Tag: Sally Hansen

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Geometric stamping over Sally Hansen Mermaid’s TaleĀ 

Yesterday I featured a swatch of Sally Hansen CSM in Mermaid’s Tale–a beautiful teal jelly glitter shade. Today I have the mani I did using that shade as my base colour! I’ve really had a lot of fun getting into stamping, & practicing, so I decided to try stamping a pattern over the glitter. I knew black wouldn’t show up over such a dark base, so I decided to grab something fun & bright (Turquoise) & the end result turned out perfect. 

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: Finger Paints Peel Off Base Coat for Glitter
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Under the Twilight 
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Mermaid’s Tale
  • China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper item #24059
  • Older Born Pretty Stamping Plate that’s no longer available — this plate contains the same image. 

Can I just say how impressed I am with how well Turned Up Turquoise stamps? I was shocked with how opaque it was on the nail, especially over such a dark base colour. I wasn’t sure how it was going to look, but it turned out awesome! I always find myself so drawn to dark shades in the Fall months, but the pop of colour over top works well for a transitional manicure–just enough of Summer & just enough of Fall, all in one design. 


What do you think of this stamping? What polishes do you love for stamping? Share all your secrets in the comments below! I’m going to be ordering a bunch of new stamping plates (especially Halloween/Christmas themed plates) in the next couple days so I’m looking for all the best stamping polishes for playing. 

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SWATCH SUNDAY: Sally Hansen CSM Mermaid’s Tale


Have you ever had a polish that you’ve thought & thought & thought about but for one reason or another just don’t buy for whatever reason? I’ve got a few on my list, but a major one is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Mermaid’s Tale. 

Mermaid’s Tale is a dark teal jelly stuffed full of assorted sized glitters both large & small. It was originally released as part of the Under The Sea collection in 2013 & stayed as part of the permanent collection.  Recently I’ve noticed it popping up in the clearance section at my favourite pharmacy’s polish clearance, so I had no excuse not to pick up this long overdue lemming. 

Because Mermaid’s Tale is a jelly base, I was scared about building opacity so I applied two coats over a base of Essie Under the Twilight. It helped achieve the look without having to apply 40 coats. I tend to do this a lot with jelly based glitters to avoid polish waste–all you need to do is find a creme shade close to your glitter shade to keep any visible nail line from showing. From what I’ve seen online, without undies it takes 3-4 coats for opacity. That’s a lot of glitter to remove when you go to change your polish! 

Oh goodness, seeing this shade on my own nails makes me so happy to own it! Originally I started listing after Mermaid’s Tale because it was a very close dupe to Deborah Lippmann’s Across the Universe for about half the price. & because I waited, & waited & waited I got the polish for only $5 which is half the price Sally Hansen CSM shades usually go for in stores around me. 


What do you think of Sally Hasen Complete Salon Manicure in Mermaid’s Tale? Have you ever waited a long time to buy a much loved lemming shade? What is you #1 all time lemming shade? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 6: Violet Nails

I love purple.

You have no idea how much I was looking forward to the violet prompt for the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. Purple has always been my favorite color–I even had purple hair years ago! So I was super excited when Day 6 rolled around. The only hard part was trying to decide which polishes to use, and what design I wanted to try. After obsessively browsing my favorite nail art blogs for a couple of hours, I finally decided to go with Chalkboard Nails Distressed nails. It’s been on my to-try list for a while, but I’d never given it a go. I’m glad I did though! These turned out better than I imagined, and I had so many random compliments on them!

Violetnails

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • China Glaze’s What a Pansy — Purple Base & some strokes.
  • OPI’sĀ  My Boyfriend Scales Walls — White base & some strokes.
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon manicure in I love you — light purple strokes.
  • ACO by Ardene Forever Young — medium purple strokes.
  • Essence “Beauty Beats” collection in Baby, Baby, Ooooh — Darkest purple strokes.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

It’s hard to distinguish between the different shades of purple with just a picture, but on the nail in person it was striking. I feel like the darker purple base turned out better than the white base. I will definitely have to try this look again, with different colors. I also feel, it’s a nice (less messy) alternative to the paint splatter manicure–which I also want to try, but will definitely need more than a couple extra hours just for clean up.

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 5: Blue Nails.

My whole goal for starting this challenge was that I wanted to be able to branch out of my typical nail art go-to, and try new techniques I never have before. The truth is, I’m a bit of a perfectionist–I get scared doing things I’ve never done before because I don’t want to fail at it. The unfortunate part of that is that I miss out on some awesome manicures because I’m too fearful they won’t turn out.

I’ve always wanted to try a ruffian manicure. I love the look of half moon manicures, and this is similar except you leave a sliver of color near the cuticle. This is a good tutorial for how to do it. For mine, I went with blues as that was the prompt for that day. They’re not perfect, but I’m okay with that. With a little more practice, I could see this as an easy nail art option on those nights when I just don’t feel like doing a full mani.

bluenails

The Polishes used for this manicure were:

  • Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer in Sugar Cloud –the light blue shimmer base. (I had to layer it over another light blue polish just because of the fact it was so sheer, it would have taken way too many coats to make it opaque.)
  • ACO by Ardene in Lagoon –the top color of my ruffian.
  • Stripe Rite Striping polish in black — the outline of my ruffian.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

Sorry for the dryness near my cuticles. Unfortunately, the extremely spaztastic weather of Nova Scotia is killing them, even with a ton of moisturizing and cuticle cream. I can’t wait for warmer days. My cuticles will be very happy.

Also featured: another Soy Latte from Second Cup. My coffee addition is only second to my nail polish addiction, and I don’t think I could live without either!

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 3: Yellow Nails.

For my third day of the 31 day nail art challenge, I went with simple nails. I love nail art, but sometimes I do have to go with something quick, if only because I don’t have the time to get super complex (or I run out of time). For this manicure, I used Sally Hansen’s Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in “Mellow Yellow”.

yellowunedited

I kind of love this yellow. I’m usually more of a fan of softer yellows, but I like the brightness of “Mellow Yellow“. I’ve read online about the formula being touchy, and the application for me was a little streaky. This is three coats, and I found I had to wait for the previous ones to dry before adding another. Thankfully, adding my top coat seemed to balance everything out and I didn’t have any bald spots.

Everything was topped with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat, and two layers of Quo by Orly Matte sparkle finish top coat in pink.