Sally Hansen Insta Dry: Currant Trend.

Happy Friday lovelies!! I hope you all are going to have an amazing weekend. I will be working, as per usual. If you are snowed in like me I hope that you are safe and warm as well!

Today's polish is going to be one I picked up back in the mid fall, but is still available today. I saw them at Rite Aid not too long ago.

Sally Hansen really stepped up their game with polish last year. They put out some amazing glitters and  Insta Drys! Today I have one of those Insta Drys to show you. Its called Currant Trend. I have never seen a currant but I am hoping its similar to this color.

Correction: I just Googled what a Currant is and its more red and burgundy then this polish color but this is still a beautiful polish.

Its such a vibrant purple!! I gravitate towards towards purple polishes and probably have way too many in my collection. You know the deal with the Insta Dry polishes, they dry fairly quickly, hence the name, and they come in these nifty bottles that are triangular shaped. They also have a large flat brush as well. The only thing I don't really like about the Insta Dry bottles is the neck of the bottle its so narrow and the wand and brush always come out full of polish so if you don't wipe it off well you still get a running flow of polish from the stem to the brush and you risk flooding your cuticles. As you can see I had that problem and my cuticles are slightly stained.

However with that one defect aside this color is beautiful. If look close you can see the individual blue and purple flecks that make this polish what it is. In real life in bottle it looks like a glass fleck but doesn't finish that way.

You can find Insta Dry polishes at your local drugstore, Wal-Mart, Target, etc.

Until next time.
<3 Nicole

Pure Ice Superstar. My go-to white polish!

Hello! Happy Thursday! I hope you all are well!

Today I am going to show you my go-to white polish! This is the polish I use as my base for all my gradients, attempts at watermarbles, some stamping and just to have as a good clean canvas!

I have tried many white polishes since becoming addicted to nail polish, my very first white polish I tried was Sally Hansen Insta Dry Polish in Whirlwind White. I had purchased it based on a YouTuber that I religiously watch and she had said it was her favorite white so I decided to give it a try. For the most part it is a great white polish. I'm not a fan of the brushes, but that's another debate or blog post in its entirety. By the time I got down to the last 1/3 of the bottle the polish began to get goopy and thick and just not usable anymore. Plus at that time I had no idea to go out and purchase polish thinner and make it like brand new.

The second white polish that I have tried is Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Polish in White on. White on is another great white creme polish but is a tad streaky, especially if you didn't have enough on the brush to cover your whole nail in a couple of swipes. I don't know if it was maybe the batch of polishes or if they were just really old sitting on the shelf but I felt White on got more goopy even when the bottle was almost full .

The third white polish I purchased was yet another Sally Hansen polish that was from the Hard As Nails Collection, and I can't remember the name of. This was the worst white polish by far that I ever purchased. To talk about streaky was an understatement, it took like four coats to be opaque and even then it wasn't really even and dry time was horrendous. Once again I was in search of a new white polish.

Now I could of purchased Sinful Colors Snow Me White, but no one around me had it in stock at the time, but then I saw that Pure Ice, which is typically sold at Walmart had a creme white polish called Superstar. I decided to try it, for a little over a dollar it was totally worth to give it a shot, Sometimes the cheapest polishes can be the best.

Boy did I find a winner with Superstar! If you are careful you can make this a one coater, other wise two coats is perfect. I have actually purchased two bottles of this so far, and my first bottle isn't even gone yet! My first bottle is down to the last third and its not even goopy or thick!

Here are a few swatch photos of Superstar!

Clean up with Superstar can be either good or bad. Usually I can get my cuticles clean and nice, sometimes it just doesn't happen. For my pick for favorite white polish Pure Ice Superstar is the winner!

Have a great Thursday guys!
<3 Nicole

China Glaze: I'm Not Lion

Hey guys! Hope you all are fabulous!!!

I have been doing well, some awesome things are happening in my life! My best friend Stephanie, who has been my BFF for the last 7 years just had her first baby! Gianna Nicole, yes Stephanie was awesome and gave her daughter my name as her middle name! I was so excited when she told me she was pregnant! This was the first time I have had anyone close to me have a kid so I couldn't wait to be involved! Since Steph and I are like sisters I got to go to one of the sonograms and see baby Gianna, and I got to help with the baby shower! When Gianna was born I got to go the day after and see her and I got to hold her! Holding a one day old baby is amazing she so tiny and squishy! I can't wait to see her grow up and learn to talk and call me aunt pumpernickel (yeah that's my nickname)!

The other awesome thing happening in my life right now is that I am about to make my final credit card debt payment this week! Its taken me about a year to pay it off! Don't get me wrong I make sure all bills that need to be paid are paid first before I go out and buy anything such as clothing, make up or nail polish.


So anyway after sharing that awesome news with you guys, its time to show you my manicure! I finally decided to wear a glitter polish I bought back on my birthday in July. Today I have China Glaze's I'm not Lion!

This is a pale gold glitter that is finely milled and packed with some holographic bits as well! It is so pretty in the bottle and on the nail! You can wear this polish on its own like I am in this post or you can layer it over black or any dark color to make it pop!

Two coats is more than enough for opacity alone, it does dry very gritty. It's the one thing I hate most about glitter polishes and the fact they eat top costs like crazy! I love when a glitter dries smooth they are few and far between but they'd do exist!

OK so on to the pictures!

 

 

The first picture is with a flash and no top coat. The second picture is no flash with two coats of top coat (Sally Hansen Insta Dry) and the last picture is a blurry shot to see the sparkly-ness of I'm Not Lion.

I'm Not Lion is one of the glitters from the On Safari Collection from China Glaze and should still be available online through places like Head2Toe Beauty, Transdesign, and Victoria Nail Supply. Prices may vary by E-tailer. I purchased my polish at Sally's Beauty Supply when they had the collection.

Okay so I hoped you enjoyed that and I will have a new post soon! I have an idea in the works but it's not properly thought out yet :)

OK talk to you all soon :)

Sally Hansen Insta Dry Polish: Bronze Ablaze

Hello! Hope you all are having a lovely night/evening.

Tonight I am going to bring you a polish that I had in my polish drawer from last fall! I totally forgot about it and since fall is almost around the corner I thought it would be good to give it a 'test run'.

Usually I usher in fall when Bath and Body Works starts breaking out the fall stuff and Dunkin Donuts start selling Pumpkin Coffee! Usually it's around this time!

First up is Bronze Ablaze. I first heard about this polish when Nouveau Cheap had posted about it. It was part of a Sally Hansen Limited Edition Collection that had a bunch of other jewel tone polishes in it, including Ruby Rush, which will be the next post!

Bronze Ablaze's application is like any other Insta Dry polish. The brush is bulky and you get nice even coats but its a little messy. The color is gorgeous! In different light you see a kind of olive green color to a nice antiqued gold color. I think this is going to be one of the go to colors for fall for me! I have nothing like this in my collection!

Drying time is pretty okay with these, I only used to own Whirlwind white and that dried super fast! Plus adding the Insta Dry Top Coat just brings out the shimmery goodness!

Let's take a look at the picture!

St. Patricks Day Manicure! Milani's Hi-Tech

Happy Friday!!!! This week for me has been amazing! I hope everyone else's week has been amazing too!

Today I am posting a green manicure for tomorrows St. Patrick's Day. I would post it tomorrow but I won't be home, tomorrow its time for me to get my taxes done and go and run tons of errands before a long night at work.

With this manicure I did attempt to create a shamrock on my ring finger but I failed and it looked like an unrecognizable blog of green polish. So I decided to stick with just some good green holo using Milani's Hi-Tech.

This is the second Milani 3D Holographic polish that I bought out of the five I have. This polish I feel has the most holo in it. Its the most noticeable and you don't have to stand in direct light or sunlight to see it.

Application of this was not a problem. About four coats did the trick for opacity. I did give myself a few bald spot by my cuticles with too many brush strokes. Added my Sally Hansen Insta Dry Top Coat and ta-da! The last picture is my favorite, you can really see all the lovely colors that shine in this polish from blue to orange!

Hope you all have a great weekend, and if you plan on partying tomorrow for St. Patty's day please be safe!

Nicole