Essie Loves Diamonds (coming soon)

I got this in my e-mail today:

These colors are infused with diamond dust! Hmm, I'm curious to see what the polish will look like. I'm most excited about Heart My Jr Jewels, the website describes it as a sophisticated dazzling dark. Of course I cant wait to see the pink, but I think it might be sheer. I love the name too, Put a Ripka Ring On It. Check it out at Essie's website .

Fing'rs Edge Nails

I fell in love with these nails when I saw a review done on The Puff Reports. She had a polka dot french manicure that I instantly fell in love with! If any of you have ever seen my Twitter, then you'll know I complain about doing the perfect polka dot manicure. I can never seem to get this right! Even with a dotting tool, they seem to allude me. However, since I was able to review these nails by Fing'rs my problem has been solved. Perfect polka dot manicure without the fuss of the dotting tool. Check it out!



How cute are those? There's more polka dot goodness:

I even included the blackberry in the polka dot fun!

This last style was one I didn't really like in the box, but I loved when I put on my nails:

That little blue star is too cute. They look better than I thought they would.

Okay so on to the review:

Pros:

• Cute designs, A twist on the typical french manicure that most fake nails come in
• Short length, I can work and type with these
• They come with glue and stick on tabs, so you have options. Only want them on for a couple of hours? Use the stick on tabs. Want a few days worth of wear, use the glue.
• No tip wear!

Cons:

• The sizes of the nails, the thumb nails were entirely too big for my thumbs. I mean it was either have a gigantic nail on my thumb or one that was too little. For the most part, all of the other nails didn't have a problem with sizing

I haven't worn fake nails in a long time, I cant remember how long its been since I gave a nail salon my business. These are a great, reasonable alternative. Just for when I want a break from my nails and polishing for a few days. Like I mentioned before, what I liked about the nails was the option to pick between glue and sticky tabs. Those sticky tabs are really adhesive, more than I thought they would be, but after I tried all the nails on, I decided to go with glue for wearing the original polka dot design I loved. If you liked these you can look at other styles here. I also have some nail art decals to show you from Fing'rs later so check for those later!

Pink and White Manicure

Last night, I was having something equivalent to writers block when I sat down to polish my nails. So I turned to my favorite color, pink and did a quick manicure using these:

I'm loving SH Hard as Nails, its only my 2nd time using it, but I already feel as if my nails are stronger. My bottle of I'm Indi-a Mood for Love is reaching that below halfway mark and becoming difficult to apply. My nail art polishes, I'm so glad that that silver one is running low because I don't like that brand compared to LA Colors. Ah, my beloved Seche Vite. Cant do a manicure without it.

Here's what I came up with:

This is two coats of I'm Indi-a Mood for Love + a silver dot using the Stripe Rite polish, then finish with a coat of Seche Vite.

Sally Hansen HD Nail Color Sweepstakes

Just thought I'd let you guys know about the sweepstakes that Sally Hansen is having. The prizes up for grabs:

• One Grand Prize winner will receive a 32inch HD TV


• Three 1st Prize winners will receive an iPod Nano (in high definition colors)


• Ten weekly winners receive a Sally Hansen gift bag

You can still enter to win through September 15, 2009.

Sally Hansen Made You Blush

This weekend I bought Sally Hansen products exclusively and I didn't even realize it until I got home. I picked up this light pink SH at Target on clearance and I was expecting it to be sheer so it was a surprise when it turned out to be a nice buildable color. I got SH Hard as Nails because I mentioned before that two of my nails on each hand tend to split and/or chip just when I get them the length I want. It's very frustrating so I hope this helps with that problem. Lastly I got SH topcoat, Clear'd for Takeoff. I will talk about that horrible topcoat later...

Here's the polish, 3 coats with the coordinating topcoat:
This is my first SH Salon nail polish and I will say that the formula is nice, not too thick and applied nicely. I love the bottle! Its already one of my favorite polish bottles and the rubber handle is just great like Orlys, helps me get a better grip. However, the Clear'd for Takeoff is a terrible topcoat. Clear'd for Takeoff? Try never did get off the ground. I could still dent my polish almost 45 minutes later! And its not the glossiest topcoat. You know what it is? That Seche Vite has me spoiled. Dries and hardens in minutes to a glossy shine that I have yet to find in any other topcoat. So, I redid my manicure, added another coat of Made You Blush and finished it off with SV.
I can live with this now! :-)

-Lachelle

NYC Taxi Yellow Creme

I actually bought this polish last weekend and meant to try it out the second I got home but I got distracted. You see, I am on a quest for a yellow that will work for me. I spotted this at Target and for .94 cents I was like, well why not? Although its soft yellow creme, when I picked it I could see faint golden shimmer running through it. Plus it wasn't as loud and in your face as the Zoya Creamy I'd tried before. Well, it sat on my desk the whole week, untried. Maybe subconsciously I knew it would be a pain in the butt to apply and I wasn't up to the challenge?

Here is the polish, this is three coats + no topcoat. It was sheer and streaky. I probably could have done 4 coats, but I thought that might have looked chalky on my hands.

Last weekend, before we went to the movies, I stopped at my favorite small town drugstore to see if they had some polishes I was interested in. I picked up another LA Colors nail art polish in mint green. I'm so glad I found a actual store to buy these at,they are great for nail art. If you were like me and you have no idea where to buy or haven't seen these in a store near you, you can order them online and get a pretty good deal. The best deal I saw was 6 for 11.95.

Here's my "lemon-lime" nail art:

Not my best work, but I like the colors together. I used Zoya Armor topcoat here. To my surprise this dried faster and glossier than I remember, I might have to use that topcoat more often.

Have a great weekend!
-Lachelle

Rimmel Deliciously Dark

Today I have the other Rimmel I bought at the BOGO 50% off sale at Ulta and I have to admit I bought it just for the name. Deliciously Dark, I love that name! That's what I say about all my vampy colors. This polish is nothing special or anything we haven't ever seen before. Actually, its probably close to my beloved OPI Eiffel for this Color, but without the depth. EFTC has a shimmer to it and this is a flat, dark eggplant creme. This is two coats + Seche Vite. Same formula as the other one I showed you yesterday and I couldn't tell you if it dried fast or not because I was too busy watching the TO Show last night on VH1. I was caught up. :-) I bet it dried fast though because it is in their 60 second line of polishes and I didn't have any problems with denting the polish like I do sometimes.

Rimmel Night Before

This my first Rimmel polish and I picked it up this weekend from ULTA. They were having a BOGO 50% off sale so I figured it would be a good time to try these. This is one of the two I got and I love this dark blue-ish purple with golden shimmer. Its dark, but it doesn't look black indoors! Which is a good thing for this polish because it really is beautiful color that should be seen. It only took two coats to get the color in the bottle even though I almost did three out of habit. The formula was good, not too runny. The bottle says "New Pro-Cision Brush" but I didn't find the brush to be any better or worse than other polishes brushes. Also this polish claims to dry in under sixty seconds. Now I didn't watch the clock on this but it seemed to be dry to the touch pretty quickly. I used Seche Vite as a topcoat. Overall, I can see myself buying more Rimmel polishes, they had some interesting shades and I didn't have any complaints about the formula.

Sally Hansen Blue Me Away

Yes, this is the sky blue I've been looking for. That's funny, because I didn't even know I wanted a sky blue until I got my hands on this polish. This is the last of the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes I picked up (for now) and it was a great color to start off my weekend. I think it went perfectly with my white shirt and blue jean combo this weekend. That's another favorite of mines...a crisp, fresh white shirt (this weekend it was a halter I picked up from AE a while ago) and a nice pair of jeans that fit you just right (you know the ones). I think that combo looks so nice against dark skin...okay, I'm rambling. Back to the nail polish. I got to take some pictures out in the sun this weekend so I'm really happy about that too.

This is two coats, probably could have done with one but the second coat smoothed out any mistakes I made the first time around. Dried fairly quickly as usual but I used Seche Vite as my topcoat. I think this color looks great on my new short nails and I couldn't stop staring at them this weekend. So I guess this color really did "blue" me away!

Sorry.

I couldn't help it!

Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink

Indoor + Flash
Indoor + No Flash

O. M. G.

This is what I have been missing?! The wonderful world of glitter! Or glittah as Brooke would say. This is my first glitter polish believe it or not. I. Cannot. Stop. Staring. This is one the revamped Xtreme Wear line polishes I picked up at Walgreens and I should have gotten more glitters! It's like I've fell in love with nail polish all over again because I've stepped into uncharted territory. Well at least for me anyway.

Rockstar Pink is a pink, blue and silver suspended in a clear base. (I had to have a pink as my first glitter!) This was gorgeous all on its own, but when I added Seche Vite, it was even better! It still has a rough texture though when I run my fingers over it. This is two coats. I might even keep this on for 2 days! Now I'm not looking forward to the removal. I've heard about glitters and being notoriously hard to remove. I'll get to that when get to it. For now, I cant keep my eyes off of my nails!

Sally Hansen Celeb City

(I wore this ring because I thought it went great with my silver polish and I was inspired by some of Brooke's latest pictures of her nails with a fabulous cocktail ring!)

Sally Hansen has revamped their Xtreme Wear nail polish line and I couldn't be happier. I first spotted these over at Steph's Closet and I knew I had to have them. They've added some new colors (glitters!) and kept some old favorites (Purple Potion anyone?) Yesterday was the first day I could get to Walgreens to get some of the polishes so the next couple of posts will be about these polishes because I'm actually going to wear them instead of just swatching.

First up is Celeb City, a silver that is opaque in one coat but I used two anyway. I so wanted to add some black and white designs to this but it's pretty shiny on its own. I need to get new bottles of black and white polishes, because my current bottles are running low and they've gotten sticky and a pain to apply. So you'll see this polish again, but next time with some art. I used Seche as my topcoat, but I've noticed that Xtreme Wear polishes dry really fast anyway.

I had to clip/file my nails because the same two nails keep peeling on each hand. I have no idea why, but I'm doing some research about nail strengtheners. OPI Nail Evny is at the top of the list right now. Hopefully, I wont have to keep clipping and filing them for the same reason. It always happens right when I get them a length that I want too!

Friday NOTD

Today's manicure is simple; I was in a hurry. It's a twist on a typical french manicure. I added a band of gold with my rarely used Zoya Richelle and added a nail sticker (Nail Accents by Kiss) that I got from my boss for my birthday. Topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite. Now something weird happens to my nail sticker when I put the Seche on it. There's a little rhinestone in the middle of my flower, but after I let my nails dry I noticed that it wasn't shiny anymore. It's as if the Seche Vite engulfed the rhinestone and formed a barrier over it. Weird! This is the second time I've observed it when using these stickers. Hmm..I have yet to figure that one out.



Have a great weekend everyone!
-Lachelle

Nail Art Inspired by You Tube

I came across this girl's video on YouTube while looking for some nail art ideas and I thought her watermelon color inspired nails were gorgeous!
Since I cant seem to embed the video, here's the link: Watermelon Color Inspired Nails

I set out to duplicate them but I don't have a green striping polish yet so I did a variation. I still wanted the green in the design though so I switched up the white base with a green one:

Two coats of LA Colors Atomic + striping polishes+ Seche Vite

Doesn't look as good or intricate as hers, but I will try again with a white base color. I still wanted to do the look so I switched the colors up to black, pink, white and silver glitter.

This is one coat of SH Blackout+ striping polishes + Seche Vite.

I like the end result with the black tips. Changing up the regular pink and white french manicure with black is one of my favorite things to do lately. I can tell because my bottle of Sally Hansen Black Out is dangerously low. That hasnt happend to any of my polishes since OPI Effiel for This Color so thats saying something! I will be putting that on my ever growing list of things to buy.

-Lachelle

Zoya Trinity + A Little Nail Art

Today's polish is one that's already been done, but I think it deserves better pictures. This Zoya's Trinity, their website describes it as a "duochrome hot pink purple with subtle pink metallic highlights." I love this color! I got it during the Zoya Polish Exchange just from looking at swatches on The Polish Addict. It's one of my favorite pinks. This was originally supposed to be a polka dot manicure but it is getting late and I am getting frustrated. I love polka dots so much and it bothers me that I cant get them right. The polish gets so thick and stringy before I can finish two nails, so those look okay, but after that, the following nails look terrible. Why? Why?!

Also, I have no idea what that is on my index finger. Blame it on...I don't know. I'm going to sleep. Thanks for reading...

:-) Lachelle

4th of July Inspired Manicure

Okay, here's a warning. This is a crazy red, white and blue skittle kind of manicure. A different design on every nail but I did it so I could decide what I wanted my 4th of July manicure to be. 4th of July has been one of my favorite holidays ever since I was a little kid but they seem to have gotten less "magical" the older I get. Its like that with Christmas too but that's a story for another time. Anyway, here's all the polishes I used:


L to R: Zoya Valentina, LA Colors Static Electricity, OPI Himalayan Hideaway, OPI Blue My Mind, Art Deco nail art polish in white, Stripe Rite silver glitter and Wet n Wild French White Creme. (Not shown is Zoya Armour topcoat)

Yes, that's red you see. I put aside my feelings about red polish and did it because whats a 4th manicure without red, white and blue? Sigh, I know. Anyway, here's what I came up with.

I think I'm going to go with the design on my middle or ring finger because I like them the best. I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Be safe! :-)