Blue green gradient nails

These nails are one of my favorites. Why? They're easy, quick, and you can use any nail polish you have! I used a couple colors from the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri collection. They're -extremely- pigmented and dry super fast. The only drawback is that when doing gradients, you must work quickly or else if you overblot it, pieces from the makeup sponge will start sticking to the nail.

If you're interested in trying this out, TheBeautyDepartment.com has a great tutorial for it. You literally wet a makeup sponge, squeeze outthe excess, apply your two colors on it (I prefer the cornering the thinner end) and press lightly. Then repeat until you reach your desired effect (3-5 times for me depending on the polish). Ta da! Have fun!

Gray/ Teal Plaid Mani

Why hello there! Today I thought I'd post a mani I'd seen on Pinterest using pastel colors. I feel weird using those colors if it's not Easter yet. And so, it's not quite that time yet, so I decided to stick with a gray/turquoise color combination. Amidst my great search for good (but cheap) nail polishes that are also good for stamping, I was greatly surprised to find that Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri collection is nothing short of fantastic!

I bought the shades "Snappy Sorbet," "Lively Lilac," and "Mint Sprint." They are so so so pigmented, much more so than the OPI & China Glazes that I bought last week (and let me just say that Empire Beauty Supply's customer service was a severe disappointment). Regardless, I tried all three shades and they were impeccably clean, smooth, and only needed one coat. The brush was a little on the thick side, but nothing that you can't get used to. For the mani, I had been dying to try OPI's Stranger Tides. Originally, I had wanted to use it for a newpaper mani that can be seen here. It's the perfect shade of old... well... newspaper. Lol. I still will try this method when I have more time.

Almost kind of looks St. Patrick's-y, doesn't it? Hm, well that's appropriate considering it's just around the corner! Which on that day, we will hopefully be hitting up HooleyFest!

Mani-wise, this came out quite nicely, but to my chagrin, I noticed that the white that I had painted over the Sally Hansen turned yellow! Weird, right? Or maybe not, but it definitely tripped me out! It might be whatever is in it to make it "Insta-Dri", but I thought it was so weird. I had never seen anything like it before. Good thing is you can only really see it if it's pointed out. Phew. :) OH! I almost forgot! So I've kind of been wanting a sleeve tattoo for a long time (6 years), and I finally got it! I'm so excited, but i'm going to wait for it to heal before the big reveal.

Nail Polishhhhhh

Hey guys, so the other day I saw these polishes and they caught my attention for different reasons.

My favorite color is teal, so pretty much anything resembling it will make me want to buy it. Its a sheer baby blue polish with tiny pixie dust glitter reflecting pink, lilac, green, and indigo. Next I pretty much bought the gray polish because I realized I didn't really have many solid colored polishes--most of mine have a sheen, shimmer, or glitter to them. Plus I saw my friend wearing it the other day and I had to have it. Next, we have Whimsical. I had seen it in the store once before but had held off on buying it. It seemed different enough to me, but I've never really cared for pink, and plus the polish itself looked like a milky, murky almost dirty dishwater blue, so I decided to pass.
However, maybe this time it was because I suffered from "It's the last bottle in stock, so maybe if I change my mind later and decide to buy it, it won't be here anymore and I'll hear about how awesome it is and I won't find it and I'll kick myself in the head for not getting it" syndrome that I finally bought it. You know what I'm talking about >:D.
Lastly, we have Glass Slipper. I don't really purchase much Sally Hansen, but ever since I heard the "Hidden Treasure" rumors, I've always at least lightly skimmed their selection just in case I should find something exceptional. See, "Hidden Treasure" is a flakie polish. If ya don't know what that is, google it. It's not glitter, and I would say it resembles a gold/silver/blue/pink/whatever color you find it in/ leaf polish. It's pretty rad, but it's also pretty rare to find a really good one for cheap.
I heard Essie's "Shine of the Times" was a good dupe for Hidden Treasure, so I bought it and am happy with it.

Here I used it in a VDay mani over a red to violet gradient. It's a clear polish with flakies shining from orange to green iridescence. Pretty.

It's kinda blurry but you can see especially on the index finger the flakies shining away!

So, anyways, to return to the point, I noticed Sally Hansen had a flakie polish. It didn't have a holo effect, duochrome or anything--it literally just looked like crystal shards of glass that were cut off and put in the bottle. I ended up liking it--I think it would look better over black or purple. And it was a b**** to photograph! But... interesting texture nonetheless.

I really liked "Whimsical" over the gray color. I had seen something similar on Lynderella's website (before I wanted EVERYTHING and then discovered she is no longer in business) wherein the colors resembled a brain somewhat. I really enjoyed the pink and baby blue hex glitter along with its corresponding micro glitter! Here I had painted three coats of all the polish, so I def wish there was more glitter power in this nail polish specifically. :) Hope you enjoyed!