A few more NOTDs

Some old NOTDs for ya 🙂

A water marbling attempt. I don’t remember what colors I used. I just picked them and then realized this is like my third BLUE water marbling. I need to go into a different color territory, lol. I was testing out using masking fluid as a replacement for Liquid Palisade, which worked excellently well.

Base color: Nicole by OPI The Next CEO
Stamp: Wet n Wild Black Creme
Stamping plate: BM12

Base color: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Effects in Plum Luck
Stamp: a gold chrome, I forget, lol.
Stamping plate: Konad M60

Base color: OPI Skulls and Glossbones
Stamping color: Wet n Wild Black Creme
Stamping plate: BM 225

A few more NOTDs

Some old NOTDs for ya 🙂

A water marbling attempt. I don’t remember what colors I used. I just picked them and then realized this is like my third BLUE water marbling. I need to go into a different color territory, lol. I was testing out using masking fluid as a replacement for Liquid Palisade, which worked excellently well.

Base color: Nicole by OPI The Next CEO
Stamp: Wet n Wild Black Creme
Stamping plate: BM12

Base color: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Effects in Plum Luck
Stamp: a gold chrome, I forget, lol.
Stamping plate: Konad M60

Base color: OPI Skulls and Glossbones
Stamping color: Wet n Wild Black Creme
Stamping plate: BM 225

Product Review: Sally Hansen Salon Effects: Fly With Me

Yep! This review will be about these nail polish art strips you might already have seen in your drugstores or beauty stores. I’ve seen these everywhere- Walgreens’, CVS, Rite-Aid, ULTA, Target, Wal-Mart, Amazon and so on. I decided this was a good time to try one of these thingies out. They’re supposed to be so easy to apply and require no drying time, but more importantly they claim to last 10 days!
Hmm. I’m doing a ton of moving and packing/unpacking this week, let’s see how it holds up! It should be the ultimate test right?

 The first day!

I didn’t quite feel like posting a day by day procedure, but I will tell you that the whole time I wished I paid attention to the edges, because they felt (and looked) like they were going to lift!  They did lift a bit though, and would catch on things and chip off.

 After 7 days. This is my left hand. You can see lifting at my middle finger cuticle area, and the index has some significant chipping.

 I also experienced cracking. This was weird! I bent my nail to illuminate the cracks (I know you’re not supposed to, but eh.)

Even worse chipping at my right hand index.

 Overall condition of my right hand.

 Condition of my left hand. You can see that the ring and pinky are pristine.

They pretty much looked like this for the rest of the 3 days, because use of my hands had reduced at that point. I would say they do last 10 days and probably beyond, but at that point I was TIRED of this manicure! I usually change everyday, so it was quite the challenge.

Removal was a pain in the ass! It’s supposed to “remove” like real nail polish… I think they should have said it removes like glitter polish! haha. Had to do a fair bit of scrubbing.

Product Review: Sally Hansen Salon Effects: Fly With Me

Yep! This review will be about these nail polish art strips you might already have seen in your drugstores or beauty stores. I’ve seen these everywhere- Walgreens’, CVS, Rite-Aid, ULTA, Target, Wal-Mart, Amazon and so on. I decided this was a good time to try one of these thingies out. They’re supposed to be so easy to apply and require no drying time, but more importantly they claim to last 10 days!
Hmm. I’m doing a ton of moving and packing/unpacking this week, let’s see how it holds up! It should be the ultimate test right?

 The first day!

I didn’t quite feel like posting a day by day procedure, but I will tell you that the whole time I wished I paid attention to the edges, because they felt (and looked) like they were going to lift!  They did lift a bit though, and would catch on things and chip off.

 After 7 days. This is my left hand. You can see lifting at my middle finger cuticle area, and the index has some significant chipping.

 I also experienced cracking. This was weird! I bent my nail to illuminate the cracks (I know you’re not supposed to, but eh.)

Even worse chipping at my right hand index.

 Overall condition of my right hand.

 Condition of my left hand. You can see that the ring and pinky are pristine.

They pretty much looked like this for the rest of the 3 days, because use of my hands had reduced at that point. I would say they do last 10 days and probably beyond, but at that point I was TIRED of this manicure! I usually change everyday, so it was quite the challenge.

Removal was a pain in the ass! It’s supposed to “remove” like real nail polish… I think they should have said it removes like glitter polish! haha. Had to do a fair bit of scrubbing.

Product Review: Sally Hansen Green Tea + Bamboo Nail Strengthener

This is a nail treatment that some people wear over polish. In my case, I wore it under because the packaging that it came in claimed it could help nails grow better, harder, and reduce chips/peeling.

+ Goes on clear
+ Nice, controllable brush and a thick formula
– Did not do anything for me.

Is that it? LOL. Yes! It was a waste of the $8 that I spent on it. It did absolutely nothing for my nails!

Did this work for you?

Product Review: Sally Hansen Green Tea + Bamboo Nail Strengthener

This is a nail treatment that some people wear over polish. In my case, I wore it under because the packaging that it came in claimed it could help nails grow better, harder, and reduce chips/peeling.

+ Goes on clear
+ Nice, controllable brush and a thick formula
– Did not do anything for me.

Is that it? LOL. Yes! It was a waste of the $8 that I spent on it. It did absolutely nothing for my nails!

Did this work for you?

Stamping Polishes

I don’t use the Konad Special Polishes to stamp with because I just never got around to it. I wanted to buy them, Nick told me it was a silly purchase because I was sure to find something else that would work equally well.

Well, I feel like I’ve gained a bit of expertise in this stamping polish business to share my opinions…

First, what exact qualities do I look for in a polish to assess its stampability?

• Thickness 
• Must be nearly an one-coater
• Opacity
• Brightness of color

And that’s pretty much it. The thicker the polish, the better their stamping abilities will be. I’ve never tried this myself but people often leave the cap off their polishes for a while to help thicken the formula. If it’s TOO thick, a drop or two of polish thinner (NOT remover) will solve that.
When a polish is thick it helps the transfer progress go more smoothly and they will appear more opaque and detailed on the nail.

Alternatively, you do NOT want a polish that is runny. I don’t care if it’s an one coater. If it’s runny I’m not stamping with it. It creates havoc when I try to scrape, and no matter how lightly I roll over my stamper, it will SMUDGE. I have this problem with my beloved Sally Hansen chrome oldies.

The brands I use to stamp with are:

• Wet n Wild
• Avon
• MirrorShine Polishes
• China Glaze
• Khrome Collection
• Romantique Collection
• Sally Hansen Insta-Dri
• Sally Hansen Chrome

I have not tried Zoya, OPI, et cetera however I should explore that. I just prefer to stick to my tried and trues. Almost any polish can stamp, it just depends on how well they achieve the two qualities that I look for. Here are the pictures of the stamping polishes I use…

 My Insta-Dris! From Left to Right: Jumpin Jade, Whirlwind White, Wined Up, Co-Bolt Blue, Silver Sweep. I have determined that Whirlwind White is the best stamping polish I have for white, compared to CG Snow.

 My Wet n Wild’s. Burgundy Frost, my trusty stamping black: Black Creme (look how loved it is! The label is all gone), and Blue Moon.

 Avon MirrorShine polishes. They are FANTASTIC. You can order one from online with the link I provided above. From left to right: Pink Ice, Blaze, Glisten, Peach Ice, Polish. They are also easy to work with and I love their vividness.

Check out my Romantiques! I have both the cool and warm collections. They can be found on Amazon or any e-tailers such as 8ty8beauty.com, head2toebeauty.com, transdesign.com as well as any dusty bin.

China Glaze Khrome collection, able to find in any of the places I listed above. The Khrome collection is actually a six piece, but I cannot find Millennium. It’s my white whale. If you have one and want to get rid of it, talk to me. 🙂

 All the China Glazes dry in a decent amount of time, and transfer easily with light pressure on the stamper. Very easy to work with.

Here are my Sally Hansen babies. This is only half pictured, I figured they’d give you the idea. Fantastic for stamping, but dries HELLA fast, and are a huge pain in the butt when you have poorly engraved plates. You have to scrape and stamp in like, one second or something for it to even try to transfer. Also this polish requires you to press hard, so you must have a completely dry polish base to use these.
I have a white whale too: Sally Hansen Chrome in Amber. If you have that, come talk to me….

That’s all for now! When I find more good stamping polishes, I’ll come back here. 🙂

Stamping Polishes

I don’t use the Konad Special Polishes to stamp with because I just never got around to it. I wanted to buy them, Nick told me it was a silly purchase because I was sure to find something else that would work equally well.

Well, I feel like I’ve gained a bit of expertise in this stamping polish business to share my opinions…

First, what exact qualities do I look for in a polish to assess its stampability?

• Thickness 
• Must be nearly an one-coater
• Opacity
• Brightness of color

And that’s pretty much it. The thicker the polish, the better their stamping abilities will be. I’ve never tried this myself but people often leave the cap off their polishes for a while to help thicken the formula. If it’s TOO thick, a drop or two of polish thinner (NOT remover) will solve that.
When a polish is thick it helps the transfer progress go more smoothly and they will appear more opaque and detailed on the nail.

Alternatively, you do NOT want a polish that is runny. I don’t care if it’s an one coater. If it’s runny I’m not stamping with it. It creates havoc when I try to scrape, and no matter how lightly I roll over my stamper, it will SMUDGE. I have this problem with my beloved Sally Hansen chrome oldies.

The brands I use to stamp with are:

• Wet n Wild
• Avon
• MirrorShine Polishes
• China Glaze
• Khrome Collection
• Romantique Collection
• Sally Hansen Insta-Dri
• Sally Hansen Chrome

I have not tried Zoya, OPI, et cetera however I should explore that. I just prefer to stick to my tried and trues. Almost any polish can stamp, it just depends on how well they achieve the two qualities that I look for. Here are the pictures of the stamping polishes I use…

 My Insta-Dris! From Left to Right: Jumpin Jade, Whirlwind White, Wined Up, Co-Bolt Blue, Silver Sweep. I have determined that Whirlwind White is the best stamping polish I have for white, compared to CG Snow.

 My Wet n Wild’s. Burgundy Frost, my trusty stamping black: Black Creme (look how loved it is! The label is all gone), and Blue Moon.

 Avon MirrorShine polishes. They are FANTASTIC. You can order one from online with the link I provided above. From left to right: Pink Ice, Blaze, Glisten, Peach Ice, Polish. They are also easy to work with and I love their vividness.

Check out my Romantiques! I have both the cool and warm collections. They can be found on Amazon or any e-tailers such as 8ty8beauty.com, head2toebeauty.com, transdesign.com as well as any dusty bin.

China Glaze Khrome collection, able to find in any of the places I listed above. The Khrome collection is actually a six piece, but I cannot find Millennium. It’s my white whale. If you have one and want to get rid of it, talk to me. 🙂

 All the China Glazes dry in a decent amount of time, and transfer easily with light pressure on the stamper. Very easy to work with.

Here are my Sally Hansen babies. This is only half pictured, I figured they’d give you the idea. Fantastic for stamping, but dries HELLA fast, and are a huge pain in the butt when you have poorly engraved plates. You have to scrape and stamp in like, one second or something for it to even try to transfer. Also this polish requires you to press hard, so you must have a completely dry polish base to use these.
I have a white whale too: Sally Hansen Chrome in Amber. If you have that, come talk to me….

That’s all for now! When I find more good stamping polishes, I’ll come back here. 🙂

a-england Camelot

Base color: a-england Camelot
Stamping color: Sally Hansen Chrome in Lilac Sapphire
Bundle Monster plate

a-england Camelot

Base color: a-england Camelot
Stamping color: Sally Hansen Chrome in Lilac Sapphire
Bundle Monster plate