Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Purple Diamond

Dollar Tree can be simultaneously amazing and an asshole. While I've found things there occasionally (and often way behind the times), the hunt is kinda fun. Plus: $1, occasionally less if in two-packs. These Dollar Trees I formerly hauled at were in Upstate New York, and yes, it was not unheard of for me to hit quite a few on a given day. Now in Canada, we have Dollarama, which is kinda awesome for other stuff but a veritable polish wasteland. Any-who. My NY Dollar Trees got Nail Prisms but never any of the holographic ones, so I ended up ordering this and Golden Tourmaline on eBay for a price that was about on par with what it originally retailed for (fine with me).

This polish is the ridiculous kind of holo that makes me smile. Light purple, with holo that seems to be not only scattered but also linear, and super bright and sparkly. It actually shines so well indoor under lamplight (this was compared to the premature fall drear that overhung Winnipeg today).

This is 3 coats (old polish can get kinda watery), and Seche Vite didn't appear to dull the goodness:

Ummm awesome! I'm looking forward to tracking down more of these! I remember them being in stores, but I was a poor middle and high schooler, and while I loved polish, Sally Hansen was not on my radar at the time. I had a few Wet 'N Wilds (glitter!), some Janes, and a whole bunch of those Townley Cosmetics polishes they sold at places like Claire's and Fashion Bug back in the mid-90's. Then again, I also had about 20 bottles of that black L'Oreal Jet Set, from when I was a fledgeling punk rocker in the late 90's. I wish I hadn't thrown all that good stuff out!

Mail Call!

Just popping in quick for a haul post, which I haven't done in a long time!

I know we all have the occasional beef with the postal service, and I'll admit my personal bias, as my mom is a postal worker, but I sometimes truly believe that the Postal Service delivers happiness. I love getting mail, even if it's just junk and flyers. Today was a happy day, as my postal working Momma sent along a package full of goodies I had sent to her house.

OPI I Eat Maine-ly Lobster, Holiday Glow, Uh Oh Roll Down the Window, Teenage Dream, Roadhouse Blues. (Flash is making everything way brighter than it is in reality here). These are all from Aveyou.

Essie Bonded, Splash of Grenadine (I was surprised at how pink this was IRL), Playa del Platinum, Power Clutch. These were also from Aveyou.

aaaaand, Chanel Graphite & Peridot from Neiman Marcus, Sally Hansen Purple Diamond & Golden Tourmaline from eBay! Question for those of you who are not Chanel noobs: The square cap. Is it supposed to not work as a functional cap? Is it supposed to just come off and you polish with the smaller cap underneath? 

So so so excited to try all these out. My first Chanels! It's like awesome overload. The only thing that didn't show up was my OPI Zom-body to Love, which my mom told me she had... maybe she ran out of room in the box?? Hope I can get it for Halloween though! Any thoughts on which one I should wear first? I'm thinking Peridot personally... :D

It's been a long, long time!

I didn't want to abandon my little blog here, but life has just been crazy for the last six months. I moved at the beginning of May to Canada (my hubby's homeland), after finally celebrating our marriage (9 months after the fact). Moving was nuts. So much paperwork and physical work and waiting, oh, and driving 1700 miles. My nails got trashed, and I kept them short. Also, my lack of work has curbed the polish acquiring (a bit!!). I also, unfortunately, ended up leaving about half my stash (over a Helmer's worth) at home in NY. I went through and just weeded out everything that I didn't feel I *had* to bring, boxed it up and stored it in my closet there. It was a lot of drugstore/dollar store impulse purchases and vintage stuff I'm keeping out of sentimentality. but I also left all my backups. I plan to go through it at a later date. So far I haven't found myself missing too much of anything.

Living in Canada is strange for me. It's so like home and yet so... not! Though my lack of a job has curbed my polish buying, another thing has helped: lack of CVS/Rite Aid/Walgreens! Oh my drugstores, how I miss thee! Drugstore stuff here is just hella expensive and hard to find exclusives (here's hoping Milani knocks off their awesome collections for a while). Anyway, it helps not being tempted. That said, I have an American Apparel a block away (uh oh, amazing polish), and OPI's are not exorbitant (~$8.95-9.95, though lots of places are 2 for $16). I made the mistake of buying one at a random beauty supply without asking, and it was $12.99 (Spark D'Triomphe backup), and uh no, never again. My husband, Chris and I are going to North Dakota this weekend and I CANNOT WAIT to go to CVS! Haha.

Enough rambling, here are a very few select NOTDs from the past few months:

China Glaze Crushed Candy over American Apparel Manila. Loved this combo.

Essie Mochachino. Didn't love the way this taupe looked on my skintone, but it was so pretty.

These are both OPI I Lily Love You over China Glaze Ahoy. I'm unfortunately not able to take outdoor pictures, and my lighting situation isn't ideal. So the first one is no flash, and you can sort of make out the detail. The second one is more color accurate, but the flash washes out the flakes and glitter. Not sure I love this one. It's pretty but...

These Sally Hansen nail strips are basically amazing. So pretty and fun. The only set I had any trouble with was the Frock Star glitter ones. They were a bitch to put on and stayed "tacky" and didn't seem to set. Oh well.

Orly Here Comes Trouble. I couldn't find Bubbly Bombshell, but this one is awesome. Love the different shapes of glitter and the color! Perfect spring green.

Love & Beauty. Stupidly labeled as "Blue." This polish is ridiculously amazing. It's probably got an LA Girls equivalent but I'm lazy and don't feel like looking it up. But seriously. Beautiful. Shimmer. Perfect application.

Super crappy iPhone4 pic! OPI Your Royal Shine-ness. Gorgeous, underrated. A warm, almost pewter silver foil. Seriously blingy. Love love.

Ohmygod. This is Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal over American Apparel Hassid. So, you'll all want to punch me after I tell you this, but I've had Turquoise Opal for years. I bought it and tons of other Prisms in 2 packs at Dollar Tree probably 3 years ago. Maybe longer. And I've never worn a single. one. WTF was I thinking?? Anyway. I got so many compliments on this. A sweet lady at the dollar store actually grabbed my hand. It wasn't creepy... yeah maybe a little. But seriously, I don't blame her.

And finally, a few crapalicious pics of today's nails... (I've seriously gotta figure out a new lighting situation. Basement apartment=not good.)

Kleancolor Holo Chrome with Chunky Holo Bluebelle on top. I'm also holding Bluebelle. Um, yay Kleancolor for amazing polishes. I don't hate the smell. It smells like chemical awesome. And Beautyjoint.com ships to Canada super reasonably. I'm gonna order more. Anyway, Holo Chrome had kind of a bitchy thick formula. Three coats. I shoulda thinned it. It's so beautiful. What you see above is mostly Holo Chrome. The Bluebelle you can't see in my lighting but in certain lights you can also see the effect in the bottle on my nails. The base color also sorta matches Holo Chrome.

More true to color.

Sparkle!

In the last few months, I have also grabbed the Serena Wimbeldon & French duos, hauled KleanColor's like crazy mad, got 2 Dare2Wear collections, all the OPI shatters, a couple Nice Stems, and got 3/4 of the Miss Universe collection. Also some Essies. My only leftover lemmings (until Christmas, fall isn't really doing it for me... maybe a couple China Glazes) are Chanel Graphite and Peridot, but I doubt my budget will be accommodating, at least to both. Maybe though :-)

What have you all been hauling/loving/doing lately? How's summer?

Also!! If any of you are on Pinterest, follow me! I post NOTD's and other things too.

http://pinterest.com/sarahrobo/ I'd love to follow you back :-)

OPI Ogre-The-Top Blue

More Shrek! I am thisclose to caving on buying the remaining three from this collection, even though I know Funkey Dunkey and Rumples Wiggin' are dupes for colors I already have. Oh well... I also sort of feel like a poseur because I've only ever seen the first Shrek movie, though, I did, as a child, own the original Shrek book by William Stieg (betcha didn't know Shrek was a book! Well it was, I remember because my dog ate the library's copy and we had to buy it from them. And if you did know... then extra brownie points for you!)

Anyway anyway: This polish, whose name is obnoxious to type out, is really nice. Gorgeous blue, bright and saturated. It is not a twin of No Room For The Blues, which is much lighter. It's not as dusty as Suzi Says Feng Shui. I even just asked my brother, who is a 22-year-old male with (almost) zero interest in polish if Ogre-The-Top-Blue and No Room For the Blues were the same color. I quote, "No, one is obviously lighter than the other." So no, you do not need to have expert eyes to spot the difference. (Disclaimer: My brother's girlfriend loves OPI. So much so that when I wore Fiercely Fiona, he looked at me and went, "Are you wearing Shrek?" It scared me a little.)

I'll shut up. Pictures:

Because I'm feeling nice, some comparisons between OTTB & NRFTB:

Left to Right: Ogre-The-Top Blue, No Room For The Blues.

Swatched on tape: OTTB, NRFTB. The difference is most noticeable here.

Lovely, no? I'm resisting the urge to put Hidden Treasure over it, because it's really just so nice on its own. Mmm, how I love OPI. I don't buy from them all that often (I don't own any Espana and only one Hong Kong), but when I do, I'm rarely disappointed. They just wear so well on me.

Bonus pic from the next day with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over it:

I'm chatty today. Forgive me. Thanks for reading :-)

Sally Hansen Midnight In NY

And! For something super boring that I kept on for a hot five minutes: I present to you Sally Hansen Midnight in NY. Don't get me wrong, I kinda like this polish. The sparkle shows up on my nails and for others it seemed not to. It's all right. I like the new Sally Hansen brush and the formula--super shiny! This was 2 coats:

Three seconds after I did this, I nicked an almost-dry nail, leaving a weird gouge. I didn't have time to change right away, but I ended up taking it all off right when I got home from work. If you end up missing out on this one it's no big deal, it's not terribly unique.

Better things coming tomorrow, I promise! Thanks for reading!

PS: I keep a link to my updated polish spreadsheet on the right-hand side. If you have any requests or would like to see anything listed there, please let me know! I'd be happy to oblige.

Finger Paints Blissfully Blue

They say that hindsight is 20/20, and "they" are right. In this case, anyway. For two reasons, a little planning would've changed today's nails so much. First, I got bored this morning (a day off! Woo!) and had some Fing'rs Edge nails I'd wanted to play around with... and even though my nails are pretty nubby (in comparison to how long I've been able to get them recently), they were not fitting properly. So I glued them all on, for about an hour, only to take 45 mins to soak them off later. Fail. Then, I decided to try out Finger Paints Blissfully Blue, which, if I'd thought a bit harder about, I would've waited to try until my Bundle Monster plates arrived (they've shipped! Can't wait!). I love stamping over pastel cremes. Hindsight. I should've just worn Zoya Charla like I planned.

Anyhow. Finger Paints. The only Finger Paints polishes I've felt compelled to buy were the Christmas 2009 LE's (couldn't find last summers LE's anywhere). They are all gorgeous and perfect, and wore like champs on me. I remember wearing Icy Iris to visit my fiance, and any polish that can make it through a day of packing, hauling luggage through 2 airports and a cab ride, without any sort of wear is pretty much amazing. So I've had good experience with the brand. As you'll see a few posts back, I recently bought a few of the new ones with the B2G1 at Sally's, as well as Blissfully Blue. I think this is LE (not certain), with a collection of 5 or so blue polishes I found on an endcap at my Sally's. It's the only one I felt like grabbing. The rest seemed unoriginal. The only reason this worked for me is that I'm fairly certain I don't have a straight up pastel blue. I do have Color Club Blue Light, but that's much starker (neon). I can't believe with all the pastel madness this spring that almost no one released a straight up pale blue (except Color Club, I guess, Take Me To Your Chateau). The formula on this was good: 2 coats, not perfect, but pretty darn good. Dried quickly. We'll see how the wear goes, I seem to have less luck with cremes than shimmers.

Blissfully Blue:

And, for good measure, with one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure:

Aaaand, well, I know I'm only in the fledgeling stages of this blog, but for those of you who are following, I've made a Twitter account! Add me, I'm @sparklypaints, and I will add you back. (See widget on the side, too). Also! I'm trying to scare up more readership, so do pass the word around. If we can get more followers soon, I have a pretty cool giveaway in mind.

Thanks for reading! :-)

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy & Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

First, friends, the nail polish gods have been kind to me lately!!

My Zoya exchange arrived today (minus Ivanka & Charla, which were backordered but are ALREADY on their way!). Last night, I found Hidden Treasure. Yesterday, I went to Sally's because my 15% off coupon was about to expire, and the SA allowed me to use the B2G1 promo on treatments: so I got Gelous to experiment with (I'm devoted to Instant Artificials but Gelous is cheaper by almost $3 and easier to find), a new Seche Vite (on sale for $5.99) and a lone Finger Paints polish in Blissfully Blue (my freebie, I have no true pale blues). This was all for like $10. Today, I got a NEW Sally's coupon for 20% off (check your mailboxes!) and on my way home from a meeting with one of my thesis advisors, I stopped at a Sally's I don't usually go to. Jackpot! They had China Glaze Poolside out AND the new Finger Paints (which was exciting because the B2G1 is only for April and I think these weren't supposed to be put out until May 1). So I got 3 new China Glazes (Flip Flop Fantasy, Towel Boy Toy & Sun Worshipper) and 3 new Finger Paints (Sketch N Etch, Scenery Greenery & Easel-y Entertained) for something like $14? SIX of 'em!

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure & Gelous.

L to R: Sun Worshipper, Towel Boy Toy & Flip Flop Fantasy.

My thoughts on the Poolside collection: I bought the three most unique to my collection (I'm satisfied with the pink/green/yellow neons I have now, so I skipped the other three). I hope Sun Worshipper is everything I wanted Color Club Explosive to be. Towel Boy Toy seems like it might be in the realm of Color Club Pure Energy or Zoya Tallulah (I got this one mainly because I like these bright shimmery neon blues). My thoughts on Flip Flop Fantasy are below.

L to R: Easel-y Entertained, Sketch N Etch, Scenery Greenery, Blissfully Blue.

The new Finger Paints look wicked! I'm glad they're permanent because that means I can get a few more and don't have to get antsy about it. LE's are a bitch. I swatched the cremes--so smooth and opaque. Shimmers look nice too. Not sure about the glitter but we'll see. I've never bought a "core" line Finger Paints polish before, only LE, so I'm glad for these.

L to R: Mimi, Alegra, Nidhi, Gilda.

The Zoyas, which I swatched on paper look INCREDIBLE!!! The only one that looks slightly lackluster (due to sheerness issues) is Gilda. Can't wait to get Ivanka & Charla. I'll be wearing these soon to show ya'll.

Anyway anyway anyway... PHEW after all that craziness, what did I pick to wear?? Well, obviously I wanted to try out Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure seeing as it's hotter than sliced bread lately. I found it the first place I went! And because I was itching for something bright, enter Flip Flop Fantasy--a neon pink that is slightly orange toned, like a neon salmon/coral. Unique, I think. The application on that one was about what I expected for a neon, but a GOOD neon... 3 thin coats (over 1 coat Barielle Natural Nail Growth Activator & 1 coat Gelous), didn't get gloopy. Topped with 1 thin coat of Hidden Treasure & Seche Vite. And it actually dried.

So, not to add fuel to the fire, but I really like Hidden Treasure... yes, more than my Nfu-Ohs. The consistency of the polish itself is so much better... I find Nfu-Ohs to be a tad gelatinous, even with thinner... and the flakes were so thin and not clumpy... gorgeous rainbow iridescence (though it pulls very orangey over FFF). Anyway... snap if up if you run across it.

Thanks for looking!

Vacation Goodies

You probably don't know this, but for about the last 2 weeks I've had this blog on scheduled updates because I was out of town. I was visiting my fiance in Winnipeg (Canada), and I only did my nails 3 times!! I did take pictures, so those are forthcoming.

While I was in Winnipeg, I may have done a little hauling. My fiance lives right near the city's only American Apparel, and since I live far from the many in New York State, I bought a lot of their polishes. And by a lot I mean I bought all of them except 5. (Actually he bought most of them because he's awesome!!)

Here they are, all lined up! I love these bottles so much.

Left to Right: Office, Hunter, Peacock, Factory Grey, Mouse, Berry & Mount Royal.

Left to Right: Downtown LA, Cotton, Dynasty, Poppy, Hassid & Manila.

Also, I grabbed these Revlon spring pastels (that were featured in yesterday's Easter post) that haven't hit the US yet. Here's some bottle pics:

Left to Right: Lilac Pastelle, Minted, Peach Petal.

And, when I got home, I picked up this neat little guy:

Sally Hansen Salon Complete Manicure in Midnight in NY. I love glittery black polishes and anything New York themed, having lived in this state (and in NYC too) for 99.99% of my whole life. That other .01% consists of the week I moved to Georgia to attend a "Southern Ivy." Needless to say I left, abandoning a full scholarship to graduate school. Driving over 1,000 miles (in less than 24 hours) by yourself in a crappy VW Jetta in the middle of August is some serious "me" time. Anyway, I got off topic here somewhere....

So, I'm home now, and hopefully I won't have to miss posting here and we'll get back on track. :-)

Thanks for looking!

Zoya Nova & new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear swatch

So, I'm back again with my last crappy oldie, this one Zoya Nova. It's one of Zoya's Ultra Glitters, a jelly magenta jam-packed with glitter. Gorgeous. I tried this when I got it months ago and I wasn't too keen. This was its second shot to win my love, and it really, really did. It was also a bitch to photograph, but I did my best with my limited skills. Shown below is probably 2 coats, but it might be 3... my memory is failing me at the moment.

This is with flash, indoors, excuse the glare.

No flash, halogen light.

No flash, ambient light to show the sparkle.

Low-light to show the sparkle again.

This baby wore like iron, and it was awesome. I didn't want to take it off. I haven't felt compelled to order from Zoya in while (I managed, via their Polish Exchange last year to accumulate dozens of them) because I haven't tried so many of them. Zoya gets a bit of hate some places, but I haven't met one I haven't loved, and if I did (Pippa, I'm lookin' at ya), a few drops of thinner fixed it, no problem.

Just to throw something else at ya, I found this picture I took of a few swatches of the new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears.

L to R: Wet Cement, Purple Pizzazz, Going Green (and on the end there is the odd man out, the beautiful China Glaze Watermelon Rind.)

Aw, my nails were quite short in this shot! It really wasn't that long ago, which makes me kinda proud. Anyway, I wore all 4 of these polishes as manicures, but let's talk about those Sally Hansens. They were all FABULOUS. Wet Cement is pretty unique grey, exactly in the shade of its namesake. Purple Pizzazz is just fabulous, beautiful goodness. Jelly purple, glitter, a bit of a duochrome shimmer... yeah. Going Green, though it doesn't seem to get much love, was my favorite: a perfect grass green with a bit of shimmer. 2 coats, wore amazing, I never wanted to take it off. Awesome.

Anyway, that's the last of my old stuff, and I'm glad. Moving on to current goodness (and better photos, I think) in posts to come... thanks for looking!