China Glaze Infra-Red

I have a pretty polish for you today from China Glaze’s Hologlam collection currently out at Sally’s Beauty Supply. I picked up three of these beauties and I will use the other two in future manicures, so look for Strap on Your Moonboots and Galactic Gray to come soon. I hope you enjoy the photographs, I am still wearing Infra-Red currently, a week later. With zero chipping.

The combination I’ve been using are my ultimate combo of products for iron wear worthy results. I start with one layer of Sally’s Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Base Coat, a layer of Salon Sciences Instant Artificials, and then two to three coats of color, and topped with Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat in the red bottle. This is such an amazing combination for me. It’s exciting to me to be able to get this long of wear from a regular polish manicure.

You can even see some holo effect in my photographs. The formula on this was, as you’ve seen others reporting, thick and streaky on first coat. I didn’t want to go with Aqua Base on my first manicure with it, I wanted to be able to test out my regular routine with a chiptastic polish like a holo. I like the polishes I picked up, but I will probably thin them before I use one again. If you like holo polish, these are quite nice, but they are not screaming holo in your face like Layla or Color Club holo polishes do.

As for stamping, I thought about it and decided it was too pretty to stamp over. Thanks for coming by my blog and I wish you happy polishing.

Ferguson Crest Syrah, Another Fergie Polish

I bring you an interesting color, that once you see it in person you will most likely fall for. It reminds me of Hard Candy’s Beetle. I used my new usual combination of Sally’s Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Base Coat, Instant Artificials, two coats of color and then the final coat of Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat in the red bottle. I really am impressed with this combination as it seems like I can get up to 10 days of wear if I use my vinyl gloves to clean and do dishes.

I really love this line of polishes. I really do. They wear great on me and look awesome. I hope that you like the photos, I have yet to set up the lightbox. Hopefully I can get around to that in good time. I am looking forward to my next manicure, I have three of the China Glaze Hologlams, and I want to wear one next for you, most likely Infra-Red. I also picked up Strap On Your Moonboots, and Galactic Gray. So look for those coming soon. I have many wonderful manicures to come this spring and summer for you. Thanks for stopping by Nail Soup and as always, I wish you happy polishing!

Over The Moon & Eternal Beauty Halo-Hues

I really am delighted with this collection of polishes. I have five of them, and they are pretty spectacular. Today I bring you the best photo I was able to get of this manicure done without using the Instant Artificials. I used Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Base Coat, two coats of Over The Moon, and then Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat. This convinced me that that strengthener really does improve wear time. I got three days and by then had bad chipping, but I also hadn’t used my vinyl gloves when doing the dishes either.

So this was taken in my kitchen, you can most definitely see the holographic effect in this picture, and since I redid my nails today in Eternal Beauty, which you can totally see in the direct sunlight is very holographic, I thought I’d share both manicures with you today. On this one I applied my usual Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Base Coat, and then I used the Instant Artificials, two coats of the Color Club polish, and Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat in the red bottle. I am also back to using my gloves and will report on the wearability of this manicure in my next blog entry.

  

I love how awesome these polishes are, and that the Sally Hansen didn’t dull the holographic effect at all that I could see. One thing I wanted to mention is that it reminds me, speaking of Eternal Beauty under normal lighting, of Max Factor's Fantasty Fire over black. I know it’s not a dupe for it by any stretch, but it’s really a pretty pinkish purple polish, and I am so glad I picked it up. That’s all I have for you today, thanks for stopping by and I wish you happy polishing.

Revlon Dreamer & Santa’s Magic Back Again

A favorite manicure is too good not to repeat. A friend’s daughter is turning Sweet Sixteen Sunday and in honor of that event and another friend’s birthday yesterday, I thought I would bring back an old favorite manicure of mine. The trusty gorgeousness of Revlon’s Dreamer and the glittery goodness that is Finger Paints Santa’s Magic. I know I’ve done this one once before, but it’s one of my favorite combinations. And this time I am expecting to get some good wear out of it as I used my usual Beauty Secrets Moisturizing base coat, with Instant Artificials underneath my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip top coat. I am very pleased with this combination of base, strengthener, and top coats, they are wearing like iron for me since I’ve begun combining the three in this fashion.

Like last time I won’t be stamping over this one, it’s just too pretty to put another layer of polish overtop of. If you’re interested the video for this polish in motion is located here:

My Blue Eyed Soul manicure, stamped with Pure Ice, Silver Mercedes lasted a full week and had zero chipping, so I think I really might be onto something with this combination for myself. I wish what worked for me, would work for everyone, but the truth in my experience, is you need to experiment with base coat and top coat combinations to see what is your best working combination. I am planning on trying something else for a base coat and I will keep you informed on when that happens and how it goes when I switch it up a bit. Thank you for coming by and checking out my blog and I wish you happy polishing.

St. Patrick’s Day Manicure

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today I have a green manicure with gold four-leaf clovers that I am pretty pleased with. It could have been a little better on lining up the images, but I enjoyed it for the 5 days I’ve worn it for. I used China Glaze Watermelon Rind, which has been discontinued, so if you like it you’ll probably have to grab it from an online retailer if you can't get it on clearance right now at Sally's. I used my usual Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Base Coat, two coats of Watermelon Rind, then one coat of Instant Artificials, then after two minutes I applied my new go to top coat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip top coat.

I waited about 45 minutes before I stamped with Maybelline Bold Gold using my XL Stamper, but I saw from the first image transfer onto it that it was not going to cooperate. So I pulled out my Konad stamper and immediately the results were much better. I placed my first image but it wasn’t where I thought it was going on my ringer fingernail, and so when I picked up and placed the second smaller clover on the ring fingernail it too came off a little wonky. Anyway, the others were easier, except for the index fingernail. It just served to remind me that I believe there’s no such thing as a perfect manicure. Once the BoldGold had dried I top coated using NYC Grand Central Station. I got a lot of compliments on this manicure too. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great St. Patrick’s Day! Happy polishing!

Another Fergie, Blue Eyed Soul

I bring you a lovely blue today, Fergie’s Blue Eyed Soul, very pretty both in the bottle and on the nail. I have had a thing for these polishes lately. I am including a picture of the brush this time around as I meant to mention it before, but it’s a very wide brush. It is hard to get your pinky without getting polish on the skin at the sides. But with a little practice it is possible, at least on the left hand. I am very impressed with the brand so far, they are wearing well for me, I got five days without any chipping on my Miami Spirit manicure and I got nearly a week on my Make Them Boys Go Loco manicure.

Onto the polishes I used, I went with my usual base, the Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Base Coat, only this time rather than applying Instant Artificials on over the color I put it on over the base coat. When I did the red manicure I had some of the color bleed into the applicator brush, so I wanted to try something different. Then I applied two coats of Blue Eyed Soul, but it easily could have been a one coater, so I am thinking it might stamp well. It’s almost a metallic denim blue, my camera did its best to capture the color, but I suggest checking out Walgreen’s for this one to see it in person. And I have temporarily put aside my Seche Vite for now, in favor of Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat which is working out well for me.

I let them set for 45 minutes before stamping using one of my new Winstonia plates, W111 and the polish I went with was Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. It was perfect too. I was delighted that my XL stamper worked this time, my previous manicure for Sunday’s St. Patrick’s Day manicure, it gave me trouble and I had to use my konad stamper. Luckily it might have been the combination of Maybeline’s Bold Gold from the Metallic Color Show collection. At any rate, I think the results speak for themselves. I used NYC Grand Central Station for my top coat after the stamping like I like to do, because for me it hardly ever smears my work. Thank you for reading and I wish you happy polishing.

Another Fergie: Miami Spirit

I have another one for you, this one is Fergie’s Miami Spirit; a bright green polish that wore pretty well for me, although I did suffer a break on the right ring fingernail. I am thinking it’s time to try something different so I am going to use some Instant Artificials on my next mani under something different and see how it works out. But for this manicure I used my usual Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Base Coat, with Seche Vite. I used two coats of the Fergie, and no glitter with this manicure, though I was tempted to do some Sinful Colors Green Ocean, but ended up not using it.

I had intended to stamp gold four leaf clovers over this manicure, but I wasn’t able to. Real life got in the way. I hope you liked this one, I was surprised at how much I liked this color, I think I would have liked it even more with some gold clovers, but there’s always next time. So far every one of the Fergie polishes I've tried has worn really well and been to my liking, if you've picked any up I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Thank you for stopping by and happy polishing!