Sally Hansen Salon Effects Perfect Manicure Nails, Part 2

I shared a while back about my experiences with the oval and square shapes of the Sally Hansen Perfect Manicure fake nail. Today I have a set of the almond shaped ones called Sweet as Candy, which has nails in five pastel creme shades: lavender, peach, yellow, blue, and pink.

 

When I got to selecting nails that fit me, I was surprised to see that nails in the same size weren't necessarily the same color as each other. I noticed it with the three or four biggest sizes. That's a bit unusual; in most sets, if there are only two of a size, they'll match. So I couldn't make my hands match each other, which is fine, especially for a Skittles set like this. Here's my right hand (the thumbnail is lavender):

 

And my left (the thumbnail is peach):

 

I wish I'd swapped the middle and thumb colors left to right, so there would have been more warm/cool balance on my non-thumb digits, but that probably wouldn't bother most people. As far as fit goes, these were pretty good for me, though I wished the bases were a bit narrower especially on the size that was the closest match to my middle finger. The shape is not my favorite, what with the scratchy point (even after I smoothed with the included file). The tip also curves down, maybe to make the point less likely to stab something.

 

I know I could probably get used to the shape and the length—indeed, I did type on my laptop with them on—but after a few hours, I clipped and filed them into more of an oval shape. Ah, much better for my lifestyle.

 

As with the previous sets, I used the adhesive tabs, and the nails stayed on decently well. What they didn't do was wear well. The colors don't go all through the nails but are applied on a white base, and after four days, the color was wearing off the tips of the nails and letting the white show. This was most noticeable on the fingers I use the most for grabbing things and such, but it was there on on all them to some extent by day five. Perhaps this was caused or at least made worse by my clipping and filing them to a new shape, except the color scraped off a small section of my index nail nowhere near the edge, so maybe not.

 

So far I've liked the solid color oval nails from Sally Hansen the best. Those didn't need clipping and filing to fit my life or nails and they wore well. I'm glad I tried these almond ones but I don't see myself getting more of them.

Dashing Diva Gloss Gel Nail Strips

Well hello. I had a good break from nail blogging. I've still been paying attention to a couple of polish groups on Facebook and looking for displays when I have the opportunity. Last month, I saw a mainstream collection that inspired me to not just photograph it, but buy all the colors and I've used two of them already (on my toes, so won't be sharing those here because that's a whole thing). I hope to at least get a display post with those in it up next week. Now, though, Ij ust couldn't let all of March go by without posting something, so here I am with the first nail look I've done in ages that didn't involve press on fake nails (not that there's anything wrong with fake nails).

Late last week I found a set of Dashing Diva Gloss Gel Nail Strips when I was looking for a new set of fake nails to put on (yes, the organization of my nail stuff is an ongoing issue). I'd had a few too many nails pop off from set I was wearing so thought why not try the strips. Those aren't going to end up on the floor of someone else's house the way my fake nails had the other week (twice at the same party, even). I put them on late at night at home, so please forgive the wonky lighting in these next several pics. This set is called Gleam Queen and has mostly lilac creme strips, with three different accent options: purpley pink microglitter, silver microglitter, and lilac and pink "stained glass" with white leading.

 

The directions for applying these are similar to my beloved and long discontinued Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strips: prep the nail, choose a size, smooth from base to tip when applying, file off excess. Removal is different: these can be peeled off rather than needing nail polish remover.

 

I did lilac on most of my nails, with silver glitter as an accent on my ring finger. In comparison to the nail polish strips, these are thicker, feeling sort of rubbery. That's good in that it makes them easier to handle: they don't tear or flop over onto themselves the way the very thin polish strips can. That's bad in that it's harder to smooth them out at the edges (my pronouced C-curve makes that harder) and harder to remove the excess at the tip (forget about the sides ... you can't cut these with the sharp end of manicure stick like you can regular polish strips). You can see some little wrinkles on a couple of my nails and some fuzziness at the ends where I had trouble filing them smoooth. The set does come with a fairly good sized one-sided file to use, but I still had trouble. The glitter strips were thicker than the plain ones, which meant they looked better since they didn't form those wrinkles at the sides and camoflauged irregularities in my nails better than the plain strips.

 

In the light of day the next morning, I wasn't super happy with how the plain strips looked, what with the wrinkles and the showing of every ridge underneath. The ridges aren't so obvious in this photo as they were to the naked eye. I also noticed some "fuzzies" stuck on the ends of some nails, likely clinging to the adhesive on the bits of strips I'd struggled to file off the night before.

 

Since I liked the glitter nail, I decided to just put accent strips over the plain strips. Much better.

 

There weren't any thumb-sized accent strips, so I just laid one of the stained glass ones down the center, hoping that would distract from the wrinkles at the sides. It looked pretty good, I thought.

 

I've now had them on for six days. There's been some slight lifting of the strips at the tips and corners of a few of my nails, perhaps because of the double thickness. The stained glass ones on my middle fingers are showing the most raggedy-ness, probably because I tend to bump those fingers into things more since they're longest.

 

I'd use these again, just stick to glitter sets rather than plain ones, or do a ridge filling base coat first, though I don't know how that would affect their sticking power.

Orly Holo Jellies and Friends

Despite having a goal to continue buying less polish than I did in my stash expansion heyday, I'm still signed up for all sorts of brand newsletters and text alerts, including Orly's. I saw they were having a sale and went to look and noticed it included the shades from the Holo Jellies collection released this past summer. No better time then for me to share swatches of the bottles I bought a while back, along with two glitter toppers I ordered at the same time. Left to right: Party Animal, As If, Peace Out, Chill Pill, Like Totally, and Dancing Queen.

 

I first Skittled the Holo Jellies, doing three coats plus topcoat. They're not quite opaque at three coats, but close enough. All have a generous helping of silver holo glitter in a jelly base. As If is a soft orange. Peace Out is lime green. Chill Pill is a blue between turquoise and sky. Like Totally is purple, such a pretty purple, not too red and not too blue. I like these; the formula is good, with the jelly base being buildable, not too opaque so it hides the glitter.

 

 

 

I then reached for the glitter toppers, grouping them each with the Holo Jellies shade(s) they were most compatible with. Party Animal has pink, orange, and yellow matte hex glitter in various sizes plus silver holo microglitter in a clear base. I layered one coat of it over As If, finishing with clear topcoat.

 

 

 

Dancing Queen has lime, purple, and sky blue matte hex glitter plus silver holo microglitter in a clear base. It seems made for the remaining shades of Holo Jellies. I did a gradient over a creme base that matched my skintone, then Peace Out on my middle finger, Chill Pill on my ring, and Like Totally on my pinky, topping the three non-gradient nails with one coat of Dancing Queen plus clear topcoat. This whole look made me happy. I really should take the time to do manis like this again because they do make me smile.

 

 

 

I don't regret getting these at all despite having more polish than probably all the nail salons in town put together. They're mood lifters for me. And I'm proud of myself for resisting the plain jellies that Orly came out with sometime after Holo Jellies. Maybe I don't have exactly those shades of blue, pink, and yellow in exactly that consistency, but I do have blue, pink, and yellow jellies in my stash. If you don't, those are also in the sale going on now on the Orly website. Five dollars a bottle is a deal. Dancing Queen and Party Animal are available still at full price. I'd pay it because I'm a fool for glitter still, even though the nail world has mostly moved on to other things for now.

Essie Roll With It Collection

I can buy nail polish way faster than I can swatch it, which means bottles get stuck in my swatch boxes and eventually I have too many swatch boxes, so I go through them to move things to the "put on nail wheels" shelves. Sometimes I find things that catch my eye all over again so before they get moved, they get swatched, months and months (somtimes years?) after I bought them. Today's example: Essie's Roll With It Collection, which I believe was released for fall 2020 and which I bought in fall 2021. There are six shades, all shimmers with a scattering of holo microglitter: Sequin Scene, Roll With It, Let's Boogie, Whirl 'n' Twirl, Lace Up & Get Down, and Head Over Wheels.

 

 

These looked like two distinct trios to me, so I swatched them that way, starting with the more neutral hues: Let's Boogie (pewter-leaning silver), Roll With It (pinkish taupe-leaning silver), and Sequin Scene (brown-leaning orange). I did a sponge gradient with them on my index finger, then Let's Boogie on my middle, Roll With It on my ring, and Sequin Scene on my pinky. All of these were three coats for me.

 

The difference between the two silvers on the nails is more subtle than it is in the bottles. Roll With It is a touch cooler-toned and seems to have a slightly less dense shimmer base. I wish instead of one of these, they'd done a deeper grey, not quite charcoal. Or a teal.

 

I topcoated the gradient, and should have topcoated the other nails, as these do have a slightly gritty look without it. Still, the holo microglitter catches the light very nicely, distracting from what might be too much brushstrokey-ness otherwise for some of the shades.

 

Then I took the same approach with the more vibrant shades. A gradient on my index, then Whirl 'n' Twirl (blue) on my middle, Lace Up and Get Down (purple) on my ring, and Head Over Wheels (hot pink) on my pinky. Whirl 'n' Twirl was three coats and the others were two. Again, I added topcoat just to the gradient. I loved how these shades blended.

 

 

Lace Up & Get Down seemed to have the densest shimmer, with fewer holo bits showing color in it that the others, though a few did pop through at some angles.

 

 

The sun came out while I had this last trio on, so I hustled over to the window and was rewarded with this glowy-ness:

 

If I had to choose just one of these (and at some point I might, as I cannot move into assisted living someday with thousands of bottles of nail polish), it'd be the blue, Lace Up & Get Down.

Salon Perfect Dippin' Dots Collection

Continuing the "Easter in July" Skittles theme I started last week with Sally Hansen x Peeps, today I have the Salon Perfect Dippin' Dots colors, which caem out around the same time. These aren't necessarily Easter, though the palette does resemble candy eggs. I'm pretty sure I have similar colors from any one of a number of "soft neon" or "pastel neon" or "sunwashed neon" collections that have come out over the years, but the Dippin' Dots tie-in got me. It's been ages since I had any of that delightful ice cream of the future, so having the nail polish to look at is good. Top: Banana Split, Orange Creme, Strawberry Swirl, Birthday Cake. Bottom: Berry Freeze, Cotton Candy, Cool Mint, Lime Ice.

 

I wanted to try these over white, so I first grabbed two of the colors to try that. Left to right: Banana Split (2 coats), Banana Split (1 over white), Lime Ice (2 coats), Lime Ice (1 over white). The white made a slight difference, brightening the color a touch. The formula on these was a bit tricky; definitely pigmented but also a bit runny and didn't self level as well as I'd like. Still, not too hard to work with.

 

Then I got to Skittling, without the white base. Top to bottom: Banana Split (2 coats), Orange Creme (2), Strawberry Creme (2), and Birthday Cake (1 thick).

 

 

Now the cooler shades (all 2 coats): Lime Ice, Cool Mint, Cotton Candy, and Berry Freeze.

 

 

I don't think any of these are must haves, but I can see wearing them for summer pedicures.

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.

Great Lakes Lacquer The Deadlights

Last year when I was barely getting out of the house, I spent a lot of my nail polish budget on indies, and a lot of that on collab boxes and things like Polish Pickup and Hella Handmade Creations. Many of those polishes are still languishing in my "to be swatched" boxes but now and then I pull one out to try, like today's beauty from Great Lakes Lacquer: The Deadlights, from the September 2020 PPU. It's an orange jelly base packed with shifty pink/orange/gold flakies.

 

The Deadlights looks great at two coats. I didn't even have to add topcoat to bring out the flakies.

 

 

 

I tried adding more flakes plus some shimmer in the form of Great Lakes Lacquer Glass On, a topper I swatched last fall. I left The Deadlights alone on my index finger and added one coat of Glass On plus clear topcoat on my other digits. I don't think the pink/purple shifty shimmer in Glass On is the best companion for the orange of The Deadlights, plus it seems to obscure the flakes in The Deadlights. The combination does make an interesting glowing shade of pink in some lights, though.

 

I did like the shifts visible when I moved my fingers around, with some of the green popping off the flakies.

 

To wrap up my play with The Deadlights, instead of using a topper on it, I used it as a topper, over these three cremes: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Pump-kid (orange), Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Kook-a-mango (red orange), and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Out for Oxblood (maroon).

 

Starting with my index finger at the top, it's Deadlights alone, then over Pump-kid, over Kook-a-mango, and over Out for Oxblood.

 

Another view; I can say it works quite well as a topper:

 

My favorite combination was The Deadlights over Out for Oxblood. I mean, just look at it—such depth and contrast. I am going to have to remember this come autumn, because it would be perfect for that season.

 

Now that I'm getting out in the world more and buying polish in stores again, I've eased back on my indie buying, but swatching polishes like The Deadlights has me wondering what I've missed in the months I've been ignoring PPU and HHC, distracted by the novelty of being able to pick up polishes and study them in person before buying. Probably best I don't know. I have plenty of unswatched pretties to keep me occupied for quite a while.