The ABCs: A for Amber Ruby

I’m starting a new “series” of sorts here today, or maybe rather a way to challenge myself to wear more of my untrieds. I’m sure you’ve all been there, you have a huge stash of gorgeous colors to choose from, but you just can’t make up your mind! That’s when I came up with the idea of The ABCs, simply to pick my manis alphabetically by polish name! So starting today, I’ll show you a polish (or polishes) starting with the next letter in the alphabet each time. I can’t promise to update every day, but I hope that this little project will give me a kick in the butt I need to make up my mind and just do my nails already!

Without further ado, let’s start at the very beginning with the letter A! Here’s Sally Hansen Amber Ruby, a stunning duochrome from the Nail Prisms line. My pictures doesn’t do it justice at all, it changes from green to gold to orange to red to magenta, such an awesome polish! By the way, if you’re curious about the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms, nailXchange has a useful guide to the whole line here.

Amber Ruby looks gorgeous on the nails, but the formula is far from nice. It’s thin and runny, so it’s difficult to keep it from flooding the cuticles. It builds nicely to opacity in three coats, but the catch is that it never dries! Even with Seche Vite, it was still soft and dentable 12 hours after application. Maybe layering over black will help with the drying issues?

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms are not the easiest to get hold of, I know that US gals have found them randomly in stores here and there, but the safest bet is getting it from blog sales or eBay. If you can’t find it there, you could try Ozotic Pro 520 instead, which can be bought at Picture Polish or Llarowe.

Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink

Today I have another polish from an awesome swap with a lovely gal from Canada (you know who you are! ). I love looking at people’s swap lists, often I find little gems like this. I’ve often fallen in love with stuff that wasn’t on my wishlist or polishes that came as generous extras in the package.

This was the fact with Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink, I hadn’t heard of it before, but it looked cool from the swatches I saw online and I decided to go for it. Rockstar Pink has a clear base just jam packed with different colored glitter, mostly pink, but also at least blue, red and gold. It’s super sparkly, and while I don’t exactly feel like a rockstar, at least I feel like a really glam pop singer. Definitely a winner, I’ve been admiring my blingy nails all day!

The polish is very thick, most likely because of all the glitter, but it’s fairly easy to apply. I used three coats for maximum opaque glitteryness. I thought it would be very bumpy and rough, but my usual topcoat combo of Poshé over Barielle Manicure Extender made this smooth as glass.

Which random surprise polishes have you guys fallen in love with?

Snakeskin

Snakeskin manicures are a new trend that’s popping up right now, but I don’t have any snakeskin around here, and neither do I want to glue it to my nails. But there’s still hope, and the answer is stamping. I used the snakeskin design from the Bundle Monster 215 plate to create this slithery look!

The base is IsaDora Hunter Green, a very, very dark green jelly that looks black most of the time. I also think it’s a dupe for OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow. It’s very easy to apply, and it’s opaque in two coats.

The stamp is made with Sally Hansen Color Quick Nail Color Pen in Green Chrome (say that 10 times fast!). Despite the silly long name, these nail polish “pens” are just perfect for stamping!

It’s chrome, thus super pigmented and even better than Konad polish, in my opinion. And it’s super easy to use! Just click the button at the end and polish comes out the other end. Then use it like a pencil, which makes for quick and easy stamping. I heart it!

Have you tried these polish pens for stamping?

Thanks for stopping by!
Love, S.

Sally Hansen Purple Pizzazz

Today’s manicure is Sally Hansen Purple Pizzazz, from the Xtreme Wear for spring 2010 collection. We don’t have Sally Hansen here in Norway (except from a few base- and topcoats and some fake nails), so I didn’t really discover this beauty until recently.

This is so right up my alley, it’s a purple jelly packed with pink microglitter, and since I love everything pink and purple, this is perfect! I’m actually thinking of getting a backup, because the bottle is so small (less than 12 ml).

This is of course very hard to photograph, but I think I got these pics pretty accurate. It looks like I have visible nail line, but it’s not visible in real life. Macro photography does strange things to jelly nailpolish.

The formula is pretty nice, and it’s surprisingly opaque for a jelly. I thought I would have to apply some underwear first, but it actually covers nicely in three rather generous coats.

I’ll see how well this wears over the next few days, because I have two night shifts coming up. I hope it’s as Xtreme as it claims, because I don’t have time to change my polish between shifts.

Ok, see you later, everyone!
Love, S.

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure was released in spring 2010, but better late than never, right?

This was a big hit last year, and people were desperately stalking the shops to find this coveted polish. And it sure is pretty, with its color-changing flakes in a milky white base. I’m not big on layering, so I don’t really know why I got it, but I think I got caught up in the hype. So this one found its way to me through a swap.

Hidden Treasure is meant to be layered, and it looks different depending on which color you layer it over. I prefer it over lighter colors like pink and light blue, and today I’ve put it over OPI What’s With The Cattitude.

The polish is a bit thick, so I put a lot of thinner in it. It doesn’t matter terribly, since it’s just for layering anyway, but it has a tendency to get really thick over time. The brush is really wide, so that could be a problem if you have really narrow nails.

Hidden Treasure turned out to be a real life hidden treasure, but it still pops up in stores from time to time. If you don’t have access to Sally Hansen, you could go for one of the dupes, Nubar 2010 or Nfu-Oh 38.

Thanks for looking!
Love, S.