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.

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.

 

 

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.

Sally Hansen x Peeps Insta Dri Collection

Yes, Easter was a while ago, but I bought the Sally Hansen x Peeps colors and wanted to at least Skittles swatch them before they went into the queue to get on nail wheels. Left to right: PEEPS White, PEEPS Pink, PEEPS Lavender, PEEPS Blue, PEEPS Yellow, PEEPS Fruit Punch, PEEPS Sparkly Wild Berry.

 

I did the White, Pink, Blue, and Lavender together. They were what I expected from Insta Dri, plenty opaque in two coats. I'm sure I've bought the white at least a half dozen times now under new names each time it's re-released. That's okay. A good reasonably priced white is a good find. I probably have close enough shades for the others, maybe not all in the Insta Dri line, but didn't take the time to do comparisons because I didn't really want to know.

 

Sparkly Wild Berry is a topper with pink metallic and white matte hex glitters in various sizes.

 

I put one coat of Sparkly Wild Berry on top of the Skittles then added clear topcoat. The white glitter got lost on the white creme base of course, but on the other bases, Sparkly Wild Berry looked good.

 

 

Looking at the two cremes left, I didn't want to just swatch them on alternate fingers, and while Yellow would play nicely with Pink and Blue and Lavender, Fruit Punch seemed the odd one out. Then I remembered I'd bought Sprinkle Sprinkle, a crelly glitter with sky blue, soft orange, and golden yellow hexes in it.

 

I put Sprinkle Sprinkle on my index and pinky fingers, with Yellow and Fruit Punch in between. Neither of those cremes quite matches the glitter, but they both coordinate well enough. All were two coats.

 

I'm thinking I should do a couple wheels with Insta Dri cremes to carry around in my car so I can bring them into the store any time Sally Hansen does a new collection and perhaps not buy so many look alikes, but that probably won't work anyway. I have mostly managed to not re-buy the Pride colors every year, so that's something. This year I only got two, the orange and the brown. But that's another post, if I ever get around to it.

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!

Wheel S14: Dusty Peachy Shimmers

Just a few days after I got back from my big road trip around Idaho, I left for a long weekend in Portland, further disrupting my blogging. I'm back now, with no overnight travel plans until August, so we'll see if I can get back in a groove, starting with re-starting Nail Wheel Wednesday with a group of dusty peachy shimmers, many of them quite pale, a few that venture into "ballet pink" territory. I wore a lot of these kinds of polish in the mid- to late 80s, when I was newly out of college and busy making my way in the professional world. I thought bright colors would make me seem less serious. Oh, how much my ideas have changed since then. Not so much that I don't still buy these sorts of polishes; they're just a small part of my repertoire now instead of the whole show.

 

1. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Perfect Pair (3 coats)
2. Essie Time for Me Time (3)
3. Maybelline Express Finish Pink-a-colada (3) [this one may have faded; I'm not sure]
4. LCN 43179-FD4 (3) [probably has a name but I couldn't find it, just the code on the back label]
5. Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Pulled Sugar (3)
6. SinfulColors Glass Pink (3)
7. SinfulColors SinfulShine Kommando (2)
8. Wet 'n' Wild Beauty Benefits unnamed (3)
9. Revlon Brilliant Strength Enchant (3)
10. Funky Fingers Hiss and Makeup (3)
11. SinfulColors Pinksicle (3)
12. Maybelline Salon Finish Pink Perle (3)
13. Wet 'n' Wild Megalast Sophisticated Lady (2)
14. Funky Fingers Crazy 4 U (3)
15. Essence Nude Glam Iced Strawberry Cream (2)
16. SinfulColors Tutu (3)
17. Cult Nails Enticing (3)
18. Ciaté Dolls House (3)
19. Mattése Elite Pointe Shoes (3)
20. Sally Hansen Triple Shine Clam Up (3)

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20: