Nanette Lepore at ShopStyle

The recent collection by Sally Hansen has been hard to track down at drugstores. The locations that keep up with the newer stuff often have empty displays from the stampedes of customers grabbing up the goods, and the so so stores are either still behind, or going empty and refusing to reorder.

With that said, I was surprised to come across Sequin Scandal when I wasn’t looking for it at all. The dark olive green has golden shimmer in it and is a pleasure to look at. It gave me a little trouble when trying to capture on camera (Beauty Judy‘s third shot of the color is too great), hiding it’s glory in the shadows.

This is a great party and holiday color, match it to an identically colored mini (sequins or not), a dark color, or a cream. Keep in mind though, that darker colors have a tendency to stain the cuticle area, thus making it a color you should sit down to apply, instead of swiping on the go.MyOwnJudgeThe color can veer on a little dark, but is very complimentary to any skin tone and does not get easily confused for a black (whereas a lot of other colors, like navy, and dark violet do).

What’s on your nails?

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Sally Hansen Problem Child

MyOwnJudgeThis is a story all about how… yours truly walked into a drugstore (Duane Reade) and failed to leave empty handed yet again. My new indulgence? Two colors that caught my eye for different reasons.

Sally Hansen‘s Problem Child is a purple creamy pearl shade (make sense?) with a slight black and metallic overtone. The best part are the gold flecks swimming around the bottle. Touch of Mink was a must as the new addition to my gray/brown family. The color just looks so darn smooth.MyOwnJudgeI could have a photo shoot with just the bottle.MyOwnJudgeAfter complete and utter joy at swatching the first shade (and thus a plea to ignore the lack of signs of a cleanup by the cuticles), I found that the gold flecks, though visible, are more clear under intense inspection, but rather hidden and secretive – a bit like a hallucination moment from afar.

Added any new colors to your collection?

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Sparkles Galore in the Drugstore

Sally Hansen PolishThere’s a confession in order, every time I pass a drugstore, a sudden urge to go in and see the new stuff overwhelms me. Sometimes they’re not equipped for my eager eyes and I leave spending nothing (good) and seeing nothing (eh, not so good).

The last visit was pretty eventful though, I felt like I unearthed a gem!

What I think are new Sally Hansen colors (sometimes the displays get bombarded by consumer hands and you can’t tell what’s limited edition from the vets, and what’s new from the clearance) in Purple Gala and Mystic Lilac are shimmer heaven polishes. I love that the shades are not your typical reds, blues, or purples, as many collections have brought out, and instead are using the most popular neutral shades and spicing them up a bit.

Sally Hansen Polish
Sally Hansen Polish
Doesn’t all that shimmer speak to you? (No? Just me then…)
Sally Hansen Polish
I bought mine at Duane Reade but you can get them at any drugstore or Walmart conveniently located and fully stocked around your way. Stay tuned for when I rock a full mani with these babies!

How do you like these colors?

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Minty NOTD from Sally

MOJ NOTDI’ve been walking around drugstores like a ferret for the past couple of weeks. It’s starting to drive me wild too you know. I like to have brands put something good out at a gradual pace. That or an obnoxious price with no sale in sight works well too. This has not been the case. There have been holos, new bottles, new colors. Not just great brands, but brands that haven’t done so well and are seeking redemption. Then the drugstores come around for my money and start offering sales left and right. It’s getting stressful over on this side of the screen y’all.

So check out one of my new faves from my gal Sally Hansen. It is a new color… right? Mint Sprint is perfect with one coat but looks massively smoooooooth (with exactly that many os) with two coats. I am still a die-hard fan of the weird flat brush, it covers my nail in almost one swipe. The color is what turquoise would look like if it had a steamy affair with gray.

I used to be a fan of the shape of this triangular bottle, but when I started storing them, it started to drive me wild. Have you tried to stack them together? It’s a bit annoying. The new colors out though? Redemption granted.

MOJ NOTD

MOJ NOTD

Any colors making you run to the store?

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Nail Challenge – Continued

PhotobucketLast time I posted a new mani, I was shouting all loud and such about my nail challenge. How I wanted to utilize my extensive collection and somehow make my money well spent after all these years and unnecessary purchases. And then it got really quiet. Well I wasn’t slacking my dear readers. I was merely collecting them because I had a fear that y’all would cuss me out real tender for posting a NOTD every day in addition to regular posts.

I took to a lot of new purchases to showcase this week. My nails have also started revolting, so you will notice that the sizing is a bit different in some. This is either because the hands posing are different sides, or that I lost the war of the growing fingernail at the moment.

A post will be coming up soon about nail care and how to extend the life and length of such, but until then, enjoy the colors!

MAC Dry Martini
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flash on left, no flash on right

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue
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Shades by Barielle Nailtini
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and right as the weekend started to beckon, the nails began to revolt:

LA Girls unnamed mint green and bright as lights orange
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excuse the blurry thumb, I don’t know how that happened, lol


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NOTD Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

PhotobucketKeeping up with the nail challenge y’all. For day two I’ve got a drugstore friendly polish. I got this one at a BOGO deal at CVS, and frankly, there is always a deal on these babies. Good, too – because they’re grrrreat!

You can probably see from the pictures that the polish I’m raving about is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. These buggers have a different shape for the bottles than any I’ve seen before (but totally great for swatch shots for the blog!). The brush is also a little wide and flat, a characteristic not too many people are happy with, but honestly that is among my favorites. The brush usually lets me finish one nail in a single swipe, rarely needing a second.

I usually snatch up the clear polish bottles in Insta-Dri for on the go applications. I carry them in nearly every bag, because I like to have at least clear polish on my nails if there is no color. Between how fast they dry and the size of the brush, clear application is done in under a single subway stop (y’all know I’m always doing my nails on the train in NYC!).

This color, Teal Takeoff is a new addition to the line for Fall 2009. I love that roughly 90% of the Insta-Dri collection is so thick that one coat can be enough to complete your mani. That also means they are great for using with Konad!

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left: flash, right: no flash

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pretty true to color too

Like the color? The challenge? Let me know!


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Nailing NYFW

PhotobucketIf there’s anything that NYFW teaches you, is that fashion doesn’t stop at the end of the runway. The audience and crowds contributed to plenty an ooh and ahh, whether they were celebrity or not. My camera was often pointed equally to someone’s clothes and shoes, as it was to the models and garments.

I even felt the kick under my heiny to step it up and rocked out with bright lipstick for days. But today’s not about that – today’s nail day!

The pasttime that I can always commit to is doing my nails and toes. I usually do this before I do anything, as I can aid drying time that way. I also am tempted to try a new polish nearly every day (though that is half blamed on my penchant to peel my polish and half because of my constant new purchases). For NYFW, I didn’t want to be a one color girl, so I enjoyed some fancy mattes, suedes, creams, and a Konad for days.

I wanted to mix it up for Fashion Week, as I didn’t want to run through all the fabulosity with a mere one color. I tried to do a fresh nail every other day.

First one was a cream color that struck my eye immediately when I came into the Beauty Supply store. It was a sherbet melon/orange type color, and I could attest that I had none to even so much as mimic it. Plus the color was around $2. The brand was one that I never tried before, but as it’s name says itself – I was curious Quirious!

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Though I liked this color, the polish took a bit too long to meet my expectations. The picture here is after roughly four coats. The first two coats made it look sheer as all goodness and that actually made me pout. I like the finished effect, but it takes too long to achieve it. Regardless, though… given the price, I’ll forgive em & probably showcase more of their colors soon.

Next two colors that I tried are pretty new to the nail market and I didn’t want to wait too long to try them out. After spotting them on websites and nail blogs alike, my heart was beating fast in the material sector. First one was OPI Suede in Russian Navy.

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The little note attached to it says the same thing as the ones on the Mattes as I posted here. They tell you not to use a base or top coat, that they wear differently than other polish, and not to use lotion.

Just to let y’all know. I haved used a base coat with all my matte polishes and that hasn’t changed anything. I have seen that the one time I followed directions and didn’t use a base coat, the matte made my nail yellow. Yaya doesn’t like that one bit.

The Suedes are fabulous guys. They have this silver underlayer that makes the top coat shine. It’s hard to explain. The pictures show you that I have a top coat on my ring finger to show you what it looks like with a top coat. I like the color both ways. I also noticed that upon removal, you can actually come across the middle layer that is invisible to the eye when applying or wearing.

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Coooooool. Right? 🙂 This is when I was removing it, so excuse the chip. Mattes and Suedes wear a lot more sensitive than creams, so they tend to chip at the ends within one or two days.

Next one was OPI by Sephora in Metro Chic Matte. This was an ultra cool matte, that had the best application of any of the mattes I have ever come across. Case in point: most mattes, if you apply more than two swipes on one nail in succession start to clump up. This one did no such thing.

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flash on the left and no flash on the right
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pinky has a top coat on it. Looks almost identical to Metro Chic cream

The color is a little different with flash and no flash. Neither shows the color perfectly. It is a bit in between the two if you can imagine. I tried to add a little Holo pizazz with China Glaze on the thumb and ring finger.

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Photobucket PhotobucketI also love that this polish is extremely true to bottle color. Most of the mattes – it is just too hard to convey that.

My last mani was my last hoorah inspired by my girl Brit from ClumpsofMascara. She was tweetin’ and YouTubin’ with a fab houndstooth Konadicure, and I took her as inspiration to rock my plates out. I used a Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polish that I just got from Walgreens on sale, and used bows and fishnets to rock out the rest. I used my black and white Konad polishes and then mixed some of them to see if I could get gradient colors.

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After a nail or two, I realized I was mimicking my fave Betsey Johnson mini handbag.

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What y’all think? What are you rocking on your nails?


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Sally Hansen HD Nails

This was the first Sally Hansen line that I got fully. The colors are super bright and lovely. I swatched every single one of them about two months back and accordingly forgot to post thereafter.

Isn’t that how it always works?

Here’s how they looked on my digits:


01- Cyber


02- Blu


03- Pixel Pretty


04- Hi Def


05- Lite


06- Digital


07- Three D


08- Hi Res

There are two different lighting in the picture and the one on the right is the one that is 98% true to color.

How is my nail posing doing? I’m trying to perfect it but it’s hard work!

Click here to check the page for the HD colors and ingredients.

After seeing that Sally Hansen was having a sweepstakes to win these exact polishes though, I thought it would be most fitting to post now. The contest is going on from 07/08/09 – 09/15/09. Check out the page for official rules.

Blue & Lite were my faves – tell me which ones are yours after you enter the sweepstakes!

What the Wind Blue In

The word is in: Blue is the new Black. Who came up with that phrase anyway? (Some window shopping for you? Why of course, click here for Bergdorf’s take on the shade’s of blue for spring in costs that will cause your wallet to go plenty shades of red.)

Not one to disappoint, here are some swatches from the blues of the nail world! (and an obligatory inspiration board to match!)

Sally Hansen Polish in Navy Baby.

It’s a little more blue-er than this but I just couldn’t make the photos work for Sally. Also – I wasn’t as happy with this polish. Though I’m an avid Sally purchaser, I am not much of a fan, and have yet to be converted. This polish was runny for me and stained my nails. That’s a pet peeve with me and nail polishes. The color still looked great though!
(Walgreens, Sally Hansen)

LA Girl Flare Nail Polish (don’t know the color! it’s not on it the pooper – can’t find it online in that color either – but I got it from Urban) This photo also came out pooptacular but the color is more true to life in the first pic w/all the polishes together.

This one is an alright pick for me. The colors for this entire line are very vibrant and always make a statement. There usually is very minimal guesswork for the color translation from the bottle to the nail, b/c it’s always true to color. If any downside, I’d say the polishes don’t last long as my others (hello Essie, OPI) but they’re affordable ($3.50 – $5) and do the job. A lot of them also accomplish a matte-like finish if you don’t do a top coat or if you have a matte top coat(does that exist ?)
(Urban Outfitters, Cherry Culture)

Milani nail polish in Bolting Blue.
Came out true to color! yay!

Has got to be my favorite right now! This polish is super easy to put on, doesn’t mess too much, is just the right mix of sturdy and liquid (does that make sense? lol) and comes in great colors. Plus it’s a drugstore easy find and pretty cheap. Hello stores? I’m coming for more!!
(CVS doesn’t have this color online, Milani, Walgreens)

Can you tell I love me some Inspiration Boards?

Blues
Blues – by missyaya on Polyvore.com