Halloween Season Nails of the Day

This month, I've managed to wear three Halloween holiday designs of Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips from my hoard. I feel a little sad to be using them up, as there aren't any new ones coming out, definitely not from Sally Hansen, who doesn't even have non-seasonal strips anymore, nor have I seen any seasonal strips from Incoco at Walgreens like I used to—not all stores had them, but they were around if I hunted and now they're not. Color Street (an Incoco brand) has Halloween designs but I'm uncomfortable with the multi-level marketing direct sales business model. Oh well. Maybe by the time I deplete my stash, the cycle will have come around again and more strips will be in stores.

Ghoulie Girl, with a tiled design of ghosts in traditional white and innovative orange accented in black, was first up earlier this month.



Not too long after applying the ghosts, I tore off part of the strip on one of my thumbnails (yes, still haven't broken myself of the habit of using them as tools) and was able to cover up the problem by using a piece of one of the leftover strip ends (which I usually save at least until I take the strips off), stuck on with clear polish and then topcoated.



Batty for You came next; this has black bats on a rich warm purple background that has a slight shimmer to it.



I was planning to (and did) wear these to a party a couple days after I applied them, so for extra assurance they'd still look good, I added Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat to them. Since the strips were shiny on their own, the topcoat didn't change the look but did seem to keep the strips in good shape a bit longer than usual.



I'm finishing up the month with Patch-o-Lanterns, which has black and orange jack o' lantern faces.



I've had these last ones on for almost a week at this point and the tips are looking a little worn, so I think I'll add a black funky French later today so they look good for the actual holiday.

So Many NOTD, So Little Polish

With all the travel I've been doing in recent months, once again I've turned to fake nails and nail polish strips to adorn my digits between swatching sessions. I certainly have and will travel with liquid polish, but sometimes it's nice to just toss a few boxes of nails and strips in my luggage and not worry about breakage or spills.

I've worn Sally Hansen Salon Effects in The Bold Rush before; the gold to plummy purple gradient is pretty, but not as pretty as the box, which has a strong scattered holo effect not evident on the strips themselves.





A set of NailBliss Magic Press fake nails in the Runaway Star design came next; I'd worn these before as well. The box has three finishes of nails: pale pink creme, white iridescent, and gold/iridescent glitter.



When I first put these on, I used only the pale pink and the glitter ones.



Four days later, I'd popped off and lost one of the pink nails and decided to go ahead and mix in the iridescent white.



I went super subtle with the next set of fakes, some Nailene So Natural ones I'd gotten ages ago when one of the drugstores had them on clearance.



By this point, my natural nails had grown out enough that I couldn't cover them with the fakes without leaving a bit more of a gap at the base than would be ideal. (Yes, I could have filed my nails but I hate to give up length if I don't have to, and these nails were so neutral I thought the gap wouldn't be too noticeable.) These had just a touch of shimmer to them that made them not entirely boring.



These lasted a long time, with only a couple needing re-attachment during the eight days I wore them. Here they are on that eighth day:



Lately instead of using nail glue or double-sided sticky tabs to replace fakes that I pop off (and I usually do pop one or two off within a couple days, as I have yet to break my habit of using my nails as tools, particularly the index and thumbs), I've been just putting on a thick coat of treatment polish and using that to put the fake nail back on. It's not as strong as nail glue, certainly, but it's kinder to my nails and easier to remove when it's time to change my manicure.

Nails of Days Past

Having caught up with the swatching I did last year, now it's time for a NOTD spam post with the 2017 manicures still in my photo files.

Let's kick things off with some flash: China Glaze Pre-Glued Nails in Silver Chrome. I got these on clearance at Sally Beauty; for $3.99, I figured why not give them a go. I'm so glad I did, because I really liked these. They were thin as fake nails go, and the glue was great—I had no loose nails and none popping off in the five days I wore them. It did take me a couple nails to figure out which end was the base and which the tip, with the ones I put on wrong way round catching in my hair at the base since the glue didn't extend all the way to that end. Lesson learned. The silver coating did start to peel at the tips after about four days, but with the rest of the nail still being crazy shiny, it was hard to notice that. Plus, the nails were very easy to file, so I could just remove the parts where the silver was missing (until I got to my natural nail underneath, of course).



I still have so very many Essie Sleek Sticks to use up (or throw out or do something with), so I wore Embrace the Lace for a few days. They were hard to put on smoothly, and got tipwear almost immediately (at least that didn't show too much since they were close to my natural nail color).



I did another round of fake nails with some purple Smart Girl ones I'd picked up on clearance somewhere. These were labelled "medium length" but they looked long to me. They fit my nails well and were pretty thin, but the adhesive wasn't as secure as the China Glaze fakes (maybe because it wasn't pre-applied to the nails but instead was in the form of tabs that weren't as long as my natural nails in all cases).



Incoco Nail Polish Appliques in Reckless, a black on purple plaid design, graced my nails next. I wait to use Incoco strips until I need to change my pedicure, since then I get full use out of the package (I haven't had much luck re-sealing the package to use the second half later).



Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips in Disk-o Queen followed the Incoco. This gold glitter with wine half moon design was a bit sheer at the tips and the glitter was not holo as shown on the box, but they did sparkle nicely.



After filing away some peelies, I put a winter favorite on next: Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Snow Bunny.



I finished out the year in Incoco strips in Silent Night, a blue and purple glitter mix. I failed to get a really good photo of these; I liked them very much, so it's a shame this shade has been discontinued.



And now that I've caught up, I can think about doing a Top 20 (or 10 or something list). Then I can move on to 2018 swatches and nails of the day ... only a month into the new year!

Strips on the Road

You may have noticed Nail Wheel Wednesday was once again not a thing this week. This time it was due to a winter storm that dumped lots of snow which meant great skiing but was not so great for power lines and internet connections. Looking on the bright side, not having internet meant I had fewer distractions from shoveling off our decks, which looked like this after the storm was done storming.



For today, I have some nails of the day to catch up on. As per usual, I've been going with strips (and fakes, but those are for another post).

I really like these Sally Hansen Salon Effects Strips in the Queen Cobra design, which is a brown and gold snakeskin print. I seem to be getting over my aversion to gold on my fingertips.



Queen Cobra did show some little sparks of color, which unfortunately I only managed to get on camera after I'd worn them for six days so forgive the tip wear and base gap, please.



Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Headbanger went on next. These have black skull and crossbones on a pink glitter background.



Yes, definitely embracing gold in a way I haven't before—Salon Effects in The Bold Rush, a gold to purple glitter gradient went on after Headbanger.



I especially liked these with a tie-dye t-shirt I took from my mom's wardrobe when I was cleaning out her house.



My Halloween nails were Salon Effects Patch-o-Lantern, black jack o'lantern faces on orange. I put these on in the car on our road trip.



Yeah, I took a skeleton sock monkey on the trip with me. As one does.



My nails seemed to thrive on our trip; I went with just treatment for a few days.



Salon Effects Girl Flower seemed to fit the warm weather we had during the Florida part of our road trip.



Here they are with an odd jar of silk flower parts floating in water that was in the condo we rented in Kissimmee.



The last look of my trip was Salon Effects Antique Chic, which coordinated really well with the dining table in that Kissimmee condo.





That brings me to less than a month behind on nails of the day sharing, so I'm happy.

Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating! I'll be back post-holiday with the usual mix of displays and wheels and swatches and NOTD.

A Tale of Two Sleek Sticks

A little while back, I wanted to do a mani that didn't need to last long as I had plans for a swatching session, so I turned to the strips which have in the past given me a short wear time: Essie Sleek Stick.
I pulled a package of Steel the Show from my stash (I bought a bunch of these when they showed up at Dollar Tree some time ago); these have a light grey base with a silver honeycomb-like design. They applied much more easily than I remembered, with little wrinkling at the sides.



I liked that they coordinated so nicely with the purse I've been carrying lately:



For one reason or another, the swatching session got put off, so I was still wearing these six days later, and they didn't look too hideous. Yes, there was some tipwear, but the strips were about as pale as my nails, so it didn't show too badly, and it had worn off smoothly so I wasn't bothered by the feel of it. I was quite surprised I hadn't had to peel these off after two or three days.



Encouraged by my experience with the silver strips, after I did that swatching session, I pulled another set of Sleek Stick out to use. This time it was Stick with Style, a peachy solid with irregularly shaped dots in a regular pattern. These were much more what remembered: thick and prone to wrinkling around the edges. They didn't look that great even just after I put them on.



Two days later I had wear at my tips that was rough and catching on things and bothering me, so I took them off. These peel off without hurting the nail underneath, and I was ready to get them off that I did my right hand before I remembered I wanted a photo for the blog.



I guess what we learned is you take your chances when you use Essie nail stickers. That might be why they didn't stick around too long as part of Essie's product line. You can still find them online (I came across lots of 50 sets for $50 on a wholesale website), but I wouldn't bother. There are better strips out there, like Incoco.

Summer 2017 NOTD: Strips & Fakes

It's officially fall now, so it's past time for me to clear out my nails of the day folders from summer. I probably won't quite be able to do that all today, but I'm determined to make a big, big dent by cramming as many of the strips and fake nails into this post as I can before I run out of steam.

MOB (Ministry of Beauty) Ultra Reflect nails in the iridescent white colorway were one of my attempts to save my nails from the trauma of travel. Yep, same story as other times I've worn these: they're still not sized or shaped to be a perfect fit for me, but the finish is shiny and pretty and gives me something to look at when I need a micro-break.



If you thought the MOB nails looked ultra-fake, these Maybelline Nail Falsies in the Plum Sunset design are going to require even stronger language. Really truly ultra-fake, maybe?



The last set of fakes for summer were leftover imPress ones; I hadn't kept the box so not sure what the design is called, if it even had a name.



After the fakes, it's strips all the way down. One of my favorite Sally Hansen Salon Effects designs, Ring Toss, took a turn on my nails. I need to find and buy a stamping plate like this; I'm sure there is one.



My nails were doing pretty well length-wise when I wore Salon Effects in Fly With Me, a nice summery design of butterflies. I thing I added clear top coat to these to increase wear time, though since I didn't take notes, just photos, I can't be 100% sure. The top coat bottle could have ended up the photo for some other reason, like I didn't put it away after doing a pedicure.



When I put on Salon Effects in Cut It Out, I had every intention of coloring in some of the flowers before I took them off, but alas, I didn't make time to do that. The design is still good in its original black and white mode, just would have been fun to add my own color as I have before.



The quilt-like Salon Effect in Geome-trick had its own colors, no adding them necessary.



I wore the glittery Frock Star Salon Effects strips while the family was here for the reunion—all the colors meant they didn't clash with any of my clothes and I have enough multi glitters that I could touch up any wear and tear easily. I put clear topcoat on these to add to the wear time.



I had Frock Star on when I did my first color run; my skin got a bit stained by the color powder but the mani looked fine.



I'll wrap up for today with Salon Effects in Out of Line, which I put on after a few weeks of sporting nubbins thanks to all the manual labor involved in doing the final clear out of my mom's house.



I found some socks that coordinated perfectly with these strips; almost bought them then remembered I won't be wearing this design more than a few times more, unless I find some huge stash of strips somewhere and buy them up.



I am in no danger of running out of strips or fakes in the near future, so will keep turning to them for NOTD looks, as I like being able to finish up my manicure while watching tv with Mr. Karen in the evening, and liquid polish fumes aren't his jam. (Hi, I'm old and use lingo from years ago.)

Mostly Purple NOTD

I haven't had much time for swatching recently, but I have still been doing my nails, at least most of the time. Usually it's been strips or fakes, but sometimes liquid polish gets in the action, as with the nails of the day I'm sharing today.

This started out simply, with Sally Hansen Salon Effects Strips in Good Morning Glory, one of my favorite patterns. Since a lot of my clothes have purple in them, this white with purple floral usually coordinates nicely with what I'm wearing.





I thought it went especially well with this non-purple outfit I wore to a party (yes, those are figures from Disney's Haunted Mansion—one woman at the party recognized them, even).



The strips weren't quite up to the abuse I put them through; instead of touching them up with white polish as I've done before, I took them off and put on L'Oreal Violet de Nuit, one of the Le Vernis à L'Huile shades I got when I was in Canada this past summmer. This was a dream to apply, so smooth, and nearly a one coater, though I used two, topped with NYC Grand Central Station quick dry top coat.





The twist is that I didn't take off all the strips; I left ones that were in better shape as accent nails. For some reason I didn't take photos of that, though, so all I have is this shot before I took off the whole mani.



Based on this, I'm wishing I'd gotten more of these L'Oreal shades, even though I already have so many cremes. I did get one other one, so hope to use that soon, and Canada isn't that far away so I could go up and grab more.