Sally Hansen Diamond Shine Black Tie

This is Sally Hansen Diamond Shine Black Tie.  It is a black polish with a green/purple duochrome.  It ends up looking like an oil slick.  I don't know if they still sell this polish, but there are a lot of dupes.  Zoya Ki is one.  Sally Hansen polishes and I just aren't friends.  They don't wear well for me. 

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue with Hard Candy Black Tie Optional

This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue with Hard Candy Black Tie Optional layered on top.  Pacific Blue is hands down the stinkiest polish I own. It smells like nail polish mixed with sulfur (rotten egg smell). 

More St. Patrick's Day Manicures

Above is the 2nd of my green St. Patrick's day Manicures.  I used Finger Paints Go Van Gogh stamped with Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.  I was hoping the addition of white would make Go Van Gogh very spring-y.  Meh, it is O.K.  I abused my nails and this chipped in one day.

This is Zoya Poppy with Finger Paints Go Van Gogh, stamped with the Salon Express kit.  I attempted this manicure with several pastels as the base and using Rimmel Rags to Riches.  Rags to Riches didn't stamp.  So I tried stamping with Go Van Go and liked it best over Zoya Poppy.  I was wrong, those colors are terrible together.  I was trying to find a way to use the very small "full nail" stamps with the Salon Express kit, but this wasn't it.  Fail all around.

This is a repeat from last year.  Revlon Emerald City with a Sinful Colors Green Ocean funky french tip.  I like this, but I'm ready to move on to pastel and bright manicures for spring. 

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue

This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue.  The Make-up Ally Nail Board picked their top 20 polishes in December and this one was on the list.  The color that won was a different brand, but the exact same color.  When they counted all the similar colors as one color, this color won.  Similar colors include Butter London Baker Street and Essie Butler Please.  My point being, this is the color of the moment and all the cool kids are wearing it.  :)  It looks especially chic on short nails.  It is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I like it.  The color applies a bit darker and brighter then in the bottle.  Xtreme wears slightly less then O.K. for me, 4 days (I get 6-7 with other polishes).  Sally Hansen Xtreme wear is $2.50 a bottle.  I'll add that this is the stinkiest polish I own.  It smells like nail polish mixed with sulfur (rotten egg smell).

I added Pure Ice Heartbreaker over the top.  Heartbreaker is green micro glitter in a sheer blue/green base.  One coat gave my polish subtle shimmer, two coats was perfect for my taste.  It gave Pacific Blue a sort of turquoise feel. My sad pictures do this pretty manicure no justice.   Heartbreaker is great layered over blue and green polish (and likely other colors too).  I'm not as totally enamored with this Pure Ice sheer overlay polish as I am with other Pure Ice sheer overlays (like Pure Ice Busted, which is one of my all time favorite polishes), but I still really like it.  It is definitely worth the 2$ price tag at Walmart.

Valentine Manicure: Stamped hearts

Here is the first of my Valentine's Day themed manis.  This is Wet 'n Wild Megalast Candylicious stamped with the Salon Express (as seen on TV) kit and Sally Hansen Instadri Whirlwind White.  Next time I will actually enforce my three stamps per finger max rule.  
I'm a huge fan of Wet 'n Wild Megalast polishes and this one is no exception.  Candylicious is a very pretty barbie pink color.  When I kill this mini bottle, I'll be buying a big bottle.  I love the wide brush on Megasast and it wears like iron for me.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

Sadly, I was not impressed with the stick on nail polish. It just didn't work for me.  It is hard to line up with the cuticles.  I found it hard to apply.  My nails curve a lot from side to side and cuticle to tip.  Applying these was like wallpapering or decoupaging a curved surface.  It is hard to get the polish smooth not wrinkled.  You can see lots of wrinkles in the above pic.  Sally Hansen gives you several size options, but non were a good match for my ring finger.  The wear on this was just O.K.  I think the wear would have been better if I had filed the excess polish sticker away from the top instead of doing it the way they instructed.  I also thought these looked a little fake in person.  I felt they looked like stickers, and not like polish.  All in all, I'd rather just paint my nails.  I didn't find these easier or better then just polishing.

White Dots on White Manicure

This is one coat of Wet n Wild Megalast Break the Ice. I used a dotting tool to make white dots with Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.  Then I added a second coat of Break the Ice.  Some of the dots are a little wonky.  My year old nephew, who shows no interest in me (He is in a Mommy only stage), suddenly became very interested in me when I was doing the dots.  I'm on to you little boy.  You only find me interesting when I show no interest in you.  Don't think you are the first man to try that technique!  I think this manicure would be nice in winter with a snowflake or snowman on an accent finger.
Break the ice is a nice color.  It is a shear white with shimmer.  It never really becomes opaque, If I were going to wear this polish without the dots, I'd probably do three coats.

Daisies Manicure

The base polish for this manicure is Wet 'n Wild Megalast Garden hose, from their 2011 spring collection.  I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White and a Sally Girl polish in light yellow for the daisies.  I used a dotting tool to make the daisies.  I wish I had done the pointer and middle fingers at different angles.  They are meant to look different, but they look pretty similar.  I think it is pretty cool. I was inspired by this manicure on The Nail Newbie.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Review

 I'll start with my usual nail polish disclaimer.  Nail polishes work differently for different people.  What works for me may be terrible for you and vice versa.  That said, I hate pretty much everything about this nail polish.  It is very thick.  So thick that I thought the first bottle I bought must have been opened in the store and dried out some before I bought it.  Nope.  The second bottle was just as thick.  It applies in very thick coats, but still will not cover in two coats.  The picture above is two coats, and you can see that the coverage is uneven and not opaque yet (it is also really sloppily applied and all over my skin, sorry).  This polish does not self level.  If the polish is not level when it is applied, it will dry bumpy.  It is nearly impossible to apply level.  The top surface of this polish will dry quickly, but the bulk of the nail polish takes a long time to dry.  It stays malleable for quite a while, maybe an hour or two.  I end up with dents and impressions in the manicure from where it gets bumped while it is drying.  It wears pretty well for me, 6ish days.  I'm not really a fan of either color.  I thought a Barbie pink (Fuchsia Flare) might be fun once in a while, but this color is too yellow for me.  Luckily, my preschool niece loves this color. I thought I could put a glitter over the white (Whirlwind White) and it would look like new fallen snow on a cold winter day.  It didn't look like that.  It looked like I painted my nails with white out and put some glitter on top.  I was not a fan of the formula or the colors I picked.  I will not be buying Sally Hansen Insta Dry again.