Perfectly Polished Tips 246 - Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips

Last week I used Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail strips for the first time. The package comes with 16 strips in various sizes, a nail file, and an orange wood stick. They claim that the stickers can last up to 10 days. There are a ton of neat patterns, colors, and designs. It's an easy way for someone not so great at nail art (aka Me) to get decorated tips.

I googled some tutorials and watched a bunch of youtube videos. Application looked easy enough. You start out with clean, dry nails. They recommend swiping your nails with polish remover before beginning. The sticker is double ended to accommodate different cuticle shapes, I didn't really find this to be helpful. I have small and narrow nail beds. Once you stick on the strip you use the orange wood stick to seal the edges, then you file off the excess from the tip. I had a very hard time making the cuticle area look nice, it probably equated to my manicure clean up. I guess it didn't bother me that much though. The strips were all smooth and looked as if I had used nail polish.

These only lasted about three days before they began to chip and lift. Most of the time I follow the nails are not tools rule and I think I was overly cautious because I didn't want to ruin my nails. Three days is also typically what I get out of a regular manicure. I don't think I would use these often or even pay full price for them. You can only get one manicure out of a box, unless you have small nails and clip the stickers in half. Even then there is a warning on the box that unused stickers should be discarded. It appears that they dry out very quickly. Maybe putting them in a ziploc immediately would help? I didn't want to take any chances though.

I used a hot pink color called Crybaby.

Neons make my camera freak out, it was a bit more pink IRL and not as washed out. These photos are immediately after I had applied the strips. You can see it's a bit rough around the edges.

You can find Sally Hansen nail strips pretty much everywhere these days. I think they are about $8-9 at drugstores but they can be found for less at Fivebelow and Big Lots.

Perfectly Polished Tips 245 - NOTD Happy Hands Springs

Happy Hands Nail Polish is a new to me brand and I must say I am impressed! I will be completely honest, when this whole indie nail polish thing exploded I was skeptical. I mean how how many combinations of glitter can be thrown in a bottle? I take it back, after interacting with several indie owners I see that so much goes into. They are all so passionate about their polish. I have been browsing many new to me brands and Etsy and am constantly saying "Ohhhh!! I need that!"

The first collection to make it's debut from Happy Hands was called Greetings From Florida which is where the owner/creator is from. It was made up of four gorgeous polishes. Only one of them really called to me though, of course it was in the teal family.

Springs is a turquoise jelly with small aqua hexes, medium greenish hexes, and holographic hexes; I think I had a couple of squares in my bottle as well. The small hexes really give it so much depth. I didn't have to fish for the larger hexes either! I am not great at applying glitters I will say. I have tried to perfect the dabbing method, I have watched several youtube videos as well. Ah, I guess I will get it one day. Aside from my application needing work the formula on Springs was awesome, I believe that it should be opaque on it's own in 2-3 coats. I layered it though because with jelly polish I tend to make a mess. I get lumpy, squishy areas on my nails and usually I end up picking it off. I didn't want to do that!

Here is two coats of Springs layered over one coat of China Glaze For Audrey

Happy Hands Nail Polishes retails for $8 per bottle and can be found on Etsy. Restocks happen every SATURDAY at 5PM. You can also check out Happy Hands on facebook.

Perfectly Polished Tips 244 - NOTD Lush Lacquer Golden Goddess

Lush Lacquer is a new to me brand. It is an indie brand created by a mother daughter team :) I have been lemming OPI Dazzled by Gold FOREVER. It came out when I did not have access to Ulta and being that I am picky about gold on my skin I didn't try very hard to get it. Then of course I *needed* it and it was too late. I chose Gold Goddess in hopes of taking my mind off of Dazzled by Gold.

I love the color of this polish, it is on the cooler side and not too yellow. The formula was great, I did have an issue with the silver hex glitter. The etsy listing does say that you may have to fish for the hexes, which I thought meant that if you wanted AOT hexes on your nails then you would have to fish. Well I didn't get any hexes on my nails with just the brush. I tried tipping the bottle upside down, rolling it, shaking it. I eventually ended up sticking an orange stick in there and picking them off the stick with the brush. It was a pain and although I adore my manicure I don't know if I want to have to do that every single time I want to wear it. I don't know that this is the case with all of their polish and to be quite honest I probably would purchase another color if they had something I wanted.

For my NOTD I layered two coats of Golden Goddess over one coat of Orly Luxe

Sunlight

outdoors

I purchased Golden Goddess from Lush Lacquer's Etsy shop. They retail for $8.75 each and I believe shipping was $3 or so. It seems that they make the polish as the orders come in so there is a wait time. I think it took almost two weeks for me to receive the polish, so if you are not the patient type I would skip Lush Lacquer.

Perfectly Polished Tips 243 - Zoya Designer Collection for Fall 2012

And I saved the best for last :) It is no secret that I love creme finish polishes. When I opened the box containing the Zoya fall collections I felt like Designer was made for me. I love every single one, even the red! Zoya does cremes so well, the formula is amazing and their brush is the only one that I can work with and not get frustrated. I know some people are probably getting sick of the smoked out grey that is being added to a lot of colors but not me. I live for them.

When Evvie was released during NYFW I had missed out on it and I was so upset. Evvie is a Peter Som custom shade and I thought that once it was gone that I would never get my hands on it. I am so happy Zoya decided to release it again because it is just as gorgeous as I had thought it would be. I think Natty has cured my MAC Blue India lemming, not to say that I wouldn't like to own the MAC. I haven't looked on ebay in a while but last time I did it was too much to justify buying. One day!

Evvie - smoky green

Monica - dark mulberry

Natty - smoked navy blue, has anyone compared this to Blue India? I would love to see pics.

Noot - charcoal green/grey

Rekha - blood red (Bibhu Mohapatra custom shade) this was slightly on the jelly side but perfect

Toni - dark maroon. I love shades like this but I suck at applying them, no idea why.

The Designer collection is available now at Zoya.com, the polish retails for $8 each.

(these were sent for review)

Perfectly Polished Tips 242 - Zoya Diva Collection for Fall 2012

Here is the second set from Zoya's fall release. The Diva collection was inspired by the magic of NY fashion week. This set is made up of 6 gorgeous metallic polishes. I was really surprised by the Diva collex, normally it's not my thing but wow. The formula was awesome on all of them. FeiFei and Daul would be perfect with three coats, I did two but in the sun I could see they were a bit spotty.

Daul - magic purple with amazing gold flecks

Elisa - true red. I am so not a red gal, especially a shimmery red gal..this polish made me gasp. It is truly beautiful

FeiFei - Zoya calls this a magic blue and it is. The color shifts a bit, a little blue, some purple, a tiny bit of gold.

Ray - deep forest green, my least favorite. I had a bit of trouble with brush strokes with this one.

Song - I feel like this is going to be the star of the entire Fall release. An amazing, bright, royal blue.

Suri - deep purple with slight pink and blue sparkle.

With the exception of Ray these all applied like a dream. I love Zoya's brush and I love that they branched out a little with the Diva collection. I hope they continue to do so!

These are available now at Zoya.com, they retail for $8 each.

(these were sent for review)

Perfectly Polished Tips 241 - Zoya NYFW Gloss Fall 2012

Zoya is releasing three sets for Fall 2012. It's only July and the fall collections have me craving cool weather. It has been hot here, I guess it has been hot every where but the humidity...oh my. I wonder what fall in NC is like, this will be my first. I might turn into one of those people that has to go to the north east to experience the leaves changing. Anyways, back to Zoya. This collection is made up of three sheer, jelly like polishes. They are very sheer but can be layered for more coverage.

I did swatches of 1, 2, and 3 coats of each polish. I found that at three coats it started to get a bit thick. It would probably work better to do thinner coats and let each one dry before moving on to the next. I had wanted to do a fourth coat but it would have been a mess. For the pictures pinkie is one coat, ring is two coats, middle & index are three coats.

Frida was the most sheer of the 3, there is 1 coat on my pinkie and it looks like a barely there wash of color.

Katherine is a deep eggplant color and gave the most coverage.

Paloma is my favorite of the three which is unusual. I had thought that I would have loved Frida, I think jellies are just not my thing.

These polishes can be used to create all types of nail looks. I have read a bit about jelly sandwiches but I have never tried it myself. I think it is when you put a layer of glitter or shimmer in between a jelly polish. These paired with some of the foily polishes in the Zoya Diva collection may make for some interesting combos. I have swatches of the Designer and Diva collections coming, I am editing now!

These polishes retail for $8 each and will be available on Zoya.com on July 15th.

(these were sent for review)

Perfectly Polished Tips 240 - Julep America

Happy 4th of July!!

this month's Julep Maven box included a free polish. I am in the US so I got America. The polish has a red glitter base with  blue and white sparkles, there is also star glitter buried deep inside of the bottle. I realized after editing that I must have smudged my ring finger, so sorry so sloppy! I found this polish to be slightly on the thick side, that and I am not awesome when it comes to applying glitter. This is two coats w/ no base or top coat.

silver star glitter!

sparkling in the sun

If you are not a Julep Maven but would still like to own America you can purchase it from Julep.com. Julep polishes retail for $14 each

Perfectly Polished Tips 239 - NOTD Monday Pahlish

I posted about Pahlish in my last post. I am pretty new to indie nail polish and Pahlish was one of my first purchases. I have always said glitter was not for me, I am a self proclaimed member of TEAM CREME! I saw Dark Parades and instantly fell in love. Since then I have purchased a few more and I love them all. The formula is awesome, the brush is perfect for my narrow nail beds, and the selection is amazing!

Here are two NOTDs featuring Pahlish.

Dark Parades - unfortunately it was gloomy out when I wore this one so no great pictures were taken. These photos do it no justice!

Train Underwater - again this pic does not do the polish justice. There is amazing purple glitter in there as well as blue. There are some hexes as well.

Both of these are not my usual MO but I had fun wearing them and am glad they are apart of my collection! You can find Pahlish on Etsy, they retail for $8.50 each.