Monday, June 29, 2020

Santee Platinum Shine Metallics

Finally got around to swatching the Santee Platinum Shine metallic polishes I picked up in a beauty supply store on a road trip in the Before Time. I chose five of the shades on offer: Forest Fairy, Ocean Tear, Princess Dream, Galaxy, and Emerald.

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

I did Skittles with four of the colors: Galaxy (dark silver), Princess Dream (lavender), Ocean Tear (blue), and Forest Fairy (green). Galaxy and Forest Fairy were three coats; the other two took two. All have a quite nice metallic finish ... or maybe it's a foil finish ... I am never sure where the line is between those two. Very good payoff for a $3 polish (I think that's about what they were).

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

For fun, I topped these four with Morgan Taylor Bedazzle Me (so glad I got this one; if I'd done a top 20 for last year, it would have been on it) plus clear topcoat. This glitter mix went well with all of these base shades.

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Direct light shot to show off the glitter:

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

That leaves Emerald. This is a teal-leaning green, much cooler in hue than Forest Fairy, the other green I got. I used two coats for my swatch.

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

It really sparkles and glows in direct light:

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Emerald also got the Morgan Taylor Bedazzle Me treatment.

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

Santee Platinum Shine nail polish

If I ever see these polishes again, I'll likely pick up a few more shades, as they're a good value and I like the finish.

Friday, June 26, 2020

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Fall 2019

I'm wrapping up my Halloween in July theme for this week with the Sally Hansen Insta Dri fall 2019 releases, including the four glow in the dark shades. Left to right below: Glowing Night, Happy Hollow-een, Boooo-tiful, Hallo-Green, Get the Gold, Leaf Lined Trail.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Halloween Fall 2019

I started my swatching with Leaf Lined Trail, a soft orange with gold shimmer. I bought this because I want to support brands coming out with new colors at a time when many drugstore lines have backed away from polish and because I couldn't think of another shade like this in my stash (I mean, there might very well be one, given the size of my collection, but I couldn't think of it). This was plenty opaque in two coats. Sadly, the shimmer was way more shy on the nail than in the bottle, though it did show on the nail in my lightbox, I just had to look very closely.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Leaf Lined Trail

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Leaf Lined Trail

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Leaf Lined Trail

I found it curious that the shimmer maintained its demure character even in the glare of direct light ... usually that helps subtle shimmer pop at least a bit. But Leaf Lined Trail kept itself to itself.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Leaf Lined Trail

I passed on Get the Gold at first, since I know for sure I have other gold metallics and rarely wear those. Still, I grabbed it when I saw it on clearance because by that point, I'd bought the rest of the new colors and you know how I love to have complete sets. I was pleasantly surprised to find this particular gold is a one-coater; I know the Insta Dri line generally has good coverage (that's why they work well for stamping), but I almost always use two coats because I think it looks better. This time I did one and called it good.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Get the Gold

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Get the Gold

Then it was time to get into the glow in the dark ones. I charged up the bottles under bright light for a few minutes then closeted myself in the dark bathroom for a group shot. Left to right: Glowing Night, Happy Hollow-een, Boooo-tiful, and Hallo-Green. Happy Hollow-een sure has the best glow, which makes sense since it's the one that has only the yellowish glow in the dark pigment in it, with no other tint or tone.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Glow in the Dark

I expected Happy Hollow-een to be on the sheer side based on my experience with similar polishes, so used it over Get the Gold on most of my digits. Top to bottom below: 3 coats of Happy Hollow-een on its own, then 2 coats of it over Get the Gold on the remaining three fingers. It barely changes the gold, just makes it a little softer.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Happy Hollow-een

In the dark, the best glow came from the finger with only Happy Hollow-een on it, though the other three weren't too far behind (and those three definitely looked better in the light, which is how they'd be seen most often if I wore this as a full mani).

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Happy Hollow-een

I took the same accent nail approach with Boooo-tiful (I keep wanted to make that only have three o's but it has four according to the bottle), though it wasn't as sheer as Happy Hollow-een owing to the orange pigment in it. Top to bottom: three coats of Boooo-tiful, then three fingers with two coats of Boooo-tiful over Leaf Lined Trail.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri  Boooo-tiful

In the dark, this glowed quite nicely, more than I expected based on the bottle shot.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri  Boooo-tiful

Glowing Night was up next, and it has a surprise: shimmer! That's unusual for a glow in the dark polish, at least in my collection.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri  Glowing Night

I paired Glowing Night with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Flamin-go, a medium pink you can see on its own in my comparison post from last year. Top to bottom: three coats of Glowing Night alone, then two coats of it over Flamin-go. Unlike the first two glow in the dark shades, I would wear this one alone; something about the pink and the sparkle makes the sheerness work for me.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri  Glowing Night

In the dark, the glow was again better than I expected based on the bottle shot; I thought I'd charged them all up equally for that, but perhaps they don't charge/discharge at the same rate so that accounts for the differences. When doing the swatches, I probably charged longer than I had for the bottles alone as I wanted to make sure they would last while I was snapping multiple photos.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri  Glowing Night

Here's a better look at Glowing Night on the nail without the distraction of the bottle; you can definitely see where I didn't get all the pink creme covered in some places!

Sally Hansen Insta Dri  Glowing Night

Hallo-green is the most pigmented of the glow in the dark ones, yet I still paired it with a complementary Insta Dri shade, Granny Smith Apple, which was on a recent nail wheel I posted. Index finger is three coats of Hallo-green and the other digits have one coat of Granny Smith Apple topped with one coat of Hallo-green.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri  Hallo-greent

And here's the dark shot, very glowy:

Sally Hansen Insta Dri  Hallo-greent

I'd wear the pink and green glow in the dark shades by themselves; the other two I'd rather use as toppers, though at only one or two coats, they give a sort of speckled look in the dark (I'm guessing because the glow in the dark pigment doesn't disperse fully so more coats are needed to fill in the gaps?).

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Wheel Y12: Indie Glitters from Polish Revolution

I knew the maker behind the now-gone indie brand Polish Revolution; we're still Facebook friends but the nail polish community we interacted most on is long gone, victim of the admin having some life changes and not handing it off to anyone else. It might have died on its own by now even if she had; FB and Twitter and other social media have taken over from the more intimate spaces I and others once frequented online. At least I have these polishes to remember those good times.

I didn't have quite enough non-crelly glitters from Polish Revolution to fill out this wheel, so slipped in one from Pretty Jelly, an indie brand I only have a few shades from picked up in swaps back when that was a more common thing.

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

(all 3 coats of glitter plus clear topcoat)

1. Polish Revolution The Fire Sermon
2. Polish Revolution Unicorn Johnson
3. Polish Revolution What Alice Found [love the color combination in this one; has just the right amount of gold to pop against the purple]
4. Polish Revolution You Better WERK
5. Polish Revolution Having a Kiki
6. Polish Revolution Glittoris [so much square glitter in one place ... very special]
7. Polish Revolution The Hyacinth Girl [I swatched this over dark green here]
8. Polish Revolution Bad Ass Mother Trucker
9. Polish Revolution Reading is Fundamental
10. Polish Revolution Underground Movement
11. Polish Revolution The Sea Was Boiling Hot
12. Polish Revolution Looking Glass Logic
13. Polish Revolution F'ing Classy
14. Polish Revolution Glitter Herpes
15. Polish Revolution What the Thunder Said [this has round glitter in it that I neglected to get out of the bottle due to my forgetting it needs to be fished out]
16. Polish Revolution Surprise
17. Polish Revolution Vajazzle
18. Polish Revolution Scared of Clowns
19. Polish Revolution Puffy Taco [a lot going on here and it works]
20. Pretty Jelly Wildflowers


Bottles 1 through 4 (since the labels cover the polish, I did side views, too):

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

5 through 7:

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

8 through 10:

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

11 through 14:

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

15 through 17:

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

18 through 20:

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish

Polish Revolution indie nail polish