Sally Hansen Salon Crushed Velvet

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Sally Hansen Salon Crushed Velvet was a Canadian exclusive from the now-discontinued Salon line a while back, and I was fortunate to have someone in Canada offer to pick it up for me.  It's is an unusually pretty, glowy purple shimmer.  For the manicure, after applying base coat I used two coats of Crushed Velvet, then one of Poshe.  It wasn't shiny enough with Poshe (the reason I never stick with Poshe), so I added one coat of a Sally Hansen quick-dry that doesn't work too well but is very shiny.

Sally Hansen Salon Crushed Velvet Nail Polish, Two Coats

Crushed Velvet is really a gorgeous polish with excellent application, which definitely makes me wish it hadn't been released as a non-US country exclusive from a line that's discontinued.

That's the update for today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!




All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen.

Stamping Plate D15

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm still playing with the D-Series stamping plates, and today I used D15, which has a bunch of star-themed patterns on it.  I figured I'd go for a night sky kind of thing, so I started out with Sally Hansen Salon Navy Baby, a reliable two coat navy shimmer, and stamped various patterns from D15 over it using China Glaze Millennium, a silver chrome.  Here's what it looked like when I was finished on a cloudy day.

Stamping Plate D15 in Silver over Sally Hansen Salon Navy Baby Nail Polish

The man in the moon was a little smudgy, and I got a smudge with the star surrounded by tiny stars as well, but I find that kind of thing is easier for me to mess up with a chrome polish for stamping rather than the usual Konad polishes I'm accustomed to.  Since there's not a silver Konad polish that shows up this well, I'll just have to live with it.

That's the scoop for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Sally Hansen Honeydew & Konad m60

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I thought I'd do a "real" blog post today in addition to the Zoya Touch Collection pre-sale announcement, so I figured I'd show you the manicure I'm wearing today.  It's Sally Hansen Salon (the now discontinued square bottle) Honeydew with just a little bit of white Konad.

Honeydew is an all-time favorite of mine and it's perfect for Spring.  I've been delving into my train case of most precious polishes lately, and that's where this one belongs.  The polish is a two-coater, and it applies beautifully.  Here it is by itself in the sun.

Sally Hansen Honeydew Nail Polish, Two Coats

I added a little flower pattern from Konad plate m60 in Konad White Pearl Special Polish to my ring finger for an accent nail.

Sally Hansen Honeydew Nail Polish with Konad m60 in White Pearl

It's very Spring-y and happy, so I like it.  That's just about all there is to tell you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

OPI Silver Shatter & Navy Baby

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm wearing OPI Silver Shatter over Sally Hansen Salon Navy Baby today, and so I have pictures of it for you.  I did something a little different this time, I forgot to leave one nail the usual way so we could see whether it made a difference.  I'll tell you about it when that step fits in.

I started out with base coat, then two coats of Navy Baby followed by quick dry top coat to dry it.  What I liked about the Silver Shatter over Dragon manicure was the bigger cracks in it, but I thought the pieces of silver drifted a little far apart.  The idea I had to try to let the thicker coat of Silver Shatter break up nicely but not have the pieces run away from each other was to use a coat of sticky base coat (I had Nubar Foundation handy and used that) over the quick dry top coat just before applying Silver Shatter.  So once the whole Navy Baby manicure was dry, I added a thin coat of Foundation, gave it about two minutes to dry, then added a thick coat of Silver Shatter and two coats of quick dry top coat to smooth it out.  The plan was to add Foundation to nine nails so we could see a clear With and Without to tell if it made a difference, but I was watching a movie when I did the manicure, and it was a creepy part when I was applying Foundation and I got distracted, so we'll know if it made a difference another time... Here's the manicure.

OPI Silver Shatter over Sally Hansen Salon Navy Baby in Sunlight

I really like this one a lot too, and I think Foundation may have changed the continental drift I didn't care for over the red, so I'll have to do a decent test to find out.  With all the China Glaze Crackles and Black Shatter, the polish is so thick to start that applying a thick coat of it never came up, but Silver Shatter isn't anywhere near as thick, which leaves more room for how you want to apply it.  I'm not trying to make up extra rules for it or to complicate it any further, I really just want to see the ways the final outcome using it can be manipulated and how since it's kind of nice to have a manicure turn out exactly as the idea was pictured.

That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Sally Hansen Salon Heartsapphire

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today's nails of the day is a limited edition drug store polish I from late 2008, Sally Hansen Salon Heartsapphire.  This one came out with Emerald Ring and another that had "tourmaline" in the name (Take a Tourmaline?  Something like that...), and I never did get to see a display of them.  Around the time they were released, I managed to get Emerald Ring and the Tourmaline one, and I was finally able to get hold of Heartsapphire - it's on ebay for less than retail now.

Heartsapphire is a dark blue with subtle pink and blue shimmer.  My bottle of it is a little watery, probably because it's a couple of years old, so I did need a third coat to make it completely even.  For an LE DS polish I've wanted for years, I'm willing to do a third coat.  Here it is finished with top coat under artificial light.

Sally Hansen Salon Heartsapphire Nail Polish, Three Coats

Even though the polish was a little thin, it was easy to control.  Applying Heartsapphire reminded me of how much I liked the old Sally Hansen Salon nail polishes.  They were my favorite drug store brand, and I prefer them to the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line (although that could be just because I was annoyed when SH took away my old Salons!).

The good news about the discontinuation of the old Salon line is that there are a ton of them available for less than retail on ebay now, including a whole lot of the Tracy Reese and other limited edition shades that were highly coveted and impossible to find when they were initially released.  So even though more won't be produced, at least we can catch up on the hard to find ones we missed before.

That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Untl next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Konadicures for Fun

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I did a fun Konadicure while playing with one of my new drugstore nail polishes, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Purple Pulse. It's a great shade of purple, and took three coats. When applying it, I reminded myself to warn you about the brush - it looks just awful and unmanageable, but actually works quite well. It's not my favorite, but there are many worse to use (thought few less appealing to look at). This is Purple Pulse alone.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Purple Pulse Nail Polish, Three Coats

The deep purple reminded me of the color of the amethysts in my favorite earrings. The earrings also have tsavorite garnets, so I thuoght I'd green this up a bit with the houndstooth pattern from Konad plate M63, using Green Konad Special Polish for the stamping. Bright green and deep purple are not an especially traditional pairing, but one I like.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Purple Pulse Nail Polish, Three Coats, and Konad M63

That's what I thought would be my Nails of the Day today. Then I was surprised with a 3:00 a.m. call. Usually a call at that hour can only mean bad things, but this was something good - because of my name, the caller thought I was in the UK, which would have made it a reasonable hour to call. So I have good news in the works, and as soon as it's carved-in-stone final, I tell you about it.

So that means at 3:15 a.m. I was all revved up, so I did a mani for a reader which will be my NOTD. The all-time favorite of a reader who's been with me from the start was the cow mani. I was thinking my nails are a good length to reproduce it, but I made it the New & Improved Cow Mani - it glows in the dark.

I used one from the train case, OPI's Ghostess with the Mostess, for the glow in the dark white, but it's pretty sheer. Being revved up, I was going for speed with lots of layers, so I used the fastest drying everything: Nubar Foundation, two coats of OPI Alpine Snow Matte, waited about one minute, then two coats of OPI Ghostess with the Mostess, and a coat of Diamont to dry it. Since both the OPI matte and Ghostess dry really fast, I was able to stamp in about 10 minutes. I stamped the cow pattern from Konad plate M61 using Black Pearl Konad Special Polish (the shimmer is marginal and it doesn't smudge). Although my nails are still short enough for the full nail patterns, I think the black French tips really complete the cow mani, so I stamped them using plate M19. Here's the New & Improved Cow Mani in good light.

OPI Ghostess with the Mostess, Two Coats, with Konad M61 & M19

Just for fun, I took a picture of it in the dark. You really have to click on the picture for the full sized version to see it.

OPI Ghostess with the Mostess, Two Coats, with Konad M61 & M19 in the Dark

It's not the best picture of it in the dark - it took a zillion tries to get a reasonably clear one (try not moving either hand with your shutter speed at 100!), and the polish lost its "charge" a bit in that process. Still, you get the idea.

I think both Konadicures are a blast, but I especially love the cow one. I find it ridiculously entertaining.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!