Sweet Baby Octopolish!

 Just a few weeks ago, I saw a stunning swatch pic in the facebook dupes/comparisons group that led me (and I think several others) down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out what we were looking at.  Turns out that the original pic was both photoshopped all to hell and from a brand that's no longer active... but several people suggested alternates, including this: indoor, CF lighting Well, hellooooo there, vampy dream. outdoor, bright sunlight The end result of all the image searching is that Sally Hansen released a whole red collection in 2018, several of which weren't truly red, and that one of which was reported as a dead-on dupe for OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest, with a more opaque and smooth formula.  Oktoberfest is one of the ones that got away - it looked identical to Germanicure in the bottle, and by the time I realized I'd like both, it was going for crazy prices on ebay.  For a mere $5, I was more than willing to take this possible dupe for a spin. outdoo...

The real reason I had to try out Sally Hansen Denim this week is that we've been on a huge Star Trek The Next Generation kick at our house and I have for sure found my nail art inspiration for the next while.  Many beloved things from youth end up aging quite badly, but this show is still a huge winner and has become our ideal quarantine entertainment.  It's fun, adventure-y, and smart, with occasionally brilliant/hilarious costuming choices, and I'm in utter love with the old-skool matte painting backgrounds for alien landscapes.  But the thing that's surprised me most, in a way I certainly did not appreciate as a teen, is how breath-of-fresh-air healthy it is.  People make huge mistakes with devastating consequences, the crew has to work around some utter jerks, there's loss and grief... but the mis-steps never get twisted into petty vengeance, and people successfully work through their issues like adults.  outdoor, overcast daylight Of course I had...

Not too long ago, Suzy was wearing a truly amazing blue in a pic she sent, and I immediately jumped on ebay to grab a bottle or two. indoor, CF lighting Sally Hansen released Denim along with a dozen or so other Insta-dri colors in a tie-in with Crayola.  It's a deeply saturated, true cobalt blue that's fully opaque in one easy coat. outdoor, shady & overcast light There's a whole rabid fan base around a different Sally Hansen blue crème, Pacific Blue, supposed to be a smooth one-coater with a drop-dead perfect formula, much mourned when SH felt the need to change to a totally different polish with the same name a handful of years ago.  As far as I can tell, Denim is just a tiny touch darker than Pacific Blue, so this may scratch that itch if you don't want to pay crazy HTF prices for the original.  The other blue in the Crayola collection, Cerulean, appears to be a touch lighter than Pacific Blue, and I'm trying to convince myself I don't need b...

Since Rico Suave wore so well but I was ready for a switch-up, it was a great basecoat for another go-round with Sally Hansen's Sterling Silver. I've  posted on  these  polishes before , and though the formula is tricky, these are fantastic.  This pic was in overcast, rainy, watery daylight, so let me assure you the mirror-shine silver was BLINDING in the sun.  Nice! ~Michelle

Just a quick weekend fun mani today.  A friend had invited me to go check out a band last night, and while that fell through on both our parts, I still managed to squeak in time for a flash rock-star paint job. This is not the   first time  i've used a England's flawless Perceval for dramatic nail-art undies, nor will it be the last.  I swear, this one has got to be one of my "desert island" polishes (not that nail polish would be the first survival essential one would plan for, ahem).  I used some plain ol' scotch tape to stick on some diagonal stripes from ~1/3 down one side of my nail to the opposite tip corner, then layered on Sally Hansen's Sterling Silver Color Foil. The edges aren't as crisp as I'd like on some nails, since I ended up needing to do 2 coats of the silver, which meant that the tape jagged the partially-dry silver when i peeled it up.  Oh well, I still had awesome semaphore android fingers.   Same application tips ap...

The gem out of OPI's recent Gwen Stefani collection was the mirror-bright silver chrome.  Apparently remembering they used to do that pretty well, Sally Hansen has put out a 10-polish Color Foil collection (that are all chromes, not flakie foils).  I only felt the need for two of them, Sterling Silver and Rose Copper. outdoor, direct sunlight Rose Copper reads in all of these pics as somewhat lighter and more silvery than it was IRL - it's exactly the color of rose gold, so if you're into that trend, start hunting for this in the stores right now. Unlike their OPI counterpart, these SH chromes don't need any special base coat.  In fact, the instructions on the bottle say to specifically not  use any base coat at all.  Having learned several key and important tips from ye old internets, here's how to best use these guys: Shake them up like crazy just prior to painting.  The components tend to separate out over time, and must be thoroughly re-mi...