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.

Salon Perfect Bewitched Collection

Yes, Nail Wheel Wednesday is still on hiatus, and I'm still having trouble getting back into a regular blogging routine, but I'm here now with the Salon Pefect Bewitched colors from the Halloween display that showed up at some Walmart stores. Six shades here: On My Milky Way, Celestial Chic, I Need Space, Head in the Stars, Universal Glow, and Alien Apple Bobbin'. All of these are full cover glitter polishes, packed with small hex glitter in two colors.

 

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to do full hand swatches of all six of these due to the time I had available, so I was glad that the collection naturally divided into two trios that I could swatch as groups. I started with On My Milky Way (white and gold glitters), Celestial Chic (red and gold), and I Need Space (black and gold). I did a not-quite-gradient on my index finger (over a skintone creme base) and three coats of each color individually on my other fingers, topping all with a clear topcoat. These were buildable to full coverage, as you see, though when I pull them out again I want to experiment with two coats over a base that matches the non-gold glitter as I think that will look just as good and be easier to apply and remove.

 

 

 

Then I gave the same treatment to the remaining three shades: Alien Apple Bobbin' (yellow and gold), Univers-al Glow (pink and yellow), and Head in the Stars (bright pink and silver).

 

 

 

I still love glitter, so am glad I was able to get these. I can see wearing the white, red, and gold through the winter then breaking out the three brights next summer.

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Holiday Wishlist Collection

Today I have swatches of all eight of the colors from the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Wishlist collection for holiday 2021. Top row: Online Shop-bling, Living in the Presents, Gift for Blue, Snow What You Want. Bottom row: Red It Twice, Wrapped in Love, Under the Tree, Glitter to Santa. These bottles are gussied up for the holiday: the caps all have gift bows printed on them and multicolored tiny glitter embedded in them, and the labels have a silver holo background behind the Miracle Gel name.

 

The arrival of winter weather and me being out in it a lot, even with gloves almost all the time, means my nails are back to shorties for a while. I still have some swatches to post that I did before the big break/chop, but I wanted to get these holiday shades posted while it was still the holidays. Lving in the Presents is a warm milky pink with small silver glitter scattered through it. I used two coats and found it self leveled nicely especially for such a light color.

 

 

I topped Living in the Presents with Online Shop-bling, a topper with black hex glitter, rose gold skinny bar glitter, and small silver holo glitter in a clear base. I did one coat of the glitter only, no clear top coat.

 

 

Gift for Blue is a pale grey-leaning blue with the same small silver glitter as Living in the Presents. This was also a two-coater.

 

 

I paired Gift for Blue with Glitter to Santa, which has gold, silver, blue, and black hex glitter plus tiny silver holo glitter in a clear base. Again, I used one coat of the glitter topper alone.

 

 

Wrapped in Love is a raspberry shimmer. Two coats provided full coverage.

 

 

I used Online Shop-bling again over Wrapped in Love. The holo in the topper popped more over this darker base than it had over Living in the Presents.

 

Under the Tree is a deep green shimmer which can show a deep blue shift at certain angles in certain lights. I used two coats for my swatch, but one was almost enough.

 

 

I plussed Under the Tree with Snow What You Want, a topper with white glitter shards and tiny white glitter as well. This really did remind me of snow, which doesn't always come down in perfectly separated flakes but sometimes in irregular clumps.

 

 

Red It Twice is a red microglitter shimmer. Like Under the Tree, I used two coats but might have been able to get away with one. Unlike the other polishes in this collection, I used topcoat on Red It Twice as that seemed to bring out the sparkle in the shimmer.

 

 

I really like this collection. It's got the classic red one expects in a holiday release, but a really good variety of shades beyond that, from pale to deep, plus those great glitter toppers, each different from the other. Good job, Sally!

Warm Hues from Kokie Green

PR sample provided for review

 

Today I have three more shades from Kokie Green. For more on this new line from Kokie, see this post I did last month (just ignore that part at the end where I say I'll post the following week about the other ones I was sent). The trio I have for this post are Hotline, Rendezvous, and Troublemaker.

 

Hotline is a glowy orange shimmer. I used three coats for my swatch, though two would probably have been fine, too.

 

 

In direct light, the shimmer had even more of a glow to it.

 

Troublemaker is a rosy pink with pink and gold flecked shimmer. As with Hotline, I used three coats but probably could have stopped at two. I really liked the shimmer in this one; it's so pretty and adds a lot of visual interest.

 

 

 

Rendezvous is a classic red creme. I was on a roll with the three coat approach, so did that again with this swatch, and again, I likely could have done just two.

 

 

I played around a bit and did a rough gradient, sponging Troublemaker and then Hotline onto Rendezvous before I added clear topcoat. It was a bit rougher than I'd like, but the colors blended well and the gold shimmer in Troublemaker really popped on the red (the pink did too, but in a less flashy way).

 

 

I still haven't seen these "in the wild", but they are available on Kokie's website. I am hoping to run into them at some point, so I can get a good look at the other shimmers. If they're like the two in this post, I'm definitely buying them.

Kokie   Website    Facebook    Instagram

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 N14: Red Shimmers

Red shimmers were what caught my eye the last time I was in my studio, so that's what I have for this Nail Wheel Wednesday. Some are very subtle shimmers; one probably would be better on a glitter wheel. Some lean orange; some lean pink. I continually need to remind myself that perfection is not the purpose of this project. Getting all my polishes out of the bottle for at least one tip's worth is the goal, and every wheel gets me closer to it. (Not buy new polish would also help, but that's almost certainly not going to happen any time soon.)

 

1. Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Glosstinis Sangria (2 coats) [such a long name for such little bottles]
2. Christian Dior Tout Paris (1)
3. Ciate Kitten Heels (3)
4. SinfulColors Sinful Shine Shine Annie (2)
5. SpaRitual Intention (3)
6. Nicole by OPI Always a Classic Coca-Cola (2)
7. OPI The Color of Minnie (2)
8. Revlon Top Speed Orient Express (2)
9. Finger Paints Hollydazzle (2)
10. Zoya Amal (2)
11. Finger Paints Turn Out the Night (2)
12. Salon Perfect The American Sheen (2)
13. L'Oreal He Read My Mind (2)
14. L'Oreal Jennifer's Red (2)
15. Essie #essielove (2)
16. Essie Love Beverly Hills (2)
17. Essie Surpise & Delight (2)
18. Elf Red-y or Not (2)
19. Red Carpet Glitz & Glamorous (2)
20. China Glaze Ho Ho No (2)

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trying to get the shimmer to show in the shy and subtle ones: