Smooth and Perfect Easter Skittles

Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect line in

Dune (thumb)

Whisper (index)

Air (middle)

Satin (ring)

Sea (pinkie)

Ah, my delicious Smooth and Perfect line again. They make cute pastel skittles for Easter, though more muted than I had envisioned. No cleanup here, sorry. More on that later, but on the other hand, look how good I'm getting! Just a couple of little messes, and that's all!

Dune turned out slightly yellow, as I had hoped, but not so great a look for my thumb, what with the nail line and all. Yeech. I'm glad I didn't do all of my nails that color. When I wear it again, I'm going to have to remember to wear something under it.

Not much else to say about the other colors. They're just cute, right?

Oh, Sea, which I've posted about before, is still less pigmented than appears in the bottle. Oh well, it's lovely regardless.

Today was also my first time wearing Revlon Colorstay base coat and New York Color Grand Central Station top coat. They seem highly favored on the MUA nail board, so I thought I'd try them out. Easter is three days away, and I assume my nails will still look nice by then, but we'll see. In the shower this morning, a small section of Dune peeled off! It's not much, and it's not noticeable irl, but I know it's there. Good thing I took pictures before cleanup!

The Smooth and Perfect line has been recently discontinued, so you might be able to find a couple of bottles on clearance at your local drugstore. What you don't find around town, you can purchase on Amazon.

Wear: Three days. More of the thumb nail peeled off on day three. I could have probably gotten another day out of it, but I would have picked at it if I didn't take it off immediately.

Warm and Fozzie

OPI Warm and Fozzie (Muppets collection)

I spent a week on vacation and did not take care of my nails at all. So, here's what it looks like when that happens. This first picture is kind of a mess, but it shows the color most accurately.

It's still a bit cold out, despite being almost April, and I had one more winter color in my untrieds I wanted to put on before I dive headfirst into pastels next week.

Warm and Fozzie was totally not what I expected. It's a complicated color, but if I had to explain it, I might say that it's a coppery brown / gold duo-chrome with specks of red and green micro-shimmer. It's also a lot more sheer than expected. This is two thin coats. I definitely could have layered on more, but I didn't care enough. I like sheer polishes, but I'm not really feeling this one. It's super pretty irl and would probably be even nicer if layered thicker, it's just not for me.

Hottie

Sinful Colors Hottie

I bought Hottie during a $1 sale at Walgreens, and within a week began to regret it. It didn't strike me as something I would normally wear, and I was getting on myself for buying polish I wouldn't wear. So on a whim, I put it over the Sugar Coat I was already wearing.

The blue layered over the pink gave it a subtle lilac shade, and it actually turned out lovely. I was expecting the blue to be over-powering, but with one thin coat, it's actually quite nice. And the iridescent glitter is fun. It's so thick, it gives the polish a bit of a texture. In fact, I think it's killing my lemming of Zoya's Nyx Pixie Dust, so that's a success, at least!

Sugar Coat

Wet n Wild Sugar Coat (Megalast line)

Not much to say here. I wanted something simple after the trouble I had with Mauve, so I put on Sugar Coat. It was slightly streaky, as you can see, but nice regardless. I enjoyed it, anyway. The color is very similar to You Callin' Me a Lyre?

Wet n Wild has released more colors for their Megalast collection, but my Walgreens doesn't have them yet. I'm excited because Megalasts are a great way to spend $2, but there are only three of the original collection that I liked. I wonder I will like any of the new ones.

Mauve Essence

Sinful Colors Mauve (Haute Rebel)
Essence Glitter Topcoat

A friend let me try on a polish I don't have while I was at her house last night. Mauve is a color from the Haute Rebel Collection I didn't pick up. It was pretty enough, but for some reason I just decided against it. It's really a pretty greyed lilac, a great color.

But the application was the same as the other Sinful cremes I've tried, thick and tricky. I made a bit of a mess with it. Why do Sinful cremes all hate me?

Plus, it took forever to dry. No, I didn't add a topcoat because she didn't have one, but I added a few drops of Sinful's quick dry top coat when I got home, and it was still tacky. Gosh.

This morning I put Essence's glitter topcoat over top, but it just seemed to make matters worse. In the end, it was just kind of a smudgy mess, so I took the whole thing off. (I don't know what happened with the lighting on the glitter pictures. They turned out more grey than irl. Huh.)

Raindrops Franken Dupe Attempt 1

I almost ALMOST bought Raindrops the other day. Added to my cart and went to checkout, then stared at the total. With shipping to the US, it came to $32. That'd be a fine amount to spend, imo, for the BEST POLISH EVER, but who knows if this would be that for me? So I decided to proceed with my franken dupe instead. I went to the thrift store the next day and bought some minis to experiment into. (By the way, cleaning out polish bottles with acetone-based remover, rather than 100% acetone, works but takes time.) Here is my first attempt.

Ingredients:

GNP Ultimate Nail Hardener, my clear base, to make it jelly

Vintage Wet n Wild silver-blue pearl, for a hint of blue that I know the real Raindrops doesn't have but I wanted to add (also because my grey was a little dark on its own)

Maybelline Express Finish Gray-T Glamour, my grey, since it's what I had

Sally Hansen Glass Slipper, for the raindrops

And the last bottle is the franken!

I honestly didn't keep track of how much of what I used, since it was my first experiment, but I started with half of the mini bottle full of clear coat. This is how it ended up:

The glass flecks didn't hardly show up (did I not add enough?) so I basically wound up with a grey jelly. Hmm. It's pretty enough, I guess. And I do like that the WnW gave it just the slightest hint of pearl. I think I'll add some more Glass Slipper before I wear it next.

Edit: I'm starting to like it more and more, actually. I kind of hated it when I first put it on because it didn't look like the beautiful pictures on the internet. But I've been typing in the semi-dark of my room and looking down at my fingers, and it's actually pretty. The blue-grey color is a nice one, even though the pictures don't do it justice, and I really like the jelly-ness of it. I'm still going to add some more Glass Slippers, but I think I can keep it on as it is for the next couple of days. So I'm calling it a success!

Sheer White Comparison

China Glaze White Cap

Wet n Wild Break the Ice (Megalast line)

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu (NYC Ballet collection)

Sally Hansen Fog (Smooth and Perfect line)

Revlon Phantom Angel (Masquerade collection)

Yay, another sheer comparison! I was soooo excited to put these on! I applied three coats of everything to bring out the full color. Here we go!

First up is White Cap, which I've decided should actually be called "Golden Shimmer Cap." This polish is pretty, but I don't think it really belongs in the whites comparison. It's mostly golden shimmer, and the white base is merely an after thought. And, as I've found before, when applied over another color, the white disappears completely.

Next is Break the Ice. After seeing swatches of this on the nail board, I HAD to have it. And it didn't disappoint! This polish is downright gorgeous. It's a beautiful white, and the shimmer in it is stunning. It looks just like freshly fallen snow glimmering in the sunlight. Ahhh... <3

Then we have OPI's white from last year's NYC Ballet collection, Don't Touch My Tutu. It's pretty on its own, but extremely sheer. As you can see, it's clearly the most sheer of the batch. I was even tempted to use a fourth coat, but I refrained. It looks a little out of place next to the others, but as a full mani, it's very elegant. Plus, as it's a jelly, it makes for a fun jelly-glitter sandwich.

And then Fog, the white of the Smooth and Perfect line, which I'm so fond of. The nail board was telling me that the S&P polishes bubbled on them. I didn't have any problems with Linen or Sea doing this, but unfortunately Fog did. Oh well, it's hardly noticeable IRL, and I still love it.

Finally Phantom Angel, which is actually remarkably similar to Fog. It also bubbled, but just barely, and has a slightly more pearl finish.

Like the pinks, I love these colors so much!! But this time, it's not hard to pick a favorite. Although they all have their moments, Break the Ice is the clear winner here. Plus, it's currently in the core collection, unlike the rest of the polishes, so it's easy to find, and only $2.

Vintage NYPD

Vintage Wet N Wild - NYPD (Crystalic 491B)

Not much to say here. It's a pretty, pearl-y blurple (I kinda hate that word, but it's what they call it!) I got in a box of vintages hand-me-downs. It's nice, but I think it'll be going into the swap-box soon. First three fingers have two coats. Pinky has only one coat, because I like to see what things look like with only one coat. I'm silly like that. :P No clean-up, so sorry for the slight mess.

Beau's Pistachio Ocean

Sinful Colors Beau Khaki (Haute Rebel collection)
L'Oreal Pistachio Dream (Versailles Romance collection)
Sinful Colors Green Ocean

I love creating the post titles out of the polish names, haha. Anyway, I was excited to try all of these colors, but unfortunately, I don't think the resulting combination was all that great. They're all good colors, just maybe not together.

Beau Khaki is a beautiful sage green. It has the same thick formula that most Sinful Colors cremes share. And I'm getting better at application! This is one coat, no mistakes! (It took me a while to realize why EVERYONE was talking about the name, by the way. I mean, I know what they're going for, but it doesn't sound THAT similar. And then I realized that everyone was pronouncing the Japanese word with an American accent. Ah, that explains it. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably DON'T want to know :D) 

Pistachio Dream is a lovely pastel minty green. It was slightly streaky. This is two coats. Still debating whether or not to go back and get the pastel pink and blue. I'm leaning yes. :)

And then the Green Ocean, which is popular this time of year. It's cute, but I don't think it did anything for the already awkward color combination.

But while I was brushing my teeth last night, I noticed that the Pistachio Dream matched the towel I had in the bathroom! The girls on the MUA nailboard have been playing a game recently about taking pictures of ridiculous things their nails matched, like cat-litter boxes and bleach containers. I hurried to take a picture and share. My husband told me I was ridiculous. :D

Sinful Colors sells at Walgreens for $2. The Haute Rebel collection may still be available in your area. Green Ocean sells every year around St. Patrick's Day. The L'Oreal Versailles Romance collection doesn't seem to be very popular, so there very well might be a full display at your Walgreens! They sell for $6.50.

Hint of Rain

Sinful Colors Rain Storm (Haute Rebel collection)
Klean Color Take a Hint
NYC Matte Me Crazy

Started out with Rain Storm this morning. Again, made a little bit of a mess with it, so I decided to clean up after work. Note the tip wear throughout the pictures. I really need to learn how to properly wrap tips. The formula was just slightly thick, like the other SC cremes I've tried. It was darker than I normally like to wear, so I thought I was going to hate it, but the color is just too pretty to hate.

After work and cleanup, I added a couple coats Take a Hint. It's a pretty, iridescent hex glitter I haven't used before.

Now for the fun part: Matte-ifying! I've never matted anything before! It was soo much fun watching the matte dry! Turned out fine except for that time that I decided after it was dry that I missed a little next to my cuticles on a couple of nails and went back to get it. Oops. (It evened out a few hours later.)

Again, my pictures don't do the nails justice. Super pretty, I love them, especially with the matte. <3 I've heard that Matte Me Crazy isn't the best matte top coat out there, but it works fine for me, especially as my first matte. I've also heard that mattes chip easily, so I'm prepared to be sad when these nails don't last long after tonight. :/

The Haute Rebel collection may still be available at Walgreens where you live. SC sells for $2. NYC is $2 at Walmart. I haven't been able to find Klean Color anywhere in the wild, but here's their website. It looks like the glitter's no longer available on the site, but the other colors sell for $3.49.

Wear: Two days. The chipping was horrendous by the end of the second day, with the paint peeling off in sheets, but then the removal process was even worse! My acetone polish remover hardly even affected it. I LOVED the matte effect, but I will definitely think twice before putting it on again. I will definitely also need to grab some pure acetone before I attempt it again.

Sheer Pink Comparison

OPI You Callin' Me a Lyre? (NYC Ballet Collection)
Sinful Colors Social Ladder
Rimmel French Lingerie
Sinful Colors Glass Pink
Sally Hansen Linen (Smooth & Perfect line)

Wear: Six days. (I was loathe to remove my adorable pinks, so I kept them on as long as possible. Added another strengthening top coat on day three. Minor tip wear on day five, worse on day six, but still not majorly noticeable, considering the shades. Rimmel chipped first, followed by Sally Hansen.)

I'm getting tired of not being able to take good pictures. Maybe I'll invest in an actual lightbox, since my DIY project doesn't seem to be working at all. These colors are BEAUTIFUL. I've been staring at them all day because they're so gorgeous. I just wish I could take a picture that showed that.

Rimmel was the only one that gave me trouble, as you can see. It was a bit of a streak-fest, even at three coats. I want to play with it in the future to see if I can get it to behave. Apart from being the most streaky, it was also the whitest of the five.

The Sinfuls were wonderful to me, as usual. I feel that they work well as one-coaters, but I like my polish sheer. I applied two coats to show more of the color, although it doesn't matter now because of the pictures! Glass Pink is one of my favorites, one of the first ones I picked up when I first began buying. I hesitated buying Social Ladder because it looked so similar, but finally caved last week during the coupon sale. Upon closer inspection, Social Ladder has a milkier base and less prominent sparkle.

The Sally Hansen is a beautiful milky-pearl pink that I just can't get over. I loved Sea when I tried it, so I bought three more of the Smooth & Perfect collection. They're such lovely sheers, and I have no troubles with the application, which I hear (ironically) was one of the biggest problems people had with the line. I used two coats to show the color.

I was so excited to try You Callin' Me a Lyre, which was part of the 2011 NYC Ballet collection, and it didn't disappoint. It's a delicious, shiny sheer jelly, just the palest of pinks. I applied two coats, but mussed it up somehow when I put on the top coat, so I added another coat of the polish to fix it.

I love all of the colors sooo much! If I had to choose one, however, I think I would go with Linen. The application and color just work for me.

I want to do a sheer white comparison soon. I'm excited for all of these beautiful colors to stay on my fingers for a while, and even more excited for the next batch of pretties!