Recent NOTD: Three Swings, Two Misses

My neutral phase continued after the previous batch of NOTDs I posted. This time I've got three looks I wore, only the first of which I was really happy with.

That first look combined two recent releases from Sally Hansen. After laying down a base of Salon Sciences Starting Over After Artificials topped with Instant Artificials, I put on Complete Salon Manicure in Himalaya, a light tan creme from the Fall Pastels subgroup in the Runway Collection LE display for this fall. I either didn't write down how many coats I used or wrote it down in the wrong place, as I can't find that information now despite having my notes on what was on my nails before and after. To add just a bit of flash to this very quiet creme, I did accent nails with Big Glitter in Dressed to Thrill, which is from the Costume-ize Your Nails LE display for Halloween. Dresssed to Thrill has small gold and holo glitter, slightly biggers holo hexes, and holo square glitter in a clear base. I added Insta Dri topcoat to finish things off.



The photo above was taken in my kitchen, with a combination of natural light from the window and both fluorescent and incandescent light from the ceiling fixtures. The one below was in my car in all natural light.



I wore the Sally Hansen mani for a full week, and it was in good shape at the end, just some tipwear, which barely showed due to the paleness of the polish. This next look lasted one day. I planned for that, as I was using Essie Sleek Sticks, which I've never gotten good wear from. (I posted about first few experiences with them here and how topcoat is not the answer to the wear question here.) It was okay, though; I found this set of grey and silver Stickers and Stones design at Dollar Tree. For a buck, I'll deal with short wear time. As with the other designs I've tried from this line, I liked the design but didn't like the wrinkling or thickness of the strips. I suppose this design would be fairly straightforward to copy using a two polishes and some dotting tools. Maybe I'll add that to the long list of things I want to try on my nails someday.





Another Dollar Tree find was a set of the Maybelline Nail Falsies fake nails in French Revolution, which is what I put on after I took off the Essie stickers. I wore a couple other designs from this line back in 2013 when they showed up at Meijer, then they never appeared anywhere else until I spotted at a Dollar Tree when I was visiting my mom in Illinois. A French mani with gold tips is not really my style, but these fakes were a dollar and I think it's good to revisit assumptions now and again. Having revisited, I think my initial reaction of "not for me" was correct. These didn't look as fake in real life as they do in closeup photos, but they bothered me. I had to leave more of a gap at the base than I'd like because these were the shorter type of Nail Falsies (like the black/green ones I tried back in 2013) and my nails, while not long, aren't quite that short.