Ardell Nail Addict Sun Kissed Nails

As usual, I had the best of intentions for posting more here now that I'm home, except I've been sick. I spent the first week after I got home thinking I was just tired from travel. Then I woke up with a swollen, red, goopy eye and decided I needed to get that checked out. I also had some bug bites that were not healing well, so I had the doctor look a those too. She gave me some antibiotics for the infection she diagnosed, and I took those for almost another week, feeling worse and worse rather than better. I went back to the doctor's this past Friday and saw a different professional and got some different drugs and have slowly been feeling better. Still don't know exactly what I've got, as the first sample they took wasn't usable when it got to the lab. Hoping to hear on the second sample when I go back on Wednesday. I have enough energy now to do more than huddle on the couch under a blanket, so today I've got one of the sets of fake nails I wore on my recent trip, the Ardell Nail Addict Sun Kissed in Color Cadet.

 

These came with nail glue only, but I used adhesive tabs instead since I continue to think they're less damaging to my nails. The fit and base shape of these worked pretty well with my own nails, though they were a tiny bit too square at the base. The pinky peach color indoors went nicely with my skintone, if maybe being a bit unexciting. The nail material was a bit on the sheer side, which meant some air bubbles between the adhesive tabs and the nails showed through, as well as my nail tips, which were shorter than the fakes. It bothered me at first but after a while I stopped noticing it, and I don't think anyone else saw those details the way I do.

 

In filtered sun, hints of pink showed up.

 

In full sun, they went to a light magenta.

 

I kept hoping I'd see the deeper purple shown on the box, but I never caught them doing that in the week I wore them. Here they are at a rest area somewhere along the road.

 

These stayed on pretty well with the tabs and the color change aspect was fun. I'd wear this style again.

Across the Ocean and Back Again

Hello! I am back from my month-long vacation which took me to/through 15 states plus one country outside of the U.S. It was a journey with a lot of different events and modes of transportation which took me and Mr. Karen to places both familiar to us and new. I put neutral (but a tiny bit sparkly because I'm me) polish on my toes and packed fake nails for my fingers and off I went. A few days before we left, I put on this set from imPress called Wash Away. It has light blue solid nails, light blue with tiny iridescent glitter nails, and light blue with a turquoise and navy flower and butterfly design nails. These started out medium length and square, but I cut and shaped them so they felt more comfortable and practical for me, as I often do with the longer fake nails.

 

Still looking good on day 6 (with the limited edition "XP Flavored" Coke limited edition).

 

I had a few nails loosen and need new adhesive tabs during the week I wore the blue set, so pretty standard. The next set of nails I used were from the Kiss Gel Fantasy Allure line. The box didn't have a name on it, but I looked online and these appear to be called How Dazzling. They have multi-sized iridescent glitter on a translucent ivory base. (The box was a bit worse for wear after being stuffed in a pocket of my suitcase for a week at that point.)

 

I used adhesive tabs for these, not the glue that came with them. I clipped and shaped them as I had the blue set. On the left, as they came from the box. On the right, how I wore them.

 

I wore the glittery nails for the whole second week of the trip. When it was time to change, I reached for a set I'd gotten off the Temu app, where they were described as "Press On Nails, Short Square Fake Nails, Beige French False Nails with Glitter Design, Glossy Clear Full Cover Acrylic Nails for Women and Girls; Color: Beige Cat Eye, Style: Gentle". The picture didn't appear to match a lot of those words, but for $3.48 I was willing to risk it.

 

These came with adhesive tabs. They were not short, so I clipped and filed them. They were a bit sheer, so before I shortened them, a hint of my natural nail tips showed through the fake nails in strong light.

 

Six days later, I hadn't lost a single nail. Those adhesive tabs were strong. I'm sure it helped that I didn't have my laptop with me, so wasn't banging my nails on a keyboard for a few hours a day like I tend to do at home.

 

I'd planned to change my nails again before the next phase of our trip, a seven-night transatlantic cruise, but they were holding up so well, I still had them on the day we boarded, a week after I'd applied them.

 

I figured I'd change to the last set I'd packed when I started to lose the beige cat eye ones as the adhesive got weakened, but they just kept hanging in there, so I ended up wearing them for the whole cruise and the multi-day drive home from New York to Idaho. There was definitely a gap at the base of my nails by that time, but given the neutral color of the nails it wasn't too noticeable.

 

On the trip, I was really trying to focus on experiences rather than buying things, so even though I saw polish and fake nails I don't have easy access to at home, I bought none of them. I'm kind of amazed at my self-control. I will have a display post up once I get through all the photos; hoping that won't take too long.

Spring Colors from Kokie

Products provided for review

 

Well hello again. I'm recently back from my not officially summer yet vacation, a road trip from Idaho to Illinois and back again. In a bold move, I left my laptop at home, which meant, among other things, that I was able to wear longer fake nails than usual, but that's a story for another day. The story for today is that Kokie kindly sent me some polishes in colors perfect for spring. Left to right: Iris, Rock Star, Crown Jewel, Classic, Georgia Peach, All the Envy.

 

I started with Classic, a pale milky peach crelly. This was buildable; I did four coats but could have stopped at three for a faux French mani look. This is indeed classic. I wore similar polishes for years early in my career as an accountant when I was trying to fit the mold of a serious businesswoman.

 

Nothing like dots to quickly add color, so I decorated with Georgia Peach, Iris, and All the Envy before adding clear topcoat.

 

Iris is a light lilac creme. This one covered in two coats.

 

I topped Iris with Crown Jewel, which has blue and holographic blue glitter in a sheer gold shimmer base. (I knew this would work because I swatched a different bottle of it over another light cool creme back in 2019. Because I was craving sparkle, I used two coats of Crown Jewel and added clear topcoat to bring out the bling even more.

 

All the Envy is a medium green creme. I used two coats for my swatch.

 

I put one coat of Crown Jewel on top of All the Envy and added topcoat to that. The somewhat deeper base brought out the gold in Crown Jewel more than Iris had.

 

I combined Rock Star, a warm lavender flecked shimmer, and Georgia Peach, a light red-leaning orange creme, into a funky French look alternating with Georgia Peach alone. Rock Star took three coats and Georgia Peach two. I did add topcoat to the funky French nails to smooth the line between the polishes. This look does say spring to me. If you want to see Rock Star on its own, I swatched a bottle I bought myself back in 2019 (and also topped it with another Kokie shimmer/glitter topper).

 

Given that Rock Star was three coats, I wondered if it would work as a topper, so I laid down a base of two coats of Iris and added one coat of Rock Star to all but my index finger. I really liked the combination. Rock Star warmed up Iris just a tiny bit, and Iris brought out the pale golden shimmer in Rock Star.

 

These are all nice polishes; good basic cremes and some bling to liven them up. It's nice that Kokie doesn't seem to discontinue things too quickly, given that I got two of these colors four years ago and you can get them today. The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Hip Chic Semi-Cured Gel Nail Strips

I haven't made display hunting a priority for a while, what with so many mainstream beauty brands no longer putting out seasonal collections meaning there's not much to find and thus no dopamine hits for me. Still, habits are hard to break, so whenever I'm in a store that carries nail polish, I tend to drift to that section regardless. On a trip to Fred Meyer, I stopped at the clearance bins and found a whole bunch of boxes with Hip Chic Semi-Cured Gel Nail Strips in them. I'd never seen them at full price, so that's a sign I am shopping way less often than I used to. I figured it was a sign I should try them, so I bought a starter kit with the LED lamp in it (despite having at least two other LED lamps somewhere in my stash) and several sets of strips. I've now used these strips three times over the past two months so felt it was time to share. There was still plenty of snow around when I tried these the first time, so I chose the Freezing Blossom set, which has light blue with silver microglitter strips with two kinds of accent nails: white with snowperson faces and clear with white snowflakes.

 

 

The lamp that came with the starter kit was wide enough to get four nails at a time in, then my two thumbs side to side. The legs fold flat for storage.

 

These strips were even thicker than the Dashing Diva Gloss Gel strips I used earlier this year. That was good for covering the ridges in my nails but made it more difficult to remove the excess length of the strips. Rather than folding and filing as I usually do with strips, with these clipping as close to the end of my nails as I could and then filing worked better. I used only the blue and clear strips for my look, mostly because I didn't like the placement of the snowperson faces on the white strips.

 

 

I liked the look of these, and after they were cured felt almost as hard as fake nails. Unfortunately, they also popped off like fake nails. I lost the first ones just a few days after I'd applied them. The clear strips seemed most likely to pop off. With the first one, I tried reattaching like I would a fake nail, but that didn't really work, as they just popped off again. Fortunately there were enough extra strips that I could just put a new one on and cure it.

 

A few days after the popping off started, I got some chips, like sometimes happens with traditional polish. Here you can see one on my thumb that I'd tried to disguise with liquid polish and one on my index finger. I removed these shortly after I took these pictures, using oil to loosen the bond of the strips and then gently prying them off with a manicure stick per the instructions. Six days of wear wasn't too bad, I suppose.

 

The instructions caution against using these strips continuously (bit a of a warning sign there?), so I waited before trying the next set, My Dear. This has solid red strips, red with white hearts, red with red hearts on a clear background in a sort of reverse French mani arrangement, and red and white checkboards with hearts.

 

I did mostly the solid red strips, with one accent nail per hand. I thought maybe I'd overcured the first set; the directions said to use the lamp 2 to 3 times, so I did 3. I did 2 rounds of 60 seconds with these and they held up better. Whether that was because of the reduced curing leaving them a bit more flexible, or the lack of full length clear strips, or what, I'm not sure.

 

 

I used the strips from the starter kit most recently. These are called Be Born and are all solid warm beige. I did have issues with these starting to pop off after a few days. Maybe my natural nails are just too thin and flexible to make a good base for these.

 

I did have issues with this last set starting to pop off after a few days. Maybe my natural nails are just too thin and flexible to make a good base for these, or maybe I was just too hard on them this time (I was at a craft conference where I was doing a fair bit of macrame). I'd never used this type of strip before. I like the concept; they're easy to apply and with the curing, should hold up better than strips that don't work that way. Similar to the Sally Hansen Salon Insta Gel Strips but without the hassle of a liquid gel topcoat. I do wonder if they're not good for my nails. I'm back to shorties now because when I took the last set of these strips off my natural nails were in rough shape and I had to file them down. I can't be sure that's the strips' fault, though, as I've battled weak nails and peelies what feels like forever. I'm thinking I may try removing them like gel polish next time—roughing up the surface to break the seal then doing the foil method—rather than popping them off and potentially taking the top layer of my nail surface off with the strips.

Some Nails of the Day

So yeah, hi. I did disappear from here for September. As often happens, I didn't plan to, just put other things ahead of nail stuff on my priority list either due to necessity (nail stuff can be put off in a way that getting my car repaired cannot) or due to travel (I returned last week from last long trip of the year), and the longer I don't blog, the harder it feels to get back to it. Which is why I'm going to come back with a little NOTD post rather than trying to clear my backlog of display photos. I hope that if I can get this post done and published, working on the display one won't feel so daunting. When my nails grow out to what I consider my ideal length, the short length of imPress fakes don't provide the coverage I need, so I have to go with the medium length. Those have a more limited selection of designs, but I can still find things I like, such as the white with blue accents set called Riviera Paradise. I do find the medium length a bit long, so I clip and file them a bit so they feel right for me (and don't interfere with typing on my laptop).

 

I followed up that set with one called Indigo Autumn. Here they are out of the box, before I clipped and filed:

 

And after clipping and filing to reshape to look more like my natural nails:

 

For a palate cleanser, I used imPress Color in Sweet Love. These are clipped and filed to be less coffin-y:

 

On my nails right now I have a set of Kiss Gel Fantasy in a pink and silver glitter design. I don't have to clip this length shape that much; usually I just do my thumbs and middle fingers since those see disproportionately long for some reason (maybe because those are the fingers I tend to break the nails on most when I'm not wearing fakes). I like this more square shape since it protects the sides and corners of my natural nails better but they're harder to find in medium length than the coffins and other pointy shapes.

 

I haven't given up on regular polish, it's just the fakes are so easy to deal with when traveling or short on time at home. And no chipping to worry about, just losing nails once in a while and replacing them is fast and easy (less so when I actually lose the nail and have to clip and file the replacement, but still, easier than dealing with redoing liquid polish away from home.

Kokie Green Trio

Sample provided for review

 

Kokie has sent me several more polishes from their Green line, which is plant-based, bio-sourced, vegan, and cruelty free. (To see the ones they sent previously, see here and here.) Today I have Tan Line, Moonbeam, and Coffee Break.

 

Coffee Break is a light warm milky brown creme. It's not quite rosy enough to be "mannequin hands" on me, but it's a good neutral look for my skintone nonetheless.

 

 

Tan Line is a dark orange shimmer.

 

 

 

Moonbeam is a white cream. I feel a good white cream is essential for any nail polish collection.

 

 

For fun, I added dots of Tan Line and Coffee Break to Moonbeam, then added clear topcoat to smooth everything over.

 

 

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The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Wheel Z14: Skintone Cremes for Light- to Medium-Complected People

Today's installment of Nail Wheel Wednesday is testament to how convincing I am when I tell myself things like "you can always use it as a base under sheers" when I buy the umpteenth variation on a "nude" creme.

 

1. Butter London Nude Stilettos (3 coats)
2. Bonita Salon Once Upon a Time (3)
3. Jessica Pink Lemonade (3)
4. Inocos Pequeno Ponei Fofinho (3) [I remember this being more pink; I guess it's degraded over time]
5. Zoya Ana
6. Color Club Undress to Impress (3)
7. Color Club Feelin' Free (2)
8. Color Club Who Gives a Buck (2)
9. Color Club DM Nudes (2)
10. Color Club Let It All Out (2)
11. Fresh Paint Fight Like a Girl (2) [another one that started out pink, now is not so much pink]
12. Essie Perennial Chic (2)
13. Rescue Beauty Lounge Opaque Nude (2)
14. Color Club Nothing But a Smile (2)
15. Maybelline Color Show Beach Blossom (3)
16. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Au Nature-al (3)
17. Sally Hansen New Lengths Cameo Creme (2)
18. Revlon Colorstay Sandy Nude (3)
19. Essie Brides to Be (3)
20. Zoya Cathy (1)

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20: