Sensationail Gel Nails: Purple Orchid

Good morning! (At least for me, anyway!) I hope everyone had a great Halloween! I did, even though I didn't really dress up. ^_^

Between my new kitten, work, and a few other things I've had going on, I feel like I haven't had enough time to spend on my nails. I'm trying to organize and catalog my polish collection... and organization is NOT something I was gifted with! Anyway, my nails are too stained to leave naked and I really just can't spend the time painting them every day. (It probably doesn't help that I'm insanely hard on my nails and they aren't naturally strong... so polish always chips very quickly for me.) Based on that, and the fact that I wanted a UV lamp to see if a Gel topcoat would help lengthen my polish wear, I ended up purchasing the Sensationail (cute pun, right? haha!) Starter Kit from my local Walgreens.

Sensationail is a gel nail system that DOES need to be cured under a UV lamp. The starter kit came with the UV Lamp, Gel Primer, Gel Base & Top Coat, a polish color (I didn't use the one it came with because I bought a different color), and gel cleanser. It also includes some lint-free wipes, an orange stick to push back cuticles, and a nail file. When I originally tried this brand I used the old lamp I purchased because it was on sale with Seche's UV Topcoat. So I just got one of the nail colors (Purple Orchid) and tried that lamp. MAJOR fail. The light didn't seem to get around my entire nail so the sides didn't cure right, things smeared, it was a disaster! So I went for the lamp that came with the kit. It does need an outlet, so if you want to try this, just be aware of that.

The process to apply is pretty simple. The instructions say to start by lightly buffing the natural shine of your nail with their provided file. I didn't use their file for that, mostly because my nail are just too fragile, so I used a buffing block. I couldn't tell a difference. Then you can use the provided wipes and gel cleanser to clean off any other natural oils and left over dust from filing. After that you apply the Gel Primer. I watched the video from the web site and there are two different ways you can apply the primer, to your entire nail or for easier removal, just around the edges. The primer is a liquid, sticky substance that you put on with a super short, stiff brush. You don't cure that step at all.

After the primer has had a few seconds to dry--it's still tacky. I learned hair and lint WILL stick to it if you aren't careful--you apply the gel base and topcoat. Cure for 30 seconds. Then the color comes next. The color gel polish you cure for 60 seconds. Application on this was pretty difficult. The polish flows differently than normal nail polish and if you get it on your skins/cuticles, acetone does not remove it so clean up is nearly impossible. (Although, if anyone has tips there, I'd love to hear them!) One benefit seemed to be that since the polish doesn't dry like normal polish either, you could take more time patching up missed spots or going over the same area to make sure it's covered well. The directions say to do 2 coats, but I did 3 to make sure everything was evened out. Each coat is cured for another 60 seconds. After that you apply another coat of the base and topcoat, cure for a final 30 seconds and viola!! You should have a manicure that will last up to 2 weeks.

Oh boy, long winded post! Pictures now! Purple Orchid is a deep, cool-toned purple with blue glass fleck (I think?) shimmers. The shimmer give the polish dimension in low light sparkles in the sun. The pictures are surprisingly color accurate!

Click to enlarge any of them! I'm indoors but tried to capture the shimmers by the window!

On a side note, using this as a base/topcoat to sandwich regular polish seemed to lengthen the wear time. I used a holograph polish (Layla Ultra Violet) since they are notorious for not wearing very long unless you use the special base coats for them. (I don't have any soooooo, yeah. Chip city.) I went 3 days without a chip which was impressive. So I do have high hopes for this brand's wear time!

Thanks for checking in! I'll include overall opinions and a general review of this experiment in my follow-up post. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

-Amy

****Disclaimer: All products in this post were purchased by me****

Nail Fail! Sephora by OPI: Blasted Opalescent

Good morning! It feels a little odd getting a post out before noon. Usually I'm on in the wee hours of the morning, like 1 or 2 am! Had to take Juneau to the vet for another round of kitten shots. She's a trooper!

Anyway, last night I decided to try a random combo. One of the crackle polishes I REALLY like is Blasted Opalescent from Sephora by OPI. It's a shimmery white with purple/blue/pink sparks in it and I like the way it changes personality depending on what you layer it on. I realized I had never used my bottle of Stone Cold from the Colors of the Capitol collection by China Glaze, so I decided to use that as my base. The end result was pretty neat, although because of the matte finish it liked to eat my topcoat. Odd for a non-glitter polish! I added two coats of topcoat and figured I would add a final coat in the morning before work.

BUUUUUUT (you saw that coming, right?) when I woke up this morning, this is what my pretty mani looked like!

Bad picture, courtesy of my phone! 

T_T  The color came off!! My ring finger is what it looked like when I went to bed. My pinkie is what it looked like when I got up, and the rest of my nails are in some stage of colorlessness. :( I was a little bummed because I got the polish on sale! I don't have any other Sephora brand polishes because none of the colors speak to me so I can't justify paying $9.50 for a bottle. I got this for $5. Odd thing is, it didn't do that the first few times I wore it. Just this time! Major bummer.

Does anyone else have this polish? Has anything like this happened with your crackles at all? I'll probably try it again just to see if maybe this was a fluke with the polish. I sure hope it is.

***Update/edit*** I'll have to test this, but I realized that my first layer of "topcoat" was my Nail Magic nail treatment. I didn't have that the first few times I wore the polish, so maybe that's what caused the shimmer to fade. Judging by the smell of the nail treatment, I'd say it's a definite possibility! (But it hasn't had any effect on my other polishes, and I've been using it for over a month. huh.)

OPI: Barre My Soul

You know, if someone had told me when this collection came out that it would be one of my favorites I would have told them they were delusional. Really, what could be so awesome about a bunch of delicate nail polish colors, other than the fact that they're jelly finish polishes??

Of course, the entire Soft Shades Ballet collection is AMAZING! I can't explain why I like them so much, but I do, and I have them all. Today I've got some swatches of Barre My Soul. This polish is a pinkish-beige color. It's not PINK exactly, but there is a pink tinge to it that doesn't make it a solid beige/tan. It looks pinker in my pictures but if you compare it to the actual pink in the collection, You Callin Me a Lyre?, the difference is obvious.

All the polishes in this collection are very sheer. This is 4 coats and you can still see visible nail line. Fortunately the dry time on this is very quick. I think if you REALLY wanted it to be opaque you could add one or two more coats, but I have also seen some swatches where it looks opaque in as little as 3.

Last one just because of the different tone. It makes the polish a little more pink, as mentioned above. 

I really, REALLY like this polish! No clue why! I should hate it just because it seems so... girly? I've never been one for pinks or dainty/delicate things but I just love this polish. If I had to rank the top 5 polishes in my collection by number of times worn this is probably #2. 

This polish is part of OPI's Ballet Soft Shades Collection seems to be pretty standard at any beauty supply store that stocks OPI polish. 

Lime Crime: Les Desserts d'Antoinette Nail Polish Collection

Whew! That's a mouthful. Today I have for you four of the seven shades from the Les Desserts d'Antoinette Nail Polish collection by Lime Crimee. These polishes are all pastel colors. I'll admit, my sole reason for purchasing these initially was the Lime Crime logo. I love unicorns! Turns out, though, that these polishes are fantastic!

The four I have for your today are Milky Ways, a lovely dirty-white color; Pastelchio, a pastel yet very bright limey-green; Lavendairy, a wonderful violet; and Peaches and Cream, a bright, pastel orange. The collection also has a blue, a yellow, and a pink. 

First, Milky Ways, as mentioned, is a dirty, off-white. I don't like straight white much so this color is a nice changes. It's white but with a slightly beige tinge to it. 

For this last picture, I added a coat of White on White by China Glaze so you could see the color difference of Milky Ways when compared to a stark white. I really does remind me of like the nuggat filling of a candy bar, don't you think?

Next I have Pastelchio. LOVE the name on this one! Pastelchio is one of the reasons I fell in love with this collection. It's a pastel, there is no question, but it's not chalky and somehow it still manages to be amazingly bright without being a neon. Amazing! 

Very much like Pastelcho, Peaches and Cream manages to be both pastel yet very, very bright. This is my favorite orange polish out of my entire collection. The label actually has a little heart symbol instead of "and" but I can't type it here. My blogger goes all nuts with the text coding. :( 

Finally, I have Lavendairy. Again, I love the name! This polish I definitely had to debate on. I don't like pink and all the swatches I'd seen had this one leaning a little more pink and a little less lavender, regardless of the name. I finally decided to buy it when I decided I was just getting the entire collection anyway, and fortunately  this polish is indeed purple! I think my picture is really REALLY trying to lean blue, but isn't quite making it. While this might tread the line between purple and pink (much like I imagine most pastel purples would) the color is gorgeous enough that it doesn't matter and the application was flawless.

The coverage on these were all fantastic! Each swatch is three coats although I think if one was more careful than I was, two would be okay. I got these in two different sets at two different times. Pastelchio and Peaches and Cream were a little thick and tended to leave polish ridges if I wasn't careful in my application. I added polish thinner to both to make them easier to work with. Lavendairy and Milky Ways, on the other hand, had no issues at all! The polish was smooth and easy to work with. In the end though, the formula definitely doesn't make me change my mind about these polishes!

I would recommend these to anyone who likes pastel polish or bright colors. I can't wait to get my hand on the yellow in the collection! I love yellows (even though my skin tone doesn't) but sometimes putting on yellow polish is more hassle than it's worth. If that polish is anything like these though, then that won't be an issue at all! 

Finally, as a sidenote, I just got a new addition to my family! This is Juneau and she is an absolute sweetheart! She is 4 months old and only has two modes right now: sleep and play. (On or off. haha)

****Disclaimer: all polish in this post was purchased by me.

Butter London: Knackered

I hope everyone had a good weekend! I’m not sure I’m ready to start the week yet. I was pretty excited to learn the other day that we just opened an Ulta in my town. I have to get a lot of my polish off the internet unless I find time to make a specific trip. The closest Sephora that carries polish is an hour away… in fact, pretty much everything is an hour away. It’s a bit of a bummer since I rarely want to pay shipping when SOME DAY I’ll make it out to get the polish in person!

Anyway, I hurried down to Ulta ASAP to check it out! (And tried not to look crazy because I was soooo excited!) I picked up Orly Space Cadet, a few of the new Sally Hansen  polishes that have been floating around, and Butter London: Knackered.

I was SOOOOO thrilled to get my hands on a bottle of Knackered. I’d seen pictures floating around, and every time I would think meh. It’s not THAT great. (And thus put off buying it…) After getting a bottle, let me just tell you, it IS that great. It really is. Knackered is this gorgeous duo-chrome polish that is sprinkled with holographic glitter bits. It’s really sheer on its own, although I think you could build it up if you wanted to. I don’t have the patience for that so I layered it over Julep Viola—a deep, black-purple.

My pictures are a little off, and I don't have the editing skills to fix them, but this polish has an unmistakable purple-pink shine. My camera wants to make it grey. 

This is going to be really picture heavy because none of these images could do the polish justice. 

My first Glitter Gal polish!

Hello all! I hope you all had a good weekend! Today I have for you my first Glitter Gal polish! It's one of their shade shifter polishes. These come in two options: brilliant and soft. I picked Wild Violets Brilliant. It's got a great shift from a classic violet purple to a deeper blue-toned purple depending on how the light hits. Maybe not the strongest shift in the world f polish but it's absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to pick up a few more color options from Glitter Gal!

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

I don't remember how many coats this was. Three, I think? Anyway, you can pick up Glitter Gal polish from their direct site HERE or Ninja Polish HERE. They retail at $17.50 a bottle, which may seem steep to some, but these are definitely worth it... and  you get a full-size bottle! 

That's all I've got for today. I hope you all have a great day/night (wherever you are) and hello to the new followers! ^_^

****Disclaimer: the products in this post were purchased by me

OPI: Every Month is Oktoberfest

Hello everyone! I hope your days are all going well! Today I have for you a polish from the OPI Germany Collection. I didn't get very many of these. Not many colors stood out to me so I only picked up Every Month is Oktoberfest and the odd yellow that I can't remember the name of. It's across the room so I'm not going to go grab it. >_< Haha.

Every Month is Oktoberfest (EMIO?) ha, anyway, EMIO is a deep red-purple with subtle gold and purple shimmers. It leans more red to me than purple, but the base has a definite deep purple tinge to it. I was actually hoping for a smidge more purple than what there was, but it's still a really pretty polish anyway. I thought the formula was great. It went on smoothly with two coats. I topped it with Seche Ultra-V, a UV topcoat. (The lamp was on sale.)

And please forgive me some for slight swooning. I am still on my new-camera high and these pictures are TONS better than ones I could have gotten with my old camera or, heaven forbid, my phone! *drool* haha! You can also click on them to make them bigger if you want to check out the shimmer!

I don't know what is going on with my ring finger! I think it's just the way the light is glaring off of it. There isn't anything smudged on it at all but I had a hard time getting a picture without that smudge/dirt looking thing there!  

I started using the UV topcoat to see if it lasted any longer than a regular top coat. I didn't notice much of a difference in wear time between this and regular Seche Vite. I use my nails a lot and regardless, I always have a chip or two within a day with either one. When I remember, I plan on doing a test with alternating fingers. My main reason for sticking with this is that the curing with the lamp takes a few minutes  longer, but there isn't that slight fear of bumping something and getting a dent or a scratch in your ALMOST dry mani. Maybe that's just me, but with this you are pretty much good to go when you're done curing unless you hit something REALLY hard or sharp. That seems to work better for me!

Have a good day/night everyone! 

***Disclaimer: all products in this post were purchased by me