Sally Hansen Real Nail Polish Strips in Pink-A-Dot (Review + Photos)

A couple years ago, I made a haul post featuring these nail strips from Sally Hansen. In the post I showed another set of nail strips called Are You Single? which I wore on Valentine’s Day and really enjoyed.

A couple weeks ago, I remembered that I had this set in Pink-A-Dot and decided to use it for an effortless and cute summer nail look.

Like Are you Single?, the Pink-A-Dot strips were very easy to apply. I only encountered a bit of difficulty with trying to find the perfect size strip to fit my nail. I have very small nails and a lot of the strips were just a tiny bit too big so I had to trim them with scissors. They were easy to cut though and I did not ruin any strips during trimming process. The best part is that there was no drying time so I was able to get on with my day immediately after application. They have a faint nail polish smell, but it did not linger like the strong scent of traditional liquid nail polish does. 

The pattern is very cute with its creamy background and pink polka dots. The finish is glossy but the polka dots have a faded look to them that gives the strips a fabric-like dimension which I really like.

The only downside is the staying power. While the last set of strips stuck to my nails really well and lasted for two weeks, these strips did not. After about 5 days, they began lifting near the cuticles and I had to remove them because they kept getting caught in my hair while I was blow drying it. They were at least two years old though so the glue may have been getting weak. The strips removed easily with regular nail polish remover.

Overall, I really enjoyed the easy application and cute pattern of this product. I would definitely purchase more if I find them on sale because these strips can be a bit pricey where I live.

Have you tried these nail strips from Sally Hansen? If so, what are your thoughts on them?

NOTD: Essie Go Ginza

 

If you have been reading my blog for a while, then you know that cream polishes (especially in pastel shades) are my favourite! Essie’s Go Ginza is a perfect example of my ideal polish.

This shade came out in Essie’s Madison Ave-Hue collection for Spring 2013. The colour is described by Essie as a “soft cherry blossom pink.” While “soft” describes the shade quite well, I find that it leans a bit more toward purple than pink. On me, it looks like more of a lilac pink than a true pink. That said, the colour is beautiful and I don’t own any similar coloured polishes.

The formula was a bit thick and appeared streaky with the first two coats. As you can see from the photos, it is almost completely smooth with three coats. It did not take an overly long time to dry despite its thickness.

Go Ginza lasted about six days on my nails before it started chipping at the tips.

Overall, I really love this shade and will be wearing it year round, especially for work.

What is your favourite shade from Essie’s Madison Ave-Hue collection?

NOTD: Zoya Rory

After a long winter of dark, cream finish polishes, Zoya Rory is a breath of fresh, spring air!

At first glance, this shade appears as a standard pink with a hint of purple, but a little sunlight brings out its truly unique properties. Zoya describes Rory as a “medium mauve pink with lilac tones, gold and silver reflective metallic shimmer accents, and a foil-like finish.” As you can see from the photos in this post, this description is fairly accurate.

Rory was introduced to the Zoya family in Summer 2012 with the release of the Surf collection. The other five polishes in the collection have a similar finish. Despite being a medium shade, Rory is fairly pigmented and becomes opaque with two coats. Zoya gives this polish a 5/5 in terms of opacity.

I’m not sure if I agree with the Zoya site in its classification of Rory as a warm toned shade. I can usually only pull off cool toned shades, but Rory did not compete with my skintone. I think that the lilac tones neutralize the mauve and allow Rory to have a neutral base.

Also, while the finish is quite metallic, I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it is “foil-like”. I consider a foil-like finish to be smooth and reflective, or mirror-like (for example, the Sally Hansen Chrome polishes). The metallic-look of this polish is created by gold and silver shimmers which make the finish shiny and glossy but not quite reflective. Either way, the finish is unique and gives the shade dimension.

Overall, I feel that Rory offers a pretty pop of colour, and a surprising splash of shimmer with its metallic micro glitter formula. The formula is easy to work with and it took five days for minor chipping and tip-wear to begin. A perfect spring and summer polish!

NOTD: Zoya Jacqueline

Jacqueline is part of Zoya’s Spring 2013 Lovely collection. Zoya describes this shade as a full-coverage, perfect magnolia nude cream.

While I found that this polish applied very smoothly and evenly, I needed to apply two coats of it to get full coverage. I had to add a third coat to get the opacity that I was hoping for, but two coats look nice as well.

I do agree that “nude” and “magnolia” are fitting words to describe this shade (buttercream works well too!). However, this polish does not have a true cream finish formula. As you can see from the photo above, Jacqueline contains very soft shimmer particles. The shimmer is virtually invisible most of the time (it shows up in sunlight), but it prevents the polish from having a stark finish. For this reason, I’m very impressed with the natural, clean look that this polish gives my nails. The shimmer diffuses any nail imperfections and makes the nail surface look smoother.

Overall, I really like this polish and feel that it will work perfectly as an every day, work-appropriate shade, or as a neutral base for nail art designs.

NOTD: Butter London Queen Vic

Butter London’s nail polish in Queen Vic is the perfect berry shade for my pale cool-toned skin. Although the colour looks very pretty in the photos above and below, it is even richer in real life. Since my camera finds it difficult to accurately capture anything with red tones, the colour appears a lot more red in the photos. Queen Vic is actually deeper and more purple toned. In fact, Butter London describes it by saying, “Stunning, elegant and classy. Red wine meets cranberry. Fit for a queen.”
Aside from the colour, the formula of this polish is very impressive. It applied smoothly, dried quickly, and lasted for six days without any chipping. I couldn’t help but look at my nails every few minutes while wearing this polish to admire the way that it brightened up my hands with its rich tones and shiny finish. I received many compliments while wearing this shade.
My only complaint is that Queen Vic left my fingers with a red stain for a few days after I removed it with nail polish remover. To avoid this type of staining, I recommend using a good base coat and a strong polish remover.
Overall, Queen Vic is a gorgeous polish with a great formula. It will continue to be a go-to shade for me during the fall and winter months.

Sally Hansen Real Nail Polish Strips in Are You Single? (Review + Photos)

Back on June 22 I made a haul post featuring these nail strips from Sally Hansen. In the post I said that I would likely save the strips for Valentine’s Day because the little leaves in the pink, purple, red, and silver pattern look like hearts.
I wore them to a special dinner a few days after Valentine’s Day. I didn’t have much time to do my nails and couldn’t wait for regular nail polish to dry. Then I remembered that I had these nail strips in Are You Single? and decided to try them out.
The strips were very easy to apply. I only encountered a bit of difficulty with trying to find the perfect size strip to fit my nail. I have very small nails and a lot of the strips were just a tiny bit too big so I had to trim them with scissors. They were easy to cut though and I did not ruin any strips during trimming process.
The best part about this product is that it truly sticks to the nails and lasts for two weeks. I left mine on for 14 days with only minimal chipping on my dominant hand after 8 days. I didn’t have to keep pushing down lifting edges and there were no air bubbles. The strips removed easily with regular nail polish remover.
Overall, I really enjoyed this product and would definitely purchase more if I find them on sale because these strips can be a bit pricey where I live.
Have you tried these nail strips from Sally Hansen? If so, what are your thoughts on them?

Today’s Purchases: Essie Shine of the Times & Russian Roulette

While at Shoppers Drug Mart this afternoon, I came across a clearance shelf at the end of a makeup aisle. There was a basket of higher end polishes for only $5! Although many of the polishes were from the Nicole by OPI brand (one of my least favourite polish lines), to my excitement there were also some Essies in the mix.
The first shade that caught my eye was Shine of the Times, one of the Luxe Effects polishes. Normally I avoid purchasing Essie polishes in Canada because they are quite expensive at around $12 each. Since these were on sale for less than half the price, I couldn’t resist.

Shine of the Times has a clear base and is packed with a plethora of iridescent flakies—a perfect shade to use over other polishes to add a bit of glimmer. I think this polish will also come in handy for winter nail tutorials because, over a white base, the flakies will look like glistening snow.

Satisfied with Shine of the Times and ready to make my way to the checkout line, I saw Russian Roulette—the perfect red! I have been looking for a true red colour for quite some time. Russian Roulette is a fairly neutral shade that is neither too light nor too dark. It will be great for winter and the holiday season!
I will follow up with a review/nail of the day post once I get a chance to use these polishes.
Have you tried either of these shades?
~Beauty Writer

Week in Review: Makeup Products

This week, the focus of my makeup was a combination of three eyeshadows. We got a slight break from the extreme heat so I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to experiment with my eye makeup.
Eyes
As always, I began this look by applying a thin layer of Urban Decay Primer Potion from lashline to just above the crease. My base colour was Shroom by MAC. I used my Sigma E55 Eye Shading brush to pat this shade all over the lid and under the browbone as a highlight. Then I added some depth to my crease by blending MAC’s Kid eyeshadow above Shroom with my  Sigma E40 Tapered Blending brush. Since it’s summer and I love to add an unexpected pop of colour to my eye looks during this time of year, I added a bit of Crystal eyeshadow from MAC to the outer corners of my eyes into the crease with my Sigma E70 Medium Angled Shading brush. Crystal looks a bit damaged in the photo below because I am not the best at depotting shadows (I will be purchasing pro pans only for now on). I finished off the eyes by curling my lashes with my Shiseido curler and swiping on a generous coat of Buxom Lash mascara from Bare Escentuals.

Lips
With more colour on my eyes, I opted for a sheer tint on my lips. First I applied a layer of Vanilla Softlips to add a smooth base and an SPF of 20. I then used Tarte’s Maracuja Divine Shine lipgloss in Achiote which gave my lips a coral-pink tint that complimented my cheek colour nicely.

Face
This week I was less than adventurous with my face makeup and used the same products that I have been using for most of the summer. I used my fingers to pat some product from Garnier’s Anti-Dark-Circle roller under my eyes, and then I applied Tarte’s Amazonian Clay blush on the apples of my cheeks with my Sigma F40 Large Angled Contour brush. To give a flawless finish and add a bit of glow, I used my Sigma F50 Duo Fibre brush to lightly sweep Benefit’s Sugarbomb face powder overtop the Tarte blush.

Which products did you wear last week?

I Got NAKED 2! (Pictures)

It has taken a very long time but I finally decided to get one of the Urban Decay Naked palettes. It was a hard decision since I could not see the palettes in person before purchasing, but, based on lots of research and recommendations, I chose Naked 2 over the first Naked palette. I’m very cool toned and tend to shy away from very dark shadow colours so Naked 2 is perfect.
I received the palette in the mail today and wanted to take pictures before using it. In the future, once I get a chance to try out and form an opinion on the palette, I will make separate posts with swatches and a full review.
Please comment on this post to let me know if you prefer Naked or Naked 2.
Hope you enjoy the photos!


Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout

Foxy (cream bisque matte), Half Baked (golden bronze), Booty Call (shimmering cork)
Chopper (copper shimmer with silver micro glitter), Tease (creamy pale brown matte), Snakebite (dark bronze shimmer)
Suspect (pale golden beige), Pistol (light gray-brown), Verve (oyster)

YDK (cool bronze shimmer), Busted (deep brown), Blackout (blackest black matte)
Lip Junkie Lipgloss in Naked Double-ended, cruelty-free Good Karma Shadow/Crease Brush

NOTD: Orly Cotton Candy

Today I was in the mood for a peachy-pink nail colour and Cotton Candy by Orly was the first shade that came to mind. I purchased this colour last summer after having my nails painted with it at a salon. I wore the shade for over a week and loved it so much that I had to get a bottle for myself.
The shade of this cream finish polish is similar to Essie’s Van D’Go which is of my other favourite peachy-pink polishes. Cotton Candy is a bit darker and a bit more peach than Van D’Go but still in the same colour family. I think this shade is perfect for any skin tone. It gives the nails a nice pop of colour without looking neon or too vibrant.

Unfortunately, despite its beautiful colour, Cotton Candy’s formula is less than impressive. It is thick and streaky and very difficulty to apply. In the photos below, I am wearing three coats of this shade and the polish is not as smooth as I would like. It looks patchy in spots and when I look at my nails from the side the polish looks very uneven. Surprisingly, it dried fairly quickly between coats. I have always had difficulty with the formula of Orly polishes but loved this colour so much that I could not help but purchase it.

Next time I wear Cotton Candy I will use a bit of nail polish thinner to see if it will allow for a smoother application. I recommend this polish to anyone who loves peachy-pink shades, doesn’t mind a tricky application, and has some polish thinner on hand.