Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Stud-io Time

Howdy, folks!  I can't believe October is almost gone.  It just got here, didn't it?  You wouldn't know it's October by the temperatures were still getting here in AZ.  I can only hope that by Halloween our highs will only be in the high 80s.  :::crossing fingers:::  The evenings here are pretty gorgeous though.  I definitely have nothing to complain about when it comes to that.  Right now its 71 degrees out.  It's the perfect weather to have dinner out on the patio of a restaurant, which I did last night with several of my girl friends.  It was quite lovely.

So I have bought several of these Salon Effects kits and have never tried using them until a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know what it was about them, but I think I thought they wouldn't work and I wasn't ready to flush what I spent on them down the drain so quickly.  Well, I finally sucked it up and decided I would finally give them a try.  I bought this set at Ulta for half off about 8 months ago!  I opened the box and was ready to get down to business when I realize one of the sets of strips was missing.  The box is supposed to included 2 sealed packets of the various sized nail polish strips- one for your right hand and one for the left.  It's also supposed to have an orange stick and a small nail file.  This box had the orange stick and one set of the nail strips.  I was robbed!!!  Lesson reluctantly learned.  If you see these on clearance, check the box to make sure everything is there before you buy or be a sucker like me.

Because of the above, I decided to still use what I bought and came up with an accent nail mani using the Stud-io Time strips on every other nail, alternating with OPI's Sanguine.  I'm not going to go into the application process because you can watch a fantastic video instead, if you would like: Nail Strip Application Tutorial.

I wasn't sure what to expect with these nail polish strips, but they turned out to be pretty cool.  There was some very obvious lifting that occurred immediately on only my thumb nail near the cuticle line  (I think I should have watched the tutorial first!).  No matter how hard I pressed down on it, it kept popping up.  Even still, it wasn't really a problem - it didn't get snagged in anything and pretty much stayed the same degree of separated the entire time I had them on, which was about 4 days.

Here's how to make the best of half of a box of nail polish strips:

You can really see the lifting up of the strip on my thumb in this one. :(

What do you think?  Have you ever tried nail polish strips before?  If you have what was your experience?  Any tricks or tips for flawless application?

Until next time.  ☺

American Apparel - Berry & Army Jacket Swatches

More pics, less words I say!
American Apparel makes great polish.   Reasonably priced, wears well, shiny even without a top coat (even more shiny with a top coat), easy to apply with a totally workable formula, and has a great selection of colors.
I adjusted my camera settings to get the truest colors I could.  Berries and reds are always so tough to shoot though!

Here we go!

Berry - 2 coats with SV top coat.  Sooo pretty!

Army Jacket - 2 coats and SV top coat

SpaRitual 2011 Wilde Collection, Mini Version - Plus Illuminati - Swatched

Blogapalooza 2011 continues…
So here’s a brand not many people know of that puts out consistently beautiful colors, SpaRitual. I bought some minis on Aveyou.com in an attempt to be thrifty and picked the ones I liked best based on other blogs and reviews. The minis are $5.00 each and the full size are $10.00. Check them out!

Illuminati - Now this was not part of the Wilde Collection, but I thought it looked cool enough to buy, so I did. I layered this lovely over Sally Hansen’s Xtreme Wear in Celeb City to reduce my chances of VNL <--click.   I love the holo speckles of this one, thus the out of focus shot below.

Running With Wolves - Looks so much better in person. My camera just couldn’t capture how stunning this one is. Silly camera.  It's actually more yellowy golden and fiery than these picture would have you think.  In these pics I feel it comes off as a little dull.  Please excuse the tip wear, folks.

Sacred Ground - Now, do I really have to say anything? This color is ah-mah-zing! So unusual - at least in my eyes it is.

Spirit Child - Gorgeous! Fiery! Love! Enough said.

Hope you will check this brand out next time you are in the mood for some new colors!

Until next time...

Wet N Wild Behind Closed Doors - Swatched!

Here’s a little bit of Wet N’ Wild for you. I love Wet N’ Wild because, they are constantly putting out new and exciting polishes and are always very inexpensive in comparison to other brands - usually @ around as little as $1.99 a pop to, on the high side, $3.99-$4.99 each. Not bad on the wallet, eh?
This precious polish, called Behind Closed Doors, I picked up after searching many, many, MANY Walgreen’s for it. And now, it is MINE! :::Maniacal Laugh, Maniacal Laugh, Maniacal Laugh:::
This polish can be built up on it’s own and has more of a jelly-like consistency. It has a smoky blackish base with hexagonal red glitter and teeny tiny round red glitter. Application wasn’t too bad, usually these kind of polishes require finessing and arranging of the glitter as you layer. I used several coats for this manicure with a SV top coat, as usual. I think Behind Closed Doors works better as a layering polish over red or black, although I admit I didn‘t try it on its own. In these swatches, I layered Behind Closed Doors over Butter London’s Knees Up. All in all, I think the manicure turned out quite nice. What do you think?

Butter London Fall 2011 Wallis, Bluey and Knees Up!

Wow, it's been awhile.  I feel like it was just Halloween and now November is almost over! 
Well, I'm going to try to play blog catch up over the next few days with a backlog of swatches I have and let me tell, you I have TONS to share.  Plus, I'm SUPER excited about my one and only Black Friday purchase of the Cult Nails "Super Powers" collection, featuring the much coveted Unicorn Puke which has been released as Clairvoyant to the masses.  This lemming was snatched up just in time as it's now sold out and who knows when it'll be available again (Thank you facebook for the heads up).   Here's a link for your previewing pleasure: Cult Nails Super Powers Collection.  I'll swatch them just as soon as I get them. 
In the meantime, I have 6 colors of the Muppets Collection to share, Color Club Foiled Collection, part 2 of the Color Club Back to Boho Collection, some new American Apparel colors and Wet N Wild's Behind Closed Doors, which is a red and black masterpiece. Yup, tons of back log.  I'm also thinking of doing a "my favorites" blog, with my favorite general beauty products- not just the products I like for nails.
Now on to the swatches!  I have to say that I love love LOVE butter London polishes.  They are a 3 Free polish company (aka non-toxic) that can be found at your local Ulta store. Aside from the 3 colors that I will be showing you, I have about 5 others that are absolutely stunning as well including No More Waity, Katie, All Hail McQueen, West End Wonderland, Lady Muck and Victoriana.  On my current lemming list is the Black Knight - hopefully I'll get him on my next Ulta run.  I recommend you check out their adorable website for the full collection of colors @ Feast your eyes on butter London! Anywho, first we have Bluey, which is shim-mer-y blue madness!  We'll just the swatch speak for itself.






(This picture is more true to Bluey color-wise.) 



 Next up is Knees Up, which I think has to be one of the most stunning reds I have ever laid my eyes upon.  It is the perfect red satin and I think is a must for a nail polish lovers collection.  Check it out..

Let me just add that the above photo doesn't do this color justice, but as I have learned some colors such as red, are just harder to capture than others.  Application for both Bluey and Knees Up was only slightly tricky, as it can leave streaks if you are not careful and if you are not using even strokes while applying it.  I used 3 coats for each with a top coat of SV. 

Lastly, the Queen of all butter London colors, is Wallis, which is named after Wallis Simpson.  If you don't know who Wallis Simpson is, she plays a big part in British Royal history and a small part in the King's Speech.  This color is almost indescribable, it's so unique and eye catching.  It's like an antique bronzey gold with a greenish hue and speckles of black and is super shimmery.  If I had to play favorites between Chanel's Peridot and Wallis, I think Wallis wins hand down.  Wallis a must more interesting color and is much more affordable, at half the price.  Here she is...

(excuse the tip wear, please)

What did I tell you?  I told you she is GORGEOUS.  Now you will just have to run out an buy yourself some butter London, won't you?  butter London polishes run a little higher than your typical OPI, Orly and China Glaze brands at $14.00 a pop, but I really feel they are worth the price.  Definitely, nail polish investments, as I like to call them.

FYI: butter London also has some really cute nail skins that I am dying to try out, but I have to spread out my nail shopping budget so that I don't end up nail poor.  Maybe for X-mas. 

Until next time...