Two Sets of imPRESS Shorties

My proclivity for fake nails continues unabated as of now. They're just so darn easy. Today I've got two different sets of imPress nails that I grabbed when I saw them on clearance. Both of them were short length.

The first set was beige solid, the perfect thing for not drawing attention to my hands, which is sometimes what I'm after. I didn't see a name on these, just the number 65042.





Here are the plain nails with an anything but plain cocktail ring my mother-in-law inherited from one of her sisters (I was helping her organize her dresser):



I wore these for 10 days; the only issue was a couple of dings in the softer material near the base, which happens sometimes when I'm using my hands for manual labor like unpacking boxes (I am starting to think I will never get through all the boxes I have in my life).



The second set I did find a name on: Glitz & Glamour. These were very light transluscent peach with blue and purple glitter tips. I should have filed down my nails a bit before I put these on, as I had trouble getting good coverage with the fakes. For my middle finger, I had to choose one wider than ideal to get length, and even then, there was a gap at the base.







Length issues aside, I did appreciate how the C-curve was a pretty good fit for me.



I was happy with both of these, especially since I got them for around $3 a set. I always check the clearance sections at drugstores (when I can find them—sometimes Rite Aid moves theirs around on me).

Essie Valentine's Day Collection

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, so I figured I'd best do my swatches of Essie's collection for the holiday. There are six shades: Crush & Blush, Galentine, Sparkles Between Us, You're So Cupid, Roses Are Red, and #essielove. All the bottles have colorful wraps on them with see through hearts and a different design for each shade. I couldn't decide which side of the wraps to show in a bottle shot, so I did them all: front, side, and back/other side (which has a small heart that wraps around the corner).



Crush & Blush is a pale pink shimmer. This is a touch on the sheer side; at three coats I still had some nail line showing.





I didn't want to wait any longer to try the three glitter toppers in this collection, so used each over Crush & Blush. Left to right: Crush & Blush alone, topped with Galentine (white and pale pink glitter with tiny red glitter accents), topped with You're So Cupid (red, hot pink, and pale pink glitter), topped with Sparkles Between Us (hot pink and orchid glitter with small red glitter accents). These laid down so smoothly that I didn't add topcoat. Galentine pairs most nicely with Crush & Blush, though the other two also work fine.





#essielove is a classic red shimmer. This was plenty opaque in two coats.





Of course #essielove got the glitter topper treatment. Left to right: on its own, plus Galentine, plus You're So Cupid, plus Sparkles Between Us.





Roses Are Red is a deep red with small bright red glitter. This one was also a two-coater, and needed topcoat to smooth it out.





Just beacuse a polish has glitter in it doesn't mean it should have more glitter added via a topper, so here's Roses Are Red alone, with Galentine, with You're So Cupid (which apparently has some big light pink hexes in its mix, though this was the first one I saw), and with Sparkles Between Us.





I tried a few more combinations with these, too. Left to right: #essielove with funky French tip of Roses Are Red (plus clear topcoat), #essielove topped with Crush & Blush, #essielove topped with Galentine then Crush & Blush (so the shimmer visually softened the glitter), #essielove topped with Sparkles Between Us and then You're So Cupid.





I like this collection. Yes, it's reds and pinks and I'm usually less enthusiastic about those shades since they're done so very often, but in this case, for a Valentine's collection, they make perfect sense. The glitter toppers add so much fun, and the way these shades can be layered keeps things interesting. I also love the fun bottle wraps; they're very festive.

Hocus Pocus Box Set

In my most recent display post, I shared a photo of a Hocus Pocus nail polish box set that I found at the Spirit of Halloween store. Despite having seen the movie only once, I went ahead and bought it, because the colors looked decent and the bottles had witch hats on them. Witch hats. My collection needed them.



Binx is a black creme base with small multi-colored glitter. I used two coats for my swatch and added clear topcoat; it was pretty shiny and smooth without topcoat but I thought adding it might bring the glitter out more. This is pretty pigmented; one thick coat would probably have been sufficient.





Binx is the only bottle that has a name on it, but the iconography makes it clear which characters the other polishes are for. Sarah Sanderson is a purple shimmer that want to call a foil finish. Whatever it is, two coats were enough to achieve opacity.







Winifred Sanderson is a green shimmer. This one was more of a glass fleck and took three coats; even then, I felt like there was some phantom nail line showing.







I addressed the nail line issue (if there was one; it's sometimes hard to tell if it's there or just a trick of the light) by adding Binx at the tips and making a funky French with Winifred.



Mary Sanderson is a copper foil finish. This was almost a one-coater but I did two to try and get the brushstrokes all lined up. I wish I'd noticed before I bought this particular set that the label on the front of this one was put on too low, so her lips are almost off the bottom of the bottle, but oh well.







For fun, I added dots of Sarah and Winifred to Mary, then slicked on clear topcoat.



For a novelty polish set, I felt the formulas of these were decent. Even if they weren't, the bottles are cute enough to make it a worthwhile purchase in my opinion.

SinfulColors Color Crave

Sure, sometime before Valentine's Day would have been ideal to post swatches of the Valentine's Day shades I got from the SinfulColors Color Crave display, but pink is always in season, right?

I only got the three new shades from the display: Candy Gram, No Heart Feelings, and I Want S'amour.



Candy Gram is a warm pink with fine blue shimmer (that looks magenta sometimes when viewed through the base color).



I used three coats of Candy Gram; two thick ones might have worked as well. The shimmer mostly disappears on the nail, at least in indirect light.



Under direct light, you can see the shimmer in Candy Gram better.



No Heart Feelings is a sheer pink with pink and gold microflakie shimmer and gold heart glitter.



I used Candy Gram as a base under No Heart Feelings, doing a funky French tip on my ring finger so I could see how the topper would look without a base under it. I did two-ish coats of No Heart Feelings plus clear topcoat. I say two-ish because I had to fish hard for the heart glitter and sometimes it took a few tries to get it where I wanted it. I felt the hearts were a bit oversized (and I don't have small hands) and thick; really would need a more beefy topcoat if I were going to wear this for a full mani and not have the hearts catch on things. The shimmer is very subtle, both on a bare nail and on the medium pink of Candy Gram.





I Want S'amour is a magenta shimmer.



I did two coats of I Want S'amour and that was ample for full coverage. The shimmer in this is a touch less subtle than Candy Gram but still hard to spot in indirect light. It was plenty shiny, though, and I think the hidden shimmer did add depth.





In direct light, the shimmer popped a bit more.



I also tried No Heart Feelings over I Want S'amour. With the somewhat darker base, the shimmer in the topper showed up more, but the heart glitter was still a problem. You can see in one of the shots below how even with a clear topcoat, the edges of the hearts are sticking out.





I'm glad that SinfulColors did something a bit different for these two new shimmers rather than the more expected red or pastel pink for Valentine's. The gold hearts in the topper are interesting, too; I just wish they were smaller and easier to get out of the bottle. Still, for $1.99, I can't complain too much. It's good that they are still doing some special stuff for holidays, unlike most other mainstreams.