Miracle Gel by Sally Hansen SUCKS!

I have not posted in over 2 years but just HAD to come out of "retirement" to tell you NOT to waste your money on this polish!

I paid $11 dollars per bottle here in Canada for this and I am super disappointed and actually pretty angry. I am so tired of products not living up to their claims. There was tip edge wear and a chip within hours of putting it on and I didn't do anything!  I didn't do dishes or gardening or anything like that!  

They claim it is a cross between lacquer and gel but with no light required.  They also claim it will last up to 14 days. Here is a screen shot from their website. Sounds like a dream come true! 4 stars with 359 reviews! Sounds great! No so much. Click on the image below to go to their website and read some of the reviews. You have to actually read reviews because people do stuff like give it 4 stars even though it has shown wear within one day! That should not be happening based on the Sally Hansen product claims therefore it should not get 4 stars! We are so used to products not living up to their claims that we think it is normal and acceptable. Even the people who did rate it properly and were as miserably disappointed as I am won't return the product! That is why companies keep getting away with this stuff. I am taking mine back! I hope you will too!

NFU OH FLAKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click on the photo to see a much larger version.

Only one thing could bring me out of my nail polish hibernation!  The availability of Nfu Oh Flakie polishes (also known as Victorian and Opals) here in Canada! I have coveted these polishes since first "re-discovering" nail polish about a year and a half ago.  These polishes were the ones that I wanted the most but could not have them.  I simply could not justify buying them from the US for almost $15 a bottle and then add on shipping, taxes, duty, etc.  I told myself I didn't want them that bad.  I tried to fill the hole in my heart with other polishes.  Dozens, no I must admit, hundreds of other polishes! I did end up with many beautiful polishes but  I was never satisfied. But now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Heaven!  I'm in Heaven!  I don't remember the rest of the song.

I am now the proud and excited owner of Nfu Oh 38, 43, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57, 58, 59, 66

Here is a quick little teaser video.  Kinda dark and blurry but the colours look true.  In order of appearance from left to right they are Nfu Oh 50, 57, 56, 52, 66, 51, 59, 58, 49, 43, 38

I purchased these beauties at Nail Polish Canada.  I can't say enough about them. They have a fantastic selection and carry some of the most wanted polishes such as Nfu Oh and Deborah Lippmann. They also carry Konad stuff as well.  Their customer service is exceptional! I emailed them when I bought my first few Nfu Oh's asking about if they would be getting in some other colours I wanted. They said they would be and that they would email when they arrived.  I said yes please but to be honest I would not have been surprised if they had not followed through.  But they (thank you Nikki!) did!  They actually remembered to email me several weeks later and tell me they were in stock.  That is true customer service that is unfortunately pretty much unheard of nowadays. Even without that they have been exceptional.  They usually have my orders packed and shipped within 24 hours unless of course it's the weekend. Each bottle is carefully wrapped in bubble wrap. Because I am lucky enough to live basically in the same City I get it super fast.  In fact with this last order of Nfu Oh's I placed it on a Thursday morning and had it the next day! Woohoo! Last but not least they do FREE CANADIAN SHIPPING on orders of $29.00 or more. I love you Nail Polish Canada!

More soon!

Vanna K Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend

Wow!  An ad showed up here on my blog page for Vanna K and I just had to click on it and check it out!  Her designs enchant me!  Such beautiful art!!  Romantic.  Gorgeous.  Detailed.  Breathtaking.  Fascinating.  I could go on and on.  She appears to be in the US only and specializing in engagement sets. I don't own a single diamond but I would be happy to own just one piece by Vanna K!  In other words I am not a diamond or jewellery expert but you don't have to be to know that this woman and her work is special and exceptional.

I just spent about an hour going through her
website:  http://www.vannak.com
and her blog:  http://blog.vannak.com

What do you think?

This is the ring I want!

Revlon Scented Fizz!

Was shopping at London Drugs last week and came across these lovelies!  They are loaded with glass fleck although for the yellow and orange ones especially it looks like small metallic flakes of the same colour as the polish. As  always with glass fleck polishes they are quite sheer.  I think this is necessary for the glass flecks to catch the light.  The yellow, green and orange seem like jellies or sorbets.  The blue and purple seem a touch less sheer.  The bottle tops have a scratch and sniff sticker on them so you can preview the scents.  All were subtle and not over powering or sickening as some can be.  Even with five different scents on my hands it just smelled like fruity mint!  : )

Thumb - Purple - Grape Fizz - sheer - pink and purple flecks more like micro shimmer.
Index - Blue - Mint Fizz - sheer - flecks more like micro shimmer.  This colour will STAIN your skin so try not get it on your skin and be sure to use a base coat.
Middle - Yellow - Pineapple Fizz - sheer - large yellow flecks that look like metallic flakes.
Ring - Green - Apple-tini Fizz - sheer - large green flecks that look like metallic flakes and some light blue or sea foam green micro shimmer as well.
Pinky - Orange - Orange Fizz - sheer - large orange flecks that look like metallic flakes.

Sparkly China Glaze

This mani was a quick fix.  I had only a little time so I just grabbed the first thing that caught my eye.  I used China Glaze First and Last for the base and top coat.  First coat of lacquer was Polar Ice by China Glaze.  It's a small to medium size holo glitter in an almost clear base.  Unfortunately it was clear that no matter how many coats I could put on of this the yellow of my nails would show through.  As I mentioned I didn't have much time so dealing with the yellow using lemon or whatever was not an option.  So then I grabbed Drenched In Diamonds by China Glaze.  It's a frosted sparkly silver that almost looks white sometimes.  I slapped a coat of that on top of the Polar Ice.  Then did another coat of Polar Ice on top of that and then the top coat.  Wasn't sparkly enough so I added another coat of Polar Ice and another coat of top coat!  LOL  So there is 3 coats of First and Last, 3 coats of Polar Ice and 1 coat of Drenched in diamonds on here but not that order.  It's pretty.  I like it.

Here's a short video of the 2 polishes in the bottle.

Sparkly Cinderella Shoes!

I love these shoes!  They have a small hidden platform and are not crazy high.  Someday I will have a pair!  It says they are sequin glitter.  Bet they are even more fantastic in person.  Do you have shoes like this?  Would you dare to wear them?  I think I would only dare at Christmas and on my Birthday.  They have several different colours including one called "multi" which is probably like Mad Hatter Nail Polish by OPI.  Speaking of which, I broke down and bought a bottle on ebay.  Sadly it is delayed by the postal strike here in Canada.  Love these shoes.

 

If you search the site where these came from
http://www.pretty-small-shoes.com/acatalog/small_size_cinderella_heels_CLOSE_TOE__CINDERELLA_.html
using the name Cinderella you will see they have other shoes by that name in varying styles such open toe and sling backs.  The "Dark Cinderella" shoes have glitter that reminds me of Mad Hatter by OPI.   The nylons the model is wearing with them looks horrible!

Here are a couple of other pairs of similar shoes that I love but would never wear because they are just too crazy high.

Christian Louboutin Strass Daffodil Glitter Pumps High Heels

These are gorgeous!  It reminds me of dew drops.  Extra points for the red underside.

Christian Louboutins Very Mix Peep Toe Galaxy Pumps

Assorted Sparkly Zoyas

LEFT HAND (click to enlarge)

This mani is some of the sparkliest Zoya polishes I own.  Of course these photos do not do them justice.  After many photos I did get the colour quite accurate.  Purple is always a tough colour to photograph as it tends to come out more blue.  The pinky pink is a bit brighter and deeper in person with visible pink sparkle.  Hot Pink!  The gorgeous blue, which I call peacock blue, has a light green sparkle.  I did this mani on June 6th.  Didn't take photos until the next day.  The 4 colours on the left hand fingers (not the thumb) are from the Zoya Sparkle Collection.  Ivanka, on the right hand, is also from that collection.  It was a favourite collection for sure.

RIGHT HAND (click to enlarge)

LEFT HAND
Thumb - Julieanne
Index - Alegra
Middle - Charla
Ring - Mimi
Pinky - Gilda

RIGHT HAND
Thumb - Edyta
Index - Gloria
Middle - Crystal
Ring - Tiffany
Pinky - Ivanka

I could not find my Zoya basecoat so I used OPI Start to Finish.  I used a single layer of the Zoya Armor topcoat.

About a week after doing the mani I did some stamping on the left hand. There was a bit of tip wear but I was happy with how well the Zoya held up. The polish I used for stamping was a very old Sally Hansen Chrome polish called Diamond. The plate used is Konad M57.  The pattern on my index finger is noticeably a smidge to short to cover the entire length of the nail. I did not apply top coat after stamping as I had not planned on keeping it on very long. It was my intention to do a fresh mani later that day.

I ended up keeping it on for another week!  You can see the grow out gap between the cuticle and the polish and some tip wear.  You can also see the stamped on polish worn off in spots. Even more remarkable is that I washed dishes several times in the 3 days before this picture was taken.  Normally I wear gloves to protect the polish but I was planning on taking it off anyway.  I fully expected it to peel at it didn't.  I'm kinda shocked that this is how it looks after 2 weeks with just one top coat and some dish washing to test it!  Yay Zoya!

I have been very impatiently waiting about 2 months now for the Zoya Sunshine Collection to be available here in Canada.  So frustrating!!!!!

Sensational Scarlet by Nicole

This one, Sensational Scarlet by Nicole, was an adventure! Gorgeous colour loaded with glitter. It's a pink so deep and dark it's a hair away from being a red. The brush made things a little challenging. It is short and wide and picks up a whole lotta polish. Plus this polish is very thick due to the high glitter content. Application was not much fun.

When it dried the polish was very dull.  It was also very bumpy.  I think I ended up putting 3 coats of top coat on trying to smooth it out but it never did.  This polish was also very difficult to get off.  It was the most difficult of all glitter polishes I have and I have A LOT!  The glitters from the OPI Burlesque collection have full on glitter comes off easier than this stuff.

Despite having all of that against it I will use this polish again.  It`s different and it`s a gorgeous colour.  More pictures....

click on it to enlarge and see texture.

All with top coat

with (index & ring) and without (middle & pinky) top coat.

A super short 13 second video of the sparkle:

Addition - June 20, 2011

Just wanted to share what this polish looked like when I started to remove it.  After the first bit of rubbing it was revealed how much glitter is in this polish.

Blog View Options

Did you know that Blogger allows for 5 other viewing options?  Not all blogs will be set up to allow for it but most will.  It's pretty cool.  I'm all about the pictures so when I find a new blog I use the flipcard view so I can get a fast and easy look and all the pictures from previous posts.  Makes exploring even more fun.  All you do, when at a blogger blog, is add the word view to the end of the blog.

http://sparkliciousglitterama.blogspot.com/view
On this page in the right top corner you will see a blue box with white text.  This is a drop down list of the different view options.

http://sparkliciousglitterama.blogspot.com/view/flipcard
Flipcard shows the photos from the blog.  It's called flipcard because when you hold your mouse over a photo it flips over and you see the title of the blog post that contains that photo and the date it was published.  Click on it again and it will show you the full blog post.  You can choose to view the flip cards 4 different ways:
Recent - Ungrouped
Date - Grouped by Date (Month/Year)
Label - Grouped by Label
Author - Grouped by Author

http://sparkliciousglitterama.blogspot.com/view/mosaic
Mosaic shows the photos from the blog in a variety of shapes and sizes.  When you hold your mouse over a photo it is magnified and the title of the blog post it is from appears.  If you click on it you will get the full blog post.

http://sparkliciousglitterama.blogspot.com/view/sidebar
Sidebar gives you just that.  A sidebar on the left that has a tiny little photo and the title from the blog posts with the most recent at the top and the oldest at the bottom.  Click on one and get a view of the full blog post and the sidebar remains.

http://sparkliciousglitterama.blogspot.com/view/snapshot
Mosaic and Flipcard views show just one photo from each blog post.
Snapshot view shows every photo.  They look like polaroid snapshots with the blog post title at the bottom in blue text and when you hold your mouse of them you get a snippet of text from the blog post.  Click on it for the full blog post.

http://sparkliciousglitterama.blogspot.com/view/timeslide
Timeslide is....  I`m not quite sure what is going on with this one.  Check it out.

What do you think of these views?  Do you have a favourite?  I can`t decide on just one.  I think it might be Mosaic.

Burgundy Bounty Part 2

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I almost made 6 months without breaking a nail!  They always break right at the quick.  For the last while I have been trimming them when they get to a certain length in hopes of preventing breakage.  That point was reached at the time I did my burgundy mani last Monday.  It was time to trim them back a bit but It was late and I decided to wait another week.  Sure enough just a couple days later....  Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh : (

So I went ahead and trimmed all my nails and did a little stamping with my new Bundle Monster plates!  The plate images are larger than the old ones but still not large enough to cover my nails at the length they were.  I ordered my plates on Wednesday, April 27th.  I recieved a ship notification email the same day just 3 hours after placing the order!  Wow!  They are as excited as us to get those plates out there. I live in British Columbia Canada and the plates arrived in 9 business days on May 10th.  I received 2 of plate BM201 and did not received plate BM210.  When I emailed Bundle Monster they were exceptionally apologetic and assured me the problem would be remedied immediately.  It was such a nice and reassuring email I just have to share it with you.

Thank you for your email regarding your recent Bundle Monster order.  We are sorry to hear that you received only a partial order.  We strive to always offer quality service and we apologize that this was not the case.

We will send you the missing plate BM210 in the mail.  Please expect to receive the replacement package in 7 to 20 business days to Canada

We are truly sorry that a plate was missing from your order and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention.  We look forward to shopping with you again.


The whole experience with Bundle Monster was exceptional.  One of the best experiences I have had.  Thank you Bundle Monster!  I dealt with them via their Amazon store which is here:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_beauty?_encoding=UTF8&node=3760911&field-brandtextbin=BundleMonster


Left Hand Fingers
Index - BM-223 using Revlon Diamonds Are Forever
Middle - BM-206 using OPI DS Exclusive
Ring - BM-211 using Sally Hansen Chrome Champagne
Pinky - BM-206 using OPI DS Extravagance

 
Right Hand Fingers

Pinky - BM-203 using OPI DS Extravagance

Ring - BM-208 using Konad Black  (the gold is from a failed gold attempt that I wiped off)

Middle - BM-202 using Revlon Diamonds Are Forever

Index - BM-221 using Sally Hansen Chrome Champagne

Thumb - BM-221 using Revlon Diamonds Are Forever

Burgundy Bounty

This weeks' mani is 5 polishes that look like one of my favourite colours in the bottle.... burgundy!  I define burgundy as purple that is so red it is no longer purple and is now burgundy.  On the nail is another story.  It's a fine line between burgundy and wine and one of them actually is closer to what I have seen others call Raspberry.  Here are the names of the polishes I used in order, thumb to pinky:

Social Animal by China Glaze - Worst smelling.  Skinny brush means many strokes to cover nail.
Rihana by Zoya - Best application!  Thick little brush.  Love it.
Cowgirl Up by China Glaze - Slighly thicker than other China Glaze so went on a touch easier despite skinny  brush.
Adoring Amethyst by Sally Hansen  - Worst application.  Streaky and watery.  Horrible uneven coverage.  Took 3 coats when bottle says 2 and is much lighter on the nail than in the bottle.  Not to mention, how weird is the name?  When I hear Amethyst I think purple.  This is not purple.  It's also not drying.  Still tacky after 45 minutes.
Dark Roses by Sally Hansen - Easy application and good coverage.

Sorry, I didn't realize how late it is.  Photos of my nails is going to have to wait until tomorrow night. Bye for now!

P.S. Look what I got....
The new Bundle Monster Plates!
Those will be my next post!

Ok, here are some photos using my cell phone.  It's always good at getting the colour right.  Have to say this is the most messed up mani I have had in a long time!  The polish just didn't want to dry.  Perhaps it is the humidity we had.  Did it too close to bed so woke up with every nail messed up somehow.  I chip, a piece fuzz, fingerprint, sheet print, and more! Was amazed at how much the top coat hides!


Low Light





Decent Light



Bright Light



Thumb - Social Animal by China Glaze

Index - Rihana by Zoya

Middle - Cowgirl Up by China Glaze - Slighly thicker than other China Glaze so went on a touch easier despite skinny  brush.

Ring - Adoring Amethyst by Sally Hansen

Pinky - Dark Roses by Sally Hansen


Rhiana, Cowgirl Up and Dark Roses are pretty much identical. 

Social Animal and Adoring Amethyst are very close.  I thinkAdoring Amethyst is red rather than burgundy.  Social Animal has a fair amount of pinkish shimmer.  It makes me think "jelly" when I look at it but I don't think it is . As for colour, it is more of a cranberry or raspberry.  It's an unusual colour that is growing on me more and more.

Sally`s Haul on Black

This mani started with 2 coats of Black Out by Orly. Next I layered 9 of the polishes I recently purchased at Sally`s on top. I found a small bottle of Rocker Chick by Orly that I forgot I had which I also used because it was similar to the others. There are 3 bottles left to be used from that haul. They will be part of my next glitter mani! But that is another day.

I`m having a really hard time capturing these polishes. Kinda almost give up. Will try to get a video tomorrow. Got a few pictures. Mostly it is the super subtle Fifty-Four and Love Each Other that I can`t get. I`ll give it another try tomorrow as I said. In the meantime here are a couple of each hand. One blurrier to try and get some holo and sparkle colour.

Thumb - Sally`s - pale pink with holo

Index - China Glaze - Fairy Dust

Middle - Orly - Shine On Crazy Diamond

Ring - Orly - Fifty-Four

Pinky - Orly - Love Each Other

Thumb - Nina - Opal Elegance

Index - Sally`s mini - no name

Middle - Sally`s mini - no name

Ring - Orly - Rocker Chick

Pinky - Sally`s mini - pink

Layering Experiment

Good evening!  This was just some experimentation that I had not planned on sharing but the colour came out so bold I decided to share it.  Unfortunately neither photos or video could capture just how intense the colour was.  I can't even find the right words to describe it.  Gaudy but cool?  I am for sure going to do this again for keeps.  It started with a coat of Black Onyx by OPI.  It was going on kinda thin and streaky but I didn't want to do 2 coats so I laid it on thick which of course led to bubbles.  Then it was 2 coats of some gorgeous glass fleck loaded polishes.  No top coat.  No clean up 'cause I had not intended to share it.  Sorry for the ugly.  : )

Also want to try green, lime, red, and purple glass fleck as well next time.

The ones I tried this time appear in the same order on my nails as they do in the top photo:

Pinky - Lighthouse by China Glaze

Ring - Spectrum by Sally Hansen

Middle - Byte by Sally Hansen

Index - Laser by Sally Hansen

Thumb - Orange Marmalade by China Glaze

Sally's Haul

I only just recently discovered that there is a Sally's Beauty Supply just 15 minutes away from me.  A couple of days ago I finally made it there.  I arrived to find that they were having a sale in April:  Buy 2 bottles of nail polish, get one free.  Of course the sale had already been going on for 28 days so I'm sure I missed out on some great stuff.  Still managed to find 9 full size and 4 Sally's mini bottles of sparkly goodness that I wanted.  When I was taking photos I left out 2 bottles as the were not very sparkly and I wasn't as in love with them as I am the others.  They are included in the video.  Those 2 are a milk chocolate coloured shimmer called Unplugged by China Glaze and Goth by Orly which is a black cream with sparse silver glitter. The following pictures are slightly blurry to try and catch the sparkle.  Of course photos never do them justice, especially not holos.  Which is why I did a video.

First a couple of group photos and then some close-ups.  Descriptions listed based on polishes in order left to right:

Tiara - Orly - small silver glitter
Shine On Crazy Diamond - Orly - small holo and micro silver glitter in a clear base
Fairy Dust - China Glaze - micro holo glitter in a clear base that is finer and denser than Shine On Crazy Diamond.
Opal Elegance - Nina Ultra Pro - small holo and micro silver glitter in a milky base.  Very close to Shine On Crazy Diamond.
2 Sally's Minis - can't find a name on them.



Love Each Other - Orly - Purple (or is it blue & pink?) glass fleck in a milky base.
Fifty-Four - Orly - Pink glass fleck in a milky base.
Laugh My Art Off - Finger Paints - small blue glitter
2 Sally's Minis - can't find a name on them.

The following pictures may end up all over the place:

Tiara by Orly

Shine On Crazy Diamond - Orly

Fairy Dust - China Glaze

Opal Elegance - Nina Ultra Pro

Love Each Other - Orly

Fifty-Four - Orly

Laugh My Art Off - Finger Paints

Sally's Minis

Here's the video!  It's my first longer video with voice so I'm not totally "together" yet.   LOL  Did stuff like forget to say the name of a polish and had a little trouble getting or keeping stuff in frame and the labels being out of focus and.... ya.   : )  Enjoy the rainbows and sparkles!