Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Black Platinum Review and Swatches with Spoiled I Got A Confection To Make

  Sorry for the crazy long title, I just like to be a little thorough. :-)  As I mentioned yesterday, I had been very busy at the beginning of the week helping my friend with her two little children as she is recovering from surgery.  I didn't have any time on Monday but I had about an hour and a half between work and heading over to help her on Tuesday.  Instead of sleep I decided to try the Complete Salon Manicure polish I received from Jennifer last week.  Jennifer was my "adopt a friend" for the month of June.  If you would like to learn more about that you can read yesterdays post here.
  I was not quite sure what the Complete Manicure Salon included so I headed over to the Sally Hansen website and was shocked with what I found out.  The formula in the Complete Manicure Salon has your base polish, nail strengthing formula, growth treatment, color, and top coat!  I thought it only had the base coat, color, and top coat.  Five steps in one and I was short on time, I couldn't beat that.  The dry time was impeccable!  The first layer dried so quickly.  The second and third coat took a little more time, I would say about five minutes but that was quite all right with me as I have waited up to fifteen minutes for colors to dry.  The only thing I did not like about the polish was how sheer it was.  I did however receive full opacity at three coats so it was a minor set back.  

 While I was at my friends house helping her later that night, I noticed she had two polishes from the line sitting on her counter.  I opened them to check the formula and they were a rich, creamy color.  I was glad to find out that it was just the color that I got, and not the entire line.  The brush could easily cover the entire nail in one swipe, but I prefer to do smaller stokes since I feel I have more control of how the color is applied.  I am pretty sure they are going for speed with this line of polish, so a one swipe brush fits perfectly with that concept.

  I also received I Gotta Confection To Make from Jennifer in the same Adopt A Friend swap and since my mani dried so fast I decided to add some sparkle to it.  I freaking love this glitter.  I thought it was just silver glitter suspended in a pink base, but I was wrong!  (I seem to have issues with glitters.  You can see I made the same mistake with UFO.)  It is packed full of multi colored glitter and it made me so, so, so happy.

  The next morning I decided I wanted to do even more to this and I thought, what better way to try out my matte top coat.  I applied it and I fell in love!  Now, I really am not one for mattes, but every now and then I like them.  I think I liked it on this one because it brought out the glitter that much more.  Ok, enough blabbing, here you go!

Base coat, color, Top coat of swatches:  Black Platinum by Sally Hansen - 3 coats

Glitter: I Gotta Confection To Make by Spoiled - 1 coat

Top coat: Out the Door

Matte top coat: Nail Art Special Effect! Topper by Essence

Here it is matteified

Here it is with the glossy top coat over it

And now for the swatches

Taken outside in direct sunlight

Upclose in direct sunlight. I am including this to show the micro

shimmers that appear in the Black Platinum.  I didn't even notice

them until after I took this picture. 

Outside in indirect light

Inside with flash

Inside without flash

  Oh, and one last thing.  This lasted me two days without chips.  In my industry that is a freaking miracle.  I usually can't make it half way through my shift before my mani chips!

  So, have you tried any of the Complete Salon Manicure Line?  What did you think?

Julep Sienna Swatches and Stamping With Mash Plate 47

  So, the last two days I have spent working and helping my friend out with her two babies because she had to have her gallbladder removed on Sunday and is unable to lift anything over ten pounds.  Any time she wanted to get up I had to help her up as well.  Poor friend of mine.  I can't imagine not being able to do anything but sit on the couch for an entire week as someone comes in and does everything you normally do.  :-(  I mean, I could deal with it for about half of a day, but after that I would get really, really bored.  I did this mani on Monday after my last post and since my friends husband is off of work today, I have time to write all about it!
  This is Juleps premier on my blog!

  I received Sienna from Betsy, whom I met online through Creative Nail Fun's "Adopt A Friend" program.  Each month you can sign up on Creative Nail Fun's Facebook page to do a swap with someone.  It is so fun to get to know people and I love that you can sign up for it each month instead of it being a commitment you make for an extended period of time.  As we all are aware, life flys at us pretty fast and sometimes were broker than we would have ever thought possible.  The other thing I really like about the Adopt A Friend program is that we don't have to spend much money.  I know some of you are probablly saying, "um Julep is not cheap," and you are correct, but Betsy and I agreed to do a more expensive exchange than the five dollars Creative Nail Fun suggests spending on the swap.  You also don't have to swap polish, all though, I have yet to see a swap that didn't at least involove a bottle of Sinful Color's or Wet N' Wild.  If this seems like something that you would be interested in, click on the link I have above, which will take you to her Facebook page, like her page, and wait for the update that she is doing the monthly sign up.  She will then tell you who you are paired with, and bombs away.  It is that simple. 

  Ok, so, can I just say that I love Julep's formula?!  Holy cow.  While the formula was flawless, I don't really know if I will get to many more of these.  I just can't say that I can justify spending $14 on an 8ml bottle of polish.  I have used this polish about four times for full mani's of two coats each, and I have used almost 80% of the polish.  These are fairly decent coats as well.  Not to thin, but definitly not thick.  Maybe I will sign up for the Julep Maven boxes that I hear everyone talking about.  I think you pay $20 a month and they send you three polishes?  That is a much better deal for sure.  Julep color's are 4 free, meaning they do not contain formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, or DBP.

  Sienna has a shimmer finish and is described as a "sophisticated, shimmery gold" on Julep's website.  While I am normally not a fan of gold, I must say that this one takes my breath away.  Just look at the swatch pictures and see how spicy and loud Sienna is!

Base coat: Chip Skip from OPI and Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Base color: Sienna from Julep - 2 coats

Stamping color: Black Creme from Wet N' Wild

Top coat: Out the Door

Stamping plate: Mash 47

Inside without flash

Outside in indirect light

Inside with flash

Outside in direct sunlight

I love looking at these pictures.  Sienna is such a pretty gold, isn't it?!  Do you have any Julep polishes?  Does the price make you stay away or is it worth it to you?

.

Sinful Colors Kissy and Essence Choose Me! Swatches and Comparison

  I purchase Choose Me! by Essence a few weeks ago because of this review on Nails by Kayla Shevonne.  As you can see Choose Me! is a dupe for Opi's Catch Me In Your Net.  Opi is one of my favorite polishes but if I can save money, I'm all for that.  I picked it up and when I was sitting here going through all of my polishes I relized that I had a color very similar to this.  That happened to be Kissy by Sinful Colors.  My first dupe post was born!
  All I can say is that I am glad to be done with this post.  Lol.  I wore these colors for about four days straight, due to not having enough time to switch my maicures.  I worked a 65 hour week last week and that is why I didn't post very much last week.  These colors stained the skin around my nails when I removed it, but I was easily able to remove it with baking soda.  I also had a very difficult time photographing these.  These colors both shift from blue to green like no other!  It took me forever to get accurate pictures.

Base coat: Chip Skip from Opi and Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Color: Choose Me! from Essence - 2 coats

Top coat: Out the Door

Taken inside without flash

Taken outside without flash

Base coat: Chip Skip from Opi and Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Base color: Kissy from Sinful Colors - 2 coats

Top coat: Out the Door

Taken inside without flash

Close up taken inside without flash

Taken outside without fla

And now for the comparison:

This picture is not the greatest but like I said I was done with 

these colors and was ready to get them off of my nails.  So don't hate,

k?! :-)

Taken inside without flash

s

Taken inside again without flash, but a much better picture

So, they aren't exact dupes but they are pretty dang close.  I wore two coats of Kissy and three coats of  Choose Me!  I thought if I wore more coats it would get as dark as Kissy, but it didn't.   I don't know if I will be wearing either of these any time soon.  For me, they are more of a going out color, not an every day color.  I epect I will wear one the next time I go out dancing.

  There are many other dupes out there for these colors.  If you would like to see them you can view Geeky Owls blog post here.

Do you guys know of any other dupes?

Rainbow Bright over NYC French Tip White and Swatches

  Boy have I got a treat for you guys.  I am so excited to share this polish with you.  It is called Rainbow Bright by Tina from Polish + Plus!  I first met Tina on facebook because we were both interested in doing a swap.  We quickly became friends and Tina decided she wanted to adventure into making her own polishes.  She is the one who made the first and the second indie polishes that I own.  I am in love with her stuff!  Not to mention her reasonable prices.  I paid $8 for a full size Rainbow Bright and that included shipping.  
  Rainbow Bright contains blue, pink, green, orange and yellow bar glitter, blue, pink, green, orange and yellow glitter, and the same colors in stars, and is suspended in a sheer pink base.  Here is the cool part about this polish, not every bottle will be the exact same as mine.  It will definitly be super close but someone who has the same polish as me may have more purple and green stars than I do.  I mean, you don't really expect her to count every single piece of glitter and star in each color that she puts into the bottle, do you?  ;-)  But I see it as a one of a kind polish and that makes me feel special!  Tina recommended that I try it over a white base so as not to wash out any of the colors in this beautiful mixture.  I am so glad that I took her advise.  All of the pictures I took were of one coat of Rainbow Bright over three coats of NYC French Tip White.  The formula was a little on the runny side but it really was not that bad.  I didn't have to fish any of the stars out, but I did have to place them, so to speak, on the nail.  I know that there are a lot of pictures but I really wanted you guys to see the amazingness that is this beautiful indie polish.  It is unlike any that I have ever seen.

  All of the pictures that have Rainbow Bright in them, minus the bottle shots, have one coat of Out the Door Top Coat on it.  If you don't like to feel your glitter on your nail after you are all done I suggest you do two coats of top coat.  It really wasn't that bad but it wasn't 100% smooth and I know some people are very adament about having smooth nails.

Base coat: Chip Skip from OPI and Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Base color: French Tip White from NYC - 3 coats

Glitter: Rainbow Bright from Polish + Plus - 1 coat

Top coat: Out the Door

You can view Polish + Plus facebook page here.  If you go to her "for sale" album you can see all of her polishes and nail stickers that she makes and has for sale.

These first three pictures are all taken outside in direct sunlight

Bam!!!  Look at that!

And that!!!!!!

Here it is inside without flash

and upclose without flash inside

Here is a closeup of the bottle

And a full size.  Mine did come in an old Orly bottle but that is because Tina loves me and she was planning on keeping this one for her self.

And now for the French Tip White swatches, which aren't as exciting as the Rainbow Bright.  Lol.  And no, it didn't bubble on my pointer finger, my finger nail is peeling bad and that is where it quits peeling.  :-(

Outside in direct sun

Outside in indirect light

Inside without flash

Inside with flash

All right, so, what do you guys think of Rainbow Bright?  Do you like it, love it, or can you live without it?

Sinful Colors Bubble Bath Swatches and Splatter Mani

 Bubble Bath was one of the first Sinful Colors that I purchased.  I was sitting at home a few years ago and saw a tutorial on how to do a lady bug mani.  I raced to Fred Meyer to buy white, red, and black polish and Sinful Colors was the cheapest they had.  I was never able to make the cute lady bugs the tutorial had and ended up giving up polish for a few years.  Eventually I threw away the black I had bought because I am not one to wear black polish.  Or so I thought.  I still don't wear it by its self but it is a necessity for any nail polish junkie.  I haven't seen Bubble Bath around currently but Ruby Ruby, the red I purchased a few years ago, was released again just a few months ago so maybe Bubble Bath will come out again.  I hope so because it is a lovely pearly glossy white.  I am able to get opacity at two coats.  They couldn't have picked a better name because I own a white bubble bath/shower gel that is the EXACT same color as the polish.  I included a picture below.  I was pretty excited about this, all thought I'm  sure you won't find the same joy in it that I did.  I know I am a big dork, but whatever gets us through the day, right?
  I have wanted to do a splatter mani for a while and the other day I finally remembered to borrow some straws from work.  I followed Chalkboard Nails tutorial, almost perfectly.  I couldn't find my tape and my lazy butt decided it wouldn't be a big deal.  HA HA HA!  Was I WRONG!  Take my advise, follow every step.  And if you don't have tape, go freaking buy some.  It would probablly take less time to run to the store, buy the tape, and tape up your nails, then it would to clean up the horrendeous mess that a splatter mani makes.  I will NEVER do a splatter mani without tape again.  It also took forever to clean up because I decided it would be a good idea to use colors with glitter in them.  Ummmm yeah, clean up was terrible!

Base coat: Chip Skip from OPI and Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Base color: Bubble Bath from Sinful Colors - 2 coats

Splatter colors: Neon Signs mini collection from Claires

Top Coat: Out the Door

Outside in direct sunlight

Outside in indirect light

Inside without flash and with my bubble bath!!  lol

Inside with flash

What about you guys.  Have you done a splatter mani?  Was it sucessful?  I wish I would have gotten better pictures of this one.  For some reason I thought I had good ones, but I really didn't!  Oh well.  Better luck next time.

Oregon State Nails

  My friend Sarah graduated with her Masters degree yesterday and we were invited to her ceremony and bbq celebration.  I wanted my nails to be for her so I decided to do the school colors, black and orange, and the school logo.

Credit for image

I tried to make my own nail decals but I didn't let them sit long enough so they got ruined.  Bummer because the were pretty dang close to perfect.  I ended up using acrylic to do the logo on each of my ring fingers.  I wasn't completely happy with how this mani turned out.  I really wanted UFO to show up more orange-y over the black.  In doors you can see way more orange but outdoors the green comes out.  Which is really funny because UFO is in an orange base and has a lot of orange glitter.  Or so I thought.  Once I put UFO over Black Creme all sorts of colors came out that I had never seen before!  It was quite a surprise.  Sorry there are so many pictures that look almost the same but I really wanted you guys to be able to see the different colors that came out of the wood works with UFO.

Base coat: Chip Skip from OPI, Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Base color: 

• Black: Black Creme from Wet N Wild - 2 coats
• White: Bubble Bath from Sinful Colors - 2 coats

Glitter: UFO from Sinful Colors - 1 coat

Top coat: Out the Door

If you can't tell from the pictures, I had a pretty difficult time with the clean up on my pointer finger.  Dark colors are very hard to erase from your skin and it was very frustrating!  lol  Do you guys have any clean up tips for me?  Are you shocked from the very different colors that came from UFO once it was applied over the black?  I hope that you all had a great weekend!

Cute Polka Dot Nails

  Happy Wednesday, I guess.  My laptop is now a craptop.  My hard drive went out.  :-(  I had just replaced it last year, too.  I am so thankful I purchased my Ipad when I did!  Got it for a screaming deal too.   My blog is pretty much keeping me from slipping into a sleep filled depression right about now.  We ended up selling the craptop though, so that was a good thing.  There was no way we would have the money to fix it anytime soon, so, may as well get some money from it instead of it being a paper weight, right?

  My inspiration for this mani came from my Pinterest browsing inspiration search.  You know, those days where you have no idea what to do so you float around on the internet until something strikes your fancy?!  I do this A LOT!  My creative juices are pretty blocked after my work days unfortunatly.  It is so stinking cute and simple.  I got a lot of compliments on it and I will be keeping this as a go to design.  I was unable to trace this mani back to its original blog so if you know who's this is, please tell me so I can give proper credit!  That is one of the unfortunate downfalls to Pinterest.  Also another reason why bloggers should watermark their pictures.  We want to give you credit!

Base coat: Chip Skip by OPI and Smooth Beginnings from Avon

Green: Mint Sorbet from Sally Hanson - 2 coats (you can click here to see swatches of this color)

Purple: Luxe Lavendar from Avon - 2 coats - I have yet to post swatches of this color

Dots: Alpine Snow from OPI

Top Coat: Out the Door

This was taken outside in indirect ligh

This was taken inside without the flash

What about you guys, do you have a go to mani?

Mary Kay Coral Stone Swatch and Stamping With Mash 42 Plate

 I went to a Mary Kay spa party about two weeks ago.  We got to try out their yummy mint foot soak, yummy mint foot lotion, microdermabrasion set, sun tan lotion, tanning lotion, and last but not least their nail polish.  At the time I had a glitter on my toes and was having a very difficult time getting it off.  I didn't want to sit there for 20 minutes removing it while everyone else waited on me so I just painted over the glitter.  I ended up purchasing Coral Stone.  Little did I know how much I would fall in love with this color and formula.
  Yesterday I decided I wanted to create a sunrise look on my nails.  I figured Coral Stone would be a great base to start this look.  All I can say about Coral Stone is OH MY GOD!  The formula is perfect and flawless.  All of my swatch pictures are one coat.  One coat!  No visible nail line, no brush marks, beautiful shine.  I did not apply a top coat to Coral Stone.  When I first purchase it I was a little iffy of the $9.00 price tag, but now, I would drop it in a heart beat.  This makes me wish Mary Kay was producing tons of nail color.  They have about six colors out right now, and I will be purchasing them.  My husband better find a job, fast.  Lol.
 This is the link to the tutorial I used to do my gradients.  As I mentioned before I was going for a sunrise kind of look.  I was thinking of a morning out on the ranch when I came up with this mani, so as to keep with my rodeo themed weekend.  I hope that you guys enjoy.

Base coat: Chip  Skip and Nail Envy from OPI

Base color: Coral Stone from Mary Kay - 1 coat

Gradient colors:

• purple: Let's Talk from Sinful Colors
• orange: Sun Kissed from Sally Hanson
• yellow: Mellow Yellow from Sally Hanson

Stamping color: Black Creme from Wet N Wild

Stamping plate: Mash 42

Top Coat: Out the Door

I apologize for my clean up job.  I ran out of acetone.  :-(

This was taken inside with the flash.

So, as previously stated, I ran out of aceton.  This is also my

non dominant hand so it is way messier than normal, but I really

wanted you to see the gradient without the horses stamped on.

Taken outside in natural light

Inside without flash

Taken inside with flash

Can you believe the amazing coverage I got with one coat!!