Category: Sally Hansen

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Feeling a little dotty.

So today is our last day house sitting for my parents, and while it’s been fun I must say I’m excited to be able to go home. I miss my polish collection! Never the less, it has been fun playing with polishes that aren’t my own. My Mom has some fun colors in her mini stash. So in honor of our last day, I’m going to share with you a fun polka dot mani I did using some of her colors.

Is it just me, or is anyone else getting excited for fall. It feels like we just really got Summer, and yet (thanks to working in retail–we’ve already started receiving our fall collection) I keep dreaming of Autumn months… and pumpkin spice lattes! I can’t wait for pumpkin spice lattes! But fall nail polish colors are calling me, and this manicure should hold me over a little while.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang — base color.
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Bittersweet — Grey dots.
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Twisted Pink — pink dots.
  • China Glaze White on White — white dots.
  • Essence Gel Look top coat.
  • Essie Good to Go top coat.

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Please excuse some seriously dry cuticles… wow, I just noticed those as I went to post these pictures. That’s embarrassing! =/ Never the less, I’m loving this color combination. I did these polka dots using a bobby pin, as my dotting tools are still at my own house. It worked though! I know I shouldn’t be craving fall colors already, but man…. look at them. So dark and rich. It’s hard not to when they’re so pretty!

Also, it’s the boyfriend’s birthday today (he’s 31! Which I find hilarious but I guess that’s cause I’m not 30 yet)  so I must go smother him with love before I head to work. Just for fun, here’s a picture of the two of us from last Summer looking mysterious and just a little bit tipsy haha.

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Enjoy your day my nail polish loving lovelies.

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Purple Ombre.

When I first started getting into nail art, Ombre nails were all the trend. Even though they aren’t as popular as they once were, I still think they’re a great look. I hadn’t done ombre nails in a while so I decided to give them another try. I was feeling a purple manicure, so I grabbed five purple polishes as close to each other in tone and created a quick ombre.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Essence Beauty Beats Baby Ooh Ooh — thumb.
  • Essence Color and Go Break Through — pointer.
  • China Glaze What a Pansy — middle.
  • ACO by Ardene Purple Rain — ring finger.
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You — pinky.
  • OPI I Snow You Love Me — glitter placement.
  • Essie Go to Go Top Coat.

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Plus side of owning a TON of polish–makes it easy to match a few up to create  a quick ombre which still looks like the colors are supposed to go together. I also added some glitter to create a rhinestone look, just for an extra little something-something. It just pulls the whole look together for me.

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So what do you think of these ombre nails? Like I said, I still really love the ombre manicure so I could see myself doing this with all sorts of different colors. Also I’m really digging I Snow You Love Me for all the glitter placement possibilities. Plus from a distance it looks like rhinestones on the nails (but without the worry that I would knock them off in about 2 seconds at work.)

Also I’m seriously addicted to the Skinny Caramel Macchiatos at Starbucks. I go through waves of being addicted to certain drinks, and they’re my drug of choice right now. So delicious.

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Pacific Blue (the original!) and a little subtle shimmer.

So as most people have probably heard, Sally Hansen decided a little while ago to change Pacific Blue, taking it from a beautiful creamy blue to a less appealing darker shimmery blue. I was not very impressed when I heard the news (as most people weren’t) because Pacific Blue is one of my all time favorite blue polishes! I’ve been on the look out to see if I could find any of the old bottles, but wasn’t having the best luck. However, I got lucky the other day when I visited my local Shoppers–they had a whole display with the old formula of Pacific Blue, so naturally I had to stock up on this beauty!

In honor of finding my beloved Pacific Blue, I decided to do a manicure featuring it. Originally I wanted to use striping tape to create triangle accent nails, but after getting way to frustrated I gave up on the striping tape and decided to create freehand mosaic accent nails. Someday I’ll manage to get the hand of striping tape, I just guess that today is not going to be that day.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue — blue.
  • Essence Beach Cruisers Girls Just Wanna Have Sun! — Coral.
  • Essence Beach Cruisers Keep Calm and Go to the Beach! — Teal.
  • ACO by Ardene Kiss From a Rose — Pink.
  • Vernis Classique by Cherimoya Black — black outline.
  • Quo by ORLY Glitter Pink Matte Top Coat.
  • Essie Go to Go Top Coat.

God, I really love this blue. As soon as I came home, I put it on my toes. My old bottle was beginning to get goopy from over use, so I was really sad thinking I’d never get to wear this polish again. I also added some shimmer to my manicure in the form of Quo’s Matte Pink Glitter Top Coat so it would qualify for the OMD Nail Art challenge. I ended up adding top coat over the sparkle, just to bring it out a little more. Maybe it’s not as BAM! IN YOUR FACE! as some shimmery manicures, but I like the subtle quality of it. Plus it looks amazing over Pacific Blue so it’s a definite win for me.

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Coral stripes & my first real striping tape manicure.

When I first read about the OMD Nail Art Challenge for this month I got excited. Even though my first attempt at the 30 Day Nail Art challenge kind of crashed and burned, I wanted another attempt at accomplishing a challenge. What I like about this challenge is you don’t have to do it every day. That makes it easier when I want to be able to do something other than the prompt.

 

Today’s prompt was Coral. As you have seen, I love coral. And I own a lot of coral nail polishes. I also really wanted to attempt something with the striping tape I received for my birthday last year. I’ve played around with it a little bit, but never accomplished a full manicure. So this was my first real attempt using it.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sinful Colors Easy Going — creambase color.
  • Quo by ORLY Sugar Cookie — cream base color.
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef — stripes.
  • Sinful Colors Island Coral — stripes.
  • Rimmel Salon Pro Reggae Splash — stripes.
  • Essie Go to Go Top Coat.

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For a first attempt with striping tape, I’m really happy with the outcome. The lines are definitely cleaner than when I freehand my lines, and I like that I could create thicker lines easier. Of course, it did take much longer to do my nails than it usually does, but that was mostly cutting and applying the tape, and then taking the time to pull it off. But I can definitely see myself using it again.

So what do you think of these coral stripes? I think it’s a great Summer manicure, even though I’m going to spend the majority of my day cleaning and organizing my closet and purging old clothing I never wear. Not the most glamorous way to spend my day off, but it is a great excuse to play dress up! =)

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‘Tis the season… for prom nails.

Tis the season for Prom. I’m long past my prom years, but my old neighbour I used to babysit is attending her grade 9 grad this year, which is pretty much a mini prom for those graduating to high school. It’s also a very big deal to them, almost as much as prom is to high school seniors. So when she asked me to do her nails for the big dance, I was more than honored. Her dress was lime green with sparkles, so I went with that theme.

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I did a glitter gradient at the bottom of her nails, with an accent nail of pure sparkle. (I also did her toes to match with a glitter gradient.) Her dress has a whole lot of glitter and sparkle going on, so we wanted to do something that would match. These are going to look awesome when the lights at the dance hit them! Just like a disco ball!

The polishes I used for her nails were:

  • Pure Ice Wild Thing
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Ice Pop
  • NOPI Inner Sparkle.
  • Color Club Platinum Record.
  • OPI I Snow You Love Me.
  • Essie Good to Go Top Coat.

Continue reading “‘Tis the season… for prom nails.”