There's no place like home! Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - "Downtown Rubies"

Happy 235th Birthday, America!

I hope you've been enjoying your holiday weekend! My weekend has been pretty low-key, but I'm not complaining! I could totally get used to these 3-day weekends! And as a bonus, that means only a 4-day work week ahead!


Yesterday, while at Ulta, I found Sally Hansens Complete Salon Manicure "Downtown Rubies" for $1.99. This particular Ulta moved their clearance section to the middle of the store, and it was a little more organized than their usual clearance section. Of course, I went straight to the nail polish tray. I saw only 2 SH's, and bought them both (this, along with "Touch of Mink"). For $1.99 (normally $7.99 at Ulta) each, I felt that was too good to pass up!


So in honor of America's birthday today, I decided to try "Downtown Rubies" as my holiday mani. I have to be honest, while painting my nails, I kept picturing the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy clicks her ruby red slippers and says, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home..." My nails look like little ruby slippers!


I really love the Complete Salon Manicure line from Sally Hansen. I like their handle, their brush is nice (but takes a little getting used to) and their formula is high quality. This polish was a little "goopy" and thick, but it wasn't hard to work with on the nail. I did get frustrated when I kept dipping the brush back in the bottle. Because the brush is a little larger than most, I had to make sure I placed it back in the bottle carefully, so that I didn't make a mess with the polish on the rim. 


Have you used a SH Complete Salon Manicure polish before? What did you think? What's your favorite color from that line?




Application:
Deborah Lippmann 2 Second Nail Primer
1 coat of Seche Clear Base Coat
3 coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure "Downtown Rubies"
2 coats of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Mini Post - What I put over "I'm an Aqua-holic"!

This is just a mini-post to show you different OPI Shatters and glitter polishes over "I'm an Aqua-holic" (view the original blog post here).

Before:

 Thumb to pinky: OPI Silver Shatter, OPI White Shatter, OPI Servin' Up Sparkle, OPI Navy Shatter, OPI Sparkle Teal Sunrise
(No top coat was used)

My favorite combos are with Silver Shatter, Navy Shatter and Sparkle Teal Sunrise.

I'm sorry, but does ANYONE like the White Shatter? To me, it's just ICK! It looks like I painted my fingers with White-Out, or that I dipped my finger in sour cream and left it there. 

I DO, however, LOVE the Navy Shatter! I'm looking forward to experimenting with that a little more!

OPI's Ulta Exclusive Polish - "I'm An Aqua-holic"

Happy 4th of July weekend, everyone! I hope you've been enjoying the holiday with friends and family!


As some of you know, OPI collaborated with Ulta for an exclusive 4-color summer collection called "Shimmer Into Summer" that was released for sale today. So, naturally, I was at Ulta at 11:30 am to get my hands on some of the colors! I ended up purchasing 3 of the 4 colors: "How You Blue-in?", "Sparkle Teal Sunrise" and "I'm an Aqua-holic" (which I will show in this post tonight).


I didn't realize this when I was at Ulta today, but these colors are (or are almost) exact dupes of the Nicole by OPI Gossip Girl collection colors:

L to R: "Too Rich For You", "Scandal Secrets and Sparkle", "Party in the Penthouse", "Spotted!"

So, if you weren't able to get any of the Nicole by OPI Gossip Girl colors, this would be a great opportunity to have them! Plus, if you're like me, I prefer the brush and bottle of the "regular" OPI. So, if you didn't purchase the Nicole by OPI's because of their bottle or brush, here's your chance to get the OPI version!

As a side note: I already owned "Too Rich For You" (see the original blog post here) and it is a dupe of "How You Blue-in". But because I love the OPI bottle and brush, I think I will put "Too Rich For You" in a future blog sale or swap.

Here's a picture I took of all 4 colors when I was at Ulta this morning:

L to R: "Sparkle Teal Sunrise", "Glitter-ally The Best Silver Ever", "I'm an Aqua-holic" and "How You Blue-in?"

"I'm an Aqua-holic" is a really pretty blue semi-foil shimmer polish. I can honestly say, I don't own anything quite like it! As with all of my OPI polishing experiences, application was a breeze! Gosh, I really love the OPI formula - it never disappoints!




Now, here are pictures of "I'm an Aqua-holic":


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
2 coats of OPI "I'm an Aqua-holic"
1 coat of China Glaze Patent Leather Top Coat
1 spritz OPI RapiDry Spray
OPI Avoplex Nail & Cuticle Oil

Please pardon the air bubbles in this mani - I rushed it and didn't give the coats enough time to fully dry! Don't blame the polish! :-)

If you like any of these colors, Ulta has a pretty cool deal going on right now: Buy $17 worth of regular-priced OPI product(s) (which is equivalent to 2 regular-priced OPI polishes that retail for $8.50 each), you get 1 of these Ulta Exclusive polishes free! So for me today, I got these 3 Ulta Exclusives for the price of 2! And if that isn't good enough, don't forget to take your $3.50 off coupon (must be a minimum of a $10 purchase)! You can find that coupon on Ulta's website.

OPI "Be A Dahlia Won't You?" and "I Lily Love You"

Hey, kids! I'm back! It's been almost a MONTH since my last post! But I hope to be "back to normal" now! I've got a lot of catching up to do! 


Over the past weekend, I saw that my local beauty supply store had BOTH of the new Serena Williams' duos AND the Nice Stems! collection! So naturally, I HAD to  splurge! I ended up with both the SW sets and "I Lily Love You" and "Be A Dahlia Won't You?" The other 2 colors from the NS collection didn't do much for me.


My 1 day, 1 store haul over the weekend:

I know I over-did it, but I had SO much fun! :-)

So tonight, I wanted to share pictures of BADWY with you. After I was done with this mani, I decided to add 1 coat of ILLY just to see how the two looked together. To be honest, I wish I had left well enough alone! I LOVED the look of BADWY. I really think BADWY will be the PERFECT summer pedi color (next to Cajum Shrimp, of course!). I never owned "Kinky in Helsinki", but I've heard that if you loved it, you'll really love BADWY (apparently they're almost perfect dupes!). But then I had to go and add ILLY to it, and it just didn't work for me. I really think ILLY will look great over a dark polish, but it's just too "busy" over a hot pink. What do you think?


I'd describe "Be A Dahlia Won't You?" as a hot pink/fuchsia semi-foil polish. It was super-duper easy to apply. I was pleased with the results after 2 coats. What I also appreciated about this polish, was that it was easy to clean up. When I do my clean up, I use a small concealer brush and dip it in acetone to clean around my cuticles. Some polishes are a nightmare to clean up, but this one wasn't! 


"I Lily Love You" is kind of like "Teenage Dream's" big sister. A brighter pink clear jelly with TONS of glitter and glass flecks. Besides it not looking so great over BADWY (my opinion), it is a little chunky. It might be best to use a top coat over it (which I didn't in this mani).


Application:
Deborah Lippmann 2 Second Nail Primer
1 coat OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
2 coats of OPI "Be A Dahlia Won't You?"
1 coat of CND Speedey
1 spritz CND Solar Speed Spray

Here are pictures of 1 coat of "I Lily Love You" added:

(The glitter and glass flecks in ILLY were very difficult to capture in pictures!)

Thanks for taking the time to read tonight's post! Hope you're all doing well and enjoying your summer so far!

-Katie

Deborah Lippmann - "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"

Happy Saturday, everyone! Hope you all are enjoying your weekend so far! Man, it's a hot one here in St. Louis! It got up to around 95* today. I was at the pool from 10am - 2pm working on my tan. This time, I think I've perfected the whole tanning oil/sunscreen issue. I used some SPF 15 sunscreen (the highest I've ever gone!) in the morning, then switched to SPF 6 Tanning Oil in the afternoon. Success! No burn, just tan! And I'm gonna do it all again tomorrow! :-)


Tonight, I'm going to show you my first Deborah Lippmann polish, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". I immediately had to open up the box for this polish when I was at the store, mainly because of the name. I'm a HUGE Pat Benatar fan, so I was really hoping I'd like this polish. At first glance, it reminded me of OPI's "Light My Sapphire", a dark semi-shimmery navy blue polish. Wearing it, it looks a little dustier/grayer with a little more shimmer.


So I have to tell you about my recent Deborah Lippman purchases. My local Beauty First store carries DL, but won't be for long. They've had the DL's on sale for quite a while, but not low enough for me to buy 'em. One day my co-worker was there and bought a cute little DL French Manicure set on sale for $5. So the next day, I headed over to this specific store (there are quite a few Beauty First stores here in St. Louis). They had all DL's on sale for $3 each!!!!!! Now, they didn't have any of her famous glitter polishes, but they did have quite a good selection of everything else. Within about a week (and about 4 visits back to this store), I bought 13 bottles of polish (plus a callus softener and a primer) for myself. I also purchased 18 bottles for a friend (plus a bottle of primer) and a bottle for my sister. To see the colors I purchased, you can check out my current polish collection here.


Unfortunately, not all Beauty First stores carried DL polish. When I asked the cashier why they were getting rid of them, she said that they were no longer able to sell DL. So, if you have a Beauty First near you, it might be worth it to give 'em a call or head by and see if they have any DL on sale!


I doubt I'll ever purchase a full-price DL. So chances are, if you see any posts with a DL polish on here, it's probably a polish from this awesome sale!


My only real "gripes" with this polish is that the brushes are way too small. I felt like I was constantly re-dipping the brush for more polish. I also thought the dry time was ridiculously slow, even with the China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat and CND Solar Speed Spray. 


So, here's Deborah Lippmann's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot":


Application
Deborah Lippmann 2 Second Nail Primer
2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
3 coats of Deborah Lippmann "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
1 coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
1 spritz CND Solar Speed Spray


Please excuse the smudge on my ring finger. I thought the polish was completely dry, but apparently, it wasn't!

OPI's "Steady As She Rose" and my GingerKitty Birthday Giveaway prize!

WARNING: VERY Picture Heavy!

(with 2 very special guest stars at the very end!)

So I told you all in my last post that I was going to *attempt* to blog 2-3 times per week in June. So, I wanted to start off the month on the right track! 1 down, 1 or 2 more to go this week! *Fingers Crossed*!

Today's post is another polish from OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean Collection, "Steady As She Rose". When I purchased the polish, I was thinking it would be sort of a muted pink. Instead, I'd describe it as a muted pinkish-lavender. As you can see in the pictures below, it looks pink in some, and purple-ish in others. No complaints, though - I really like the color. I like the application even more! Just like with "Stranger Tides", this little beauty was a breeze to apply. I did use 3 coats, but probably could've gotten away with just two.

I'm also including pics of my new GingerKitty Designs Clarins 230 ring I WON in her Birthday Blog Giveaway! How cool, huh? I got my ring in the mail today and have been admiring it ever since I opened the package. The best way I can describe this ring is by saying it's "like a juiced-up mood ring"! Tracey, the designer and creator of all of the GingerKitty jewelry, used Clarins 230 nail polish for this ring. So now, I can honestly say that I "got my hands" on Clarins 230 - finally! (Did you catch the pun there?)  Here's a link to her Etsy shop (this link goes directly to the Clarins 230 ring I won!). Have you ever checked out the GingerKitty blog? If not, here's the link. 


Thank you, Tracey, for such an incredible and generous giveaway! I'm honored to own one of your pieces of artwork! 


Now, the fun part - the pictures!


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
1 coat OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
3 coats of OPI "Steady As She Rose"
1 coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
OPI Drip Dry Drops
1 spritz CND Solar Speed Spray (I reeeeeeally wanted my nails to dry quick!)

Without Flash:

With Flash:

Now, the beautiful GingerKitty Clarins 230 ring! Look at all the different colors that come out, depending on the light and the angle!

You can't say I didn't warn you about the abundance of pictures! Now, just 2 more (to me, they're my favorite pictures in the whole post!):

My baby girl, Cleo (aka Cleopatra, Kee-Kee, Cleeps, Cleepy-Weepy, the list goes on and on!)

My other baby girl (and Cleo's mom), Gracie (aka Gracie McGee, Gracie Face)

If you've made it to this point, THANK YOU! I hope I didn't bore you with all of my pictures! Thanks for reading!

xoxo, Katie (and Cleo and Gracie, too!)