Thursday, July 14, 2011

Pre-Blog Mannequin Hands

Today I'm going into the archives to share some photos from early in 2010, when I was posting a lot on the MUA nail board but hadn't yet decided to start this nail blog. At the time, a lot of us were looking for our "mannequin hands" shade, which All Lacquered Up had written about. The Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line was pretty new back then so I thought if I found my color there it would have a better chance of not getting discontinued in the near future. I bought four shades I thought might work:


Left to right: Naked Ambition, Café Au Lait, Nude Now, Choco-Latte.


I swatched them and shared this photo with the nail board; bless those ladies, no one suggested I might want practice my clean-up skills before posting more pictures.


Top to bottom: Choco-Latte, Nude Now, Café Au Lait, Naked Ambition.


I decided Café Au Lait was the closest match of those four, then tried some other options from my stash to compare:


Top to bottom: China Glaze Heaven, OPI Samoan Sand, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Café Au Lait, a Sally Hansen Beyond Perfect which was missing its shade label.


All Lacquered Up was taking submissions of readers' mannequin hands, so I sent mine in, doing the best mani I could at the time. Here's three coats of Café au Lait:



Here it is with China Glaze Matte Magic on top:



I was a bit giddy when my nails showed up on ALU. Who knows, without that little taste of blog attention, maybe I wouldn't have ended up starting my own blog.

*****


Reminder: My Apothica giftcard giveaway closes at midnight Eastern U.S. time tomorrow, July 15th. There's still time to enter if you haven't already and get a chance to win some nail polish spending money.
Posted by KarenD at 11:03 AM
Pin It, button image courtesy chykalophia.com
Labels: , , , , ,

19 comments:

  1. s.July 14, 2011 at 11:19 AM

    I love mannequin hands! and those sally hansen colours are great. I've been meaning to try the complete salon manicure line but haven't brought myself to buy one yet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 14, 2011 at 11:19 AM

    Yay for mannequin hands...Cafe Au Lait is your color :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. shaJuly 14, 2011 at 11:20 AM

    I really like the look of mannequin hands! I love Naked Ambition on you. I am in that stage of still working on learning how to change my polish daily w/o having desert cuticles :-/

    ReplyDelete
  4. ToyomiJuly 14, 2011 at 11:27 AM

    I like Choco-Latte the best :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. nailspottingJuly 14, 2011 at 11:29 AM

    I have great difficulties with mannequin hands on myself but yours look(ed) really good!

    ReplyDelete
  6. TheSwatchingSpriteJuly 14, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    Ooo, going matte is an interesting idea. I'll be honest, I'd never thought to do a matte nude manicure..but the idea rather appeals to me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nail Dazzler Nails July 14, 2011 at 11:38 AM

    On me mannequin hands don't look that great but I like how it looks on you:)

    ReplyDelete
  8. JenJuly 14, 2011 at 12:10 PM

    That second picture (mattified) was the one that made it onto ALU, right? I think I remember seeing that picture ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sara ♥July 14, 2011 at 1:49 PM

    I agree with beauty shades... I don't like nude colours on me but it does look fab on you =]
    I love the mattified version too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. GemxJuly 14, 2011 at 2:59 PM

    I love mannequin hands! Although I haven't quite found my match yet, I like nude nails for a change after brighter colours. Cafe Au Lait looks great on you and I love the matte nude!
    I'm glad you started your own blog! :D xx

    ReplyDelete
  11. LarieJuly 14, 2011 at 3:00 PM

    Oh, I never thought to mattify nudes, either! And I don't have the perseverance to find the perfect nude shade...I just bought the first one that looked close and called it a day :D Maybe I should go back and try again.

    ReplyDelete
  12. LesleyJuly 14, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    great post. I really like hearing stories of how people began blogging and what not. x

    ReplyDelete
  13. UnknownJuly 14, 2011 at 8:45 PM

    I've never even tried mannequin hands. I have almost zero nudes! lol

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nail NerdJuly 15, 2011 at 7:30 AM

    Hahaha ouch, they scolded you for the cleanup work?! Nudes are so hit or miss but these turned out really well.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Polish AMORJuly 15, 2011 at 7:36 AM

    I do not own many nude & I feel it doesnt look good one me..... You did a good job at matching w yours!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Audrey- The Nail AffairJuly 15, 2011 at 9:22 AM

    Wow a lot of nudes you have! Never even heard of mannequin hands til now lol:) The colour is really good on you, complete match:)

    ReplyDelete
  17. schmutJuly 15, 2011 at 4:37 PM

    While I like (ok, I actually love) the idea of mannequin manicures, in reality it freaks me out. Looks like dead man's hands..

    ReplyDelete
  18. BVJuly 16, 2011 at 6:08 AM

    I have not done mannequin hands in forever but I think it looks so polished and perfect. I particularly love the matte look!! I must try this also...

    PS Your Sally Hansen collection is seriously amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  19. UnknownJuly 24, 2011 at 1:35 PM

    Cafe Au Lait looks so great on you!! I'm actually wearing China Glaze Heaven right now, but 4 coats of it. At 4 coats, it looks like it could be similar to Zoya Shay.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)