SOTD: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue

Oh, what a beautiful color! There are no words to describe it! (Or rather, there are too many words to describe it.) A perfect shade of cornflower blue: a lighter medium-toned blue with the barest hint of violet. Such a unique shade!





For about $3US you get .4 fl oz of this beautiful liquid. Goes on with creamy coverage in two coats.




Indirect sunlight, pictured above.



Direct Sunlight, pictured above.


Verdict: the hype you may or may not have heard about this polish is true - it is a must have! Honestly, if this is the type of polish (on consistency of the formula alone) that people are describing when they talk about Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes, I could see why they would be in love with that company. Buttery, creamy, opaque. And all in two coats!

Now the shade is another matter altogether. In bright light, it appears a lighter shade of blue (as seen in the first photo), but go indoors to dimmer lighting and the color seems to change. The purple undertones come out and the polish looks like it's almost a different polish. Still completely beautiful, but a darker shade altogether. If you can, stop by your local drugstore as soon as possible to pick up this beauty!

ND5: Triple Scoop

When picking out the colors used for this nail design, the first thing that came to mind was Rainbow Sherbet Ice Cream. And what could be better than one scoop of three flavors mixed together? Why three separate scoops, of course!

images from polyvore.com

The colors used for this nail design (from left to right) were: Powerful Peach by Jessica, Sun Kissed by Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, and Green With Envy by Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear.





Step 1: Cut a thick strip of blue painter's tape that covers about one-third of your nail. Place the strip of tape diagonally across the nail, pressing down firmly. On each nail, paint the first color, immediately followed by the third color in the pattern, layering the colors on the nail in quick succession.




When done with the painting, quickly pull up the piece of tape in the same direction the piece of tape lies on the nail, following the angle the tape was placed in.




Step 2: Once Step 1 is dry, use two pieces of tape per nail to cover the edge of the top (first) and bottom (third) color, making sure to get as close to the edge where the middle color will be laid down, without leaving a gap.




Here is the final product, with top coat:




What do you think? Does this manicure/nail design make you think of ice cream? Or maybe it just screams "Spring"?


Thanks for looking. Bye for now.

ND4: Golden Stripes of Sunshine aka Cheshire Stripes

Nail Design 4 is an alternating pattern of two different colors, with three stripes of each color. The final design reminded me of golden sunrays, so that's where the name comes in.

image from physics.unlv.edu

This basic pattern was used in the Cheshire Cat inspired nails (shown HERE), but this design can be used in a simplified format, if both colors used are cremes that are completely opaque, or if the purpose of this design is to have the color on top overlapping the original color, for a more unique look.



Step 1 is to completely cover the nail in the base color. The color used here is Orly Spark (an old formula polish), that translated as a light yellow creme.




If you are short on time and would like to move onto Step 2 right away, you can use your favorite fast dry top coat or quick dry nail drops to speed up the drying process.




Step 2 is where the blue tape comes in. Depending on the nail length, cut three even strips of blue tape and layer it at even intervals over the original color, making sure to press the tape down firmly so there is no gap where the second/top nail color can leak under and leave a mark.




After painting the top color, immediately pull off the strips of tape in the direction the tape was laid down, so no pull will occur from the top polish and the lines should be straight and even.


Here is the final result:




Now this same design can be used with Jelly polishes that you don't want overlapped, and that follows a slightly different format. These are the first 3 steps to the Cheshire Cat nail design.


Step 1 is to cut three even strips of painter's tape and layer them evenly along the nail, then painting on the first color over the base coat/natural nails.





After pulling off the tape used in Step 1 and letting the first color dry, cut a total of 5 slim strips of blue tape, where 4 of the strips should be slim enough to not completely cover the original color, but wide enough to be overlapped with another strip of tape to then completely cover the original color.


When laying down the strips of tape in Step 2, make sure each strip of tape just barely touches the edge of each side of the original color of polish, so there will be a barely visible overlap, otherwise there is the possibility of a gap occurring between the two colors.




And this is the final look for the alternating stripes of color when using Jelly, transparent, or sheer polishes.




There are extra details that can be added to this look, such as painting a glitter top coat over the dried stripes, but this look can be left alone to wow the crowd.

So, what do you think? Would you try one of these looks? Or both? What colors would you use?


Thanks for looking! Bye for now.

Easter Inspired Nails

I thought I'd do something Easter inspired for a nail design. Not eggsactly egg-inspired, but quite close.

image from eHow.com

I wanted to use light colors, keeping Spring and all its light and bright it brings to mind. From left to right, I used Tattoo You Want Candy? by OPI, Sun Kissed by Sally Hansen, Spark by Orly, I Love Mummy by OPI, and Witch Arm? by OPI. (Note: The mini OPI polishes are from the Tattoo Ta-Boo Halloween Kit from October 2009. These polishes are said to be comparable to actual OPI colors - like I Love Mummy being the same shade, consistency, and quality as Alpine Snow.)




Step 1 was a complete coat of a creme white polish. Because it was the tops of the nails that were going to be layered over in other colors, the white polish did not have to be painted all the way to the beginning top of the nail.





Step 2 begins the use of blue tape. The size of the small strip of tape that is layered over the white first, is the one in which size matters, since that piece is meant to divide between the painting of the yellow and orange polishes.





For Step 3, after the yellow and orange stripes have been laid down on the thumb, middle, and pinky fingers, the tape for the design on the index and ring finger must be cut. To achieve the zig-zag/wavy line that looks like a cracked egg shell design, pinking sheers (craft scissors) can be used. If you do not have craft scissors, you can draw a wavy line on a piece of paper or cardstock, adhereing a piece of painter's tape to the other side, then cutting along the wavy line (which is what I did).

image from Adorama.com

After the tape is placed on the bottom-half of the nail with the wavy edge facing up, the yellow polish is layered onto the top of the nail.





Step 4 consisted of adding the detailing to the image of the baby chick for a face, on both the index and ring fingers. First, a triangle was made using small strips of tape to mask off the area of the beak, then the tape was pulled away, and the polish brush from the bottle was used to dot on two eyes.





So the final product is as follows:




An alternating pattern of stripes and baby chicks in bright/pastel shades to represent both Easter and Spring.


The little baby chick was inspired by a nail design I saw on the nail blog Katrina's Nail Blog. Check out the design HERE to see my inspiration.


Thanks for looking at my Easter nail design. Bye for now.