Adventures In Stampinig Sunday Challenge, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lightning Swatches and Review, and Stamping With Mash Plate 43

  Sorry for the crazy long title but I like to make sure I'm thorough.  Our challenge in the facebook group, Adventrures In Stamping, was to do something we loved.  It could of been a polish, a stamp, a method, anything we loved.  I was at a standstill.  There are so many things I love.  I tried something with OPI's Russian Navy, but then I decided how much I loved Revlon's Whimsical.  I was going to do it over Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow like I have posted before, but decided I would try the new Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Lightning that I picked up yesterday.
  I had a TERRIBLE nail day yesterday.  I have never wanted to throw all my polishes out the window so badly before.  I am not sure what it was but I really disliked the Insta Dri formula and brush.  I hate saying this because generally I LOVE everything Sally Hansen.  But this is the second product I am not pleased with.  The first would have been the Acrylic Top Coat, but that is an entirely different story.  The brushes in this polish have never bugged me before in other polishes but I don't know why I detested them all of the sudden.  I think it had to do with the thickness of the polish and me being exhausted.  The heat really takes all of my enerygy.  I feel bad complaining about the heat because we have been so lucky compared to the rest of the States.  It has only been over 90 a few days here.  I know, I know, pathetic, but I can't help it.   

  The formula was thick and clumpy.  I tried to do one coat like the bottle suggested but it was so thick that it bubbled.  I removed it all and tried to do two thin coats, and it still bubbled and clumped up.  I also tried to switch the basecoats I used thinking the Avon Smooth Beginnings I always use is almost empty and thought it may have been to thick.  The only reason I am not throwing the two Insta Dri polishes I own is because they are great for stamping, ironically enough, due to their thick formula.  Oy vey.  lol.
  Warning, thiese pictures are terrible.  My cuticles are a disaster, I jammed my pointer finger into something and had to cut my entire nail down, I didn't get very good pictures, I was just done by the time I finished this mani.  

Base coat: Sally Hansen Hard As as Nails Hardener

Base color: Lightning from Sally Hansen Insta Dri - 2 coats

Stamp: Mash 43

Stamping colors: pinky - Heat Flash from Sally Hansen Insta Dri

                            ring finger - Clementine from Sinful Colors

                            middle finger - Why Not from Sinful Colors

                            pointer finger - Let's Talk from Sinful Colors

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Anti Chip Top Coat

Finished mani outside in indirect light

Taken inside without flash

One coat of Revlon Whimsical over Lightning in indirect light

Outside in direct sunlight.  Can you see it bubbling on the middle and pointer finger?

Look at how lumpy the formula is on my middle finger!

Outside in indirect light

Taken inside without flash

Inside with flash

I really hope I have a better nail day today.

 

Fourth of July Mani and Stamping With Mash Plates 27 and 49

While the fireworks don't excite me much anymore, (in my town they are the same every year.  It isn't like I live in a huge town where we are able to spend a gagillion dollars on our fireworks show) I will say that I love the Fourth of July.  I am so greatful to live in America.  I don't think that there is any greater gift than being able to worship the God of my choice, speak my mind about our failing President, or being able to go where I want and do what I want, when I want it.  You are free to be with who you want, be a hippie or not, hell, you can watch and read WHATEVER YOU WANT!!  For exmple: There are countries that do not allow people to read their Bibles.  Don't care about the Bible, that's cool, but how would you feel if you wern't allowed to look at Google!  Or the Government decided which websites you could or couldnot see.  How would you feel about that?  I don't have to agree with what everyone in my country is doing, I can voice my own opinion and not be punished, but the great thing is that everyone can make choices that suite themselves.  I don't really have much else to say so here is my first Fourth of July mani!

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

Red coat: Ruby Slipper from Avon - 2 coats

White coat: French Tip White from NYC - 3 Coats

Stamping plates: Star tips - Mash 27 - stamped with Essences Stamp Me! White

                            Full nail stars - Mash 49 - stamped with Why Not from Sinful Colors

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta-dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

Taken outside in indirect light

Taken inside without flash

I hope you all have a great Fourth of July!  Do you have any exciting plans?

Zoya Rica Swatches and Stamping Plate with Mash 45

  Zoya Rica has been on my want list for a few months now, and I finally saved up some tip money to buy some new polishes the other day.  :-)  I purchase Zoya Rica, Faye, and OPI's Russian Navy.  Russian Navy was on my want list as well and I picked up Faye because well, I liked it.  I had a few other polishes in my hand and the employee at Ed Wyss asked me if I wanted her to swatch them on some paper to see what they looked like and I told her no, that it was ok because I was going to buy them all sooner or later, lol.
  Zoya Rica is part of Zoya's 2011 Sunshine collection.  According to the Zoya website Rica "can be best described as: Warm light coral with pink and orange tones and heavy gold metallic sparkle."  So true.  I have loved this color since I first saw swatches.  It has so many facets to me that I just stare and stare and stare while I wear it.

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

Base color: Rica from Zoya - 2 coats

Top coat: Out the Door

Stamping polish: Stamp Me! White from Essence

Stamping plate: Mash plate 45

Outside in natural light

In case you can't tell by the water on my middle finger, it was raining

and I was unable to capture a picture of this beauty in direct

sunlight

Inside without flash

Inside with flash

I would say that the middle picture is the most accurate display of this polish butt it is always changing.  Sometimes it is really. really pink and other times it is very coral and orange.  Do you have Zoya Rica?  Do you love it, hate it, or are you just ok with it?  I hope you all had a great weekend!

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?

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