Peachy Polka Dots feat. Sally Hansen

Sally Hansen - Bleach Babe* (2 coats)

Sally Hansen - Tahitian Sunset*

*PR Sample

Sally Hansen Guilty Pleasures Winter 2014

Sally Hansen sent me their new Guilty Pleasures* collection for Winter 2014 and today I have the swatches ready for you. This collection is already in stores since the beginning of November and each bottle is sold for € 8.99.  There are six colors in total of which I especially like three. 

There's 24K Dipped, a light bronze which doesn't get me too excited. Then there is Diamond Jubilee which I loved at first, but then I was a bit disappointed because I couldn't get complete opacity with two coats. I hoped for the glitter to be more chunky and the base to be more opaque. Next is Glitter Bomb a golden glitter base with rose glitter and I really need to ask: Do you like this combination? If yes, please explain me why? In my opinion those two colors clash violently! 

The next three colors are my favorites of the collection. There is Luxe Tux a black base with silver glitter which didn't disappoint at all. Then there's Rule of Plum a deep purple with pink and blue shimmer which is lovely as well. And then there's Scarlett Letter, a dark strawberry red with golden shimmer which is just perfect for Holiday season. 

The formula was lovely on all of these, except maybe for the missing opacity of Diamond Jubilee. All of the pictures show two coats without a base or top coat. 

*PR Sample

Sally Hansen - 24K Dipped

Sally Hansen - Diamond Jubilee

Sally Hansen - Glitter Bomb

Sally Hansen - Luxe Tux

Sally Hansen - Rule of Plum

Sally Hansen - Scarlett Letter

Sally Hansen DE on Facebook

Sally Hansen DE on Instagram

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Review

Sally Hansen sent me seven colors of their new Miracle Gel* range and today I have my review ready for you. You've probably already seen the disaster on my Instagram, so you will know that I can only show you six of the colors. They come with the Miracle Gel top coat which in combination with the nail polish is supposed to make your manicure last for up to 14 days. We all know this never happens and these are no exceptions. Nonetheless and even if personally I don't bother wearing the same nail polish for more than 3 days, I wanted to try these colors a bit more thoroughly than I normally would. 

* PR Sample

I chose to use the color that's least likely to bore me after a day or two, which is the classic called Red Eye. It's a beautiful brilliant red and I really enjoyed wearing it for five full days. You're supposed to apply two coats without a base coat and then add one coat of the Miracle Gel top coat over it. The next day and in bright daylight I noticed that the top coat was unusually streaky and didn't look very appealing. My current top coat from Sally Hansen, Insta-Dri, gives a more perfect finish in my opinion. Have a look at the sunlight picture from Day 3 below to see what I'm talking about. Another thing about the top coat: the nail polish stained the top coat brush which is quite annoying. I wiped it off on a piece of paper before dipping it back into the bottle. That's one way of wasting top coat! After three days I started to notice some tip wear, which was more apparent on my middle and pointer finger from my right hand. All of the pictures show my left hand for practical reasons. On the fifth day I decided to remove the manicure. There was quite some tip wear but no visible chipped parts. 

I tried another color called Pink Tank for three full days and I didn't see a big difference to Red Eye. There might have been a bit more tip wear on Day 3. I didn't wear the other colors yet, but I swatched them on one nail each. I used three coats each, because I felt like they weren't as opaque as Red Eye and Pink Tank. But you might get away with two careful coats, if your nails are very smooth. 

My conclusion:

+ 5 days without chipping

+ nice choice of colors

-  don't last up to 14 days

-  streaky top coat

-  bleeding colors

-  rather expensive (sold together with the top coat for €17.95)

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel - Red Eye: Day 2

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel - Red Eye: Day 3

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel - Red Eye: Day 5

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel - Pink Tank: Day 3

3 coats each, from left to right:

Pretty Piggy - Pinky Promise - Bare Dare - Birthday Suit

Sally Hansen DE on Facebook

Sally Hansen DE on Instagram

Water Marble feat. Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue

Water marble time! I don't think I've ever tried this color combination before in a water marble and I do quite like it! I used p2 - Passion as my base color with one coat and then combined it with Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue for the marble. They both worked fine, but there were also some air bubbles which you can see on some nails. On top is one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri. Hope you like it! :) 

Sally Hansen Beach Paradise: Searsucker feat. Blue Crush / Scaled Gradient

I received some samples for the new Sally Hansen Beach Paradise collection, which will be available in July 2014. Surprisingly so I chose the two blue shimmer polishes first, usually these are not the colors I go for. But oh, did one of them surprise me! I love Searsucker, the light turquoise blue with a bit of purple shimmer in it. It wasn't easy to capture on camera, but it is definitely really bright. I combined it in a design together with Blue Crush which I cannot recommend as much, since it stained my cuticles quite a bit. I was amazed at how awesome these look with a coat of Essie - Matte About you on top! For the design I chose my new favorite technique again, the scaled gradient. Learn how to do this over at Simply Nailogical. And find out more about Sally Hansen on their Facebook page. 

The Lacquer Legion Garden: Daisies

I'm posting later than usual today, since I really wanted to participate in this month's Lacquer Legion challenge, but didn't have time to prepare a design in advance. It's all about the garden this month! Obviously I had to do something with flowers and it seems to me like daisies are really popular these days, I see them everywhere! I picked Sally Hansen - Mojito as my base color and I think it looks lovely combined with the daisies. I painted them on with acrylic paint and a nail art brush. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. You can find all of the participants of this challenge with the hashtag #LLgarden. 

My #LLreinvention design

My #LLadoration design

My #LLglam design

Sally Hansen - Designer Collection 2014

I received the new Sally Hansen Designer collection for 2014 which was created in collaboration with Prabal Gurung and Tracy Reese. There are five colors and each one will be available during May in dm, Rossmann and müller stores for € 8.99. I've also seen Sally Hansen in Swiss müller stores but I'm not sure if they are available somewhere else*. I've swatched every color without base and top coat and two coats, except for A Wink of Pink which is shown with three coats. At first I was sure that my favorite would be Mojito since I love green nail polish. But it wasn't very flattering for my skin tone. I was surprised by Lady Lavender which I thought I wasn't going to like at first because of the shimmer, but then I fell in love with the frosty pastel look! This is not my favorite collection colorwise, in fact I like last year's designer collection (part 1, part 2) much better. You can find Sally Hansen on Facebook and Instagram.

Lady Lavender

2 coats

A Wink of Pink

3 coats

Batbano Blue

2 coats

Carnivale

2 coats

Mojito

2 coats

Mojito next to Essie - First Timer and Essie - Mojito Madness

Striped Nails

I used two coats of Flormar - 400 as my base and then added stripes with a nail art brush and a lot of colors: Flormar - N006,  Essie - Mint Candy Apple, Essie - Avenue Maintain, OPI - AmazON...AmazOff and Sally Hansen - So-Nata Problem. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss.