Orly Rock the World + Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

This is Orly Rock the World, from the Mineral FX collection.  I just found this at my local Sally Beauty Supply 2 weeks ago.  It has a deep plummy red base with some major gold foil, giving it a strong duochrome effect.  This seems to be a close relative to OPI It’s My Year, although it looks like the gold in RTW is much warmer and it could have a darker plum/red base.  I might do a closer comparison later.   I’m wearing Rock the World here with an accent finger of Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strip.  The style is called Laced Up.

This was my first time using the Sally Hansen nail polish strips, even though I’ve amassed quite a little collection of them.  They are very easy to use and last a long time.  Here, I’d been wearing my strip for 4 days.  Aside from a tiny tip wear it looks perfect!  I have a few suggestions to make application easier and neater.  First, hold the strip up to your nail and trim it with scissors before applying.  You want it to be slightly longer than your actual nail, so you have a little extra to wrap underneath the nail for added security.  Also, I found that rubbing the strips between my hands helped warm them up and mold better to my nails.  Get the strip as close to your cuticle as possible, so when your nail grows out you won’t have a giant gap.  You’ll want to add a top coat (I used Seche Vite) because otherwise the strip finish is kind of flat and dull.  Finally, you can easily polish another color on top if you don’t want to remove the strip yet.  I did this and it helped the top layer of polish last extra long.  However, it also made for really frustrating removal!  I used acetone-based remover and soaked each nail briefly to loosen up the tough bedrock layers of polish, then scrub scrub scrubbed with my cotton ball.

I can’t wait to show you more Sally Hansen nail polish strips soon!  Especially the Halloween designs, which I’m flipping over.

 

~ Allison ~

 

Random Multicolored Lacquer Swatches for You

I am so behind on my swatches.  Enjoy six quickies!

 

Milani Totally Cool

Royal purple jelly with rose gold foil.  I found this one in the K-Mart 99 cent clearance bin!  Although this polish is really pretty it’s a bit sheer.  Even with the 3 coats I used here my nail line is still peeking out – boooo.  Still, that color.

 

Milani Feisty Flames

Cutest name!  Another K-Mart 99 cent wonder.  It’s a basic tomato red creme with a jelly’s squishiness and major shine – how do they do that?  Although I don’t buy much red polish this color was fun to wear.  A great choice to coordinate with your 50’s pinup looks.

 

Rimmel Lava Red

I am a sucker for these “blackened” colors.  Although this metallic red pearl looks almost burgundy in low light, in the sun it appears lit from within!  And look how glossy.  This one is sure to make you feel vampy and seductive.

 

Rimmel Hard Metal

Dark pewter metallic frost.  The formula was creamy – a pleasure to apply.  This is 2 coats.  I appreciated the fact that even though this is a frost-leaning finish my brushmarks didn’t dry streaky and visible.  Again, pretty shiny on its own.

 

Pure Ice Spitfire

This is a mauve-pink holographic glitter in a clear base.  Naively I hoped this could be worn on its own for discoball impersonation nails, but that wasn’t happening.  Next time I will layer it over a base color, for sure.  Anyway, this baby was very holographic and reflective in the sun.  Let’s do more glitter, shall we?  We shall!

 

OPI Uh Oh Roll Down the Window + Milani Gold Jewel FX

UORDTW is from OPI’s latest collection, Touring America.  It’s a dark olive green creme that reminds me of camo.  I like the fact that OPI included some off-the-beaten-path green/beige/brown shades along with their pinks and peaches.    My bottle is so strange – it looks like the pigments got separated, but no amount of shaking will mix them up again.  I don’t think that affected the application, though.  The color looks darker in the nail than in the bottle.  Then I decided to glam up this puke green with glitter!

This is Gold from Milani’s Jewel FX collection.  Sure enough, it’s big gold hex glitter that’s pow, in your face.  Very easy nail art.

 

No more for tonight; I must eat dinner.  Thanks for viewing/reading and I’ll catch up with you soon!

 

~ Allison ~

 

 

 

Holo-Fest! Part I

We have been hit with so much rain in New York for the past couple of weeks.  So, when the sun emerged yesterday with a forecast of rays all day, I snatched up my camera and polishes and did some swatching for you.  Viola – here are the holographic nail polishes I have in my collection.

I’ll kick off this post with the Milani 3D Holographic Collection.  It has been available for awhile, but for some reason I couldn’t find these locally til a couple of months ago.  Anyway, I’m so glad I scooped up all 6 because they are gorgeous!  Unlike some holos, these went on like a dream, with no dragging or splotchiness.  I didn’t use any special basecoat – just my usual Essie Millionails.  These dry very shiny, as well – you don’t need a topcoat to get that glossy look.  On to the swatches!

HD is a bright, clear silver.

3D is a warm golden holo.

Hi-Tech is a crazy gorgeous yellow-green.  I love how there are both color particles in this one in addition to the holographic.  Since it’s such a chameleon I had a hard time capturing the color with my camera.

 

Cyberspace is a blue holo that looks baby blue or blue gray, depending on the light. This one is extra spectacular in the sun!

Digital is a cool-toned medium pink.

Hi-Res is a lilac purple with tons of holo goodness.  It’s such a stunner that I thought it deserved an extra photo.

What a rainbow!

All of these are two coats except for HD (the silver), which was not as opaque as the others, for some reason.  I’m really glad Milani dipped their toes into the holographic nail polish stream (ooh, that sounds refreshing, can I go?).  These manage to be chock-full of chunky holo particles while giving off a linear shine and drying smooth and glossy on the nail.  They also look fantastic both in low/indoor light and bright sunlight.  My absolute faves are Hi-Res (purple), Cyberspace (blue), and Hi-Tech (green).  Get your paws on these polishes for $5.99 apiece at CVS.

How do you think these compare to some of the other holographic nail polishes – OPI DS, Color Club, etc?

Watch for Part II of Holo-Fest, coming soon!

 

~ Allison ~

 

Green and Orange, an Unlikely Duo

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