REVIEW of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in 419 Hidden Treasure With SWATCHES

Hello my little baubles, bangles, and beads,

Today I'll be reviewing Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in 419 Hidden Treasure. I don't know if anyone will ever read this because for some reason Sally Hansen couldn't think of other polish names and used this one twice. So if you're looking for a review of the other Hidden Treasure polish from Sally Hansen, this isn't it. I originally purchased this polish because it was on clearance and heavily discounted and also because popsugartvbella on youtube (which is admittedly a dubious source) told me that pearlescent, opalescent, and frosted polishes were a trend for spring.

Color: Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure is a white-based polish with a pink undertone. It's difficult to really classify. You could call it a frost but some people might think it isn't frosty enough to qualify as one. You could call it a pearlescent shimmer but it has a slightly rougher look to it and isn't as sophisticated as what I would classify as a shimmer. One thing is certain: It's certainly not a creme polish. There's a hint of sparkle that catches the light. It's not microglitter but something else. The sparkle has pink and green undertones. I think the polish is pretty enough but it's not going to be for everyone as it can look a bit cheap.
Formula: The formula was unremarkable. Not really thick or thin, though the brush made it a little difficult to tell.
Application: I applied three coats to get the look I wanted. With this polish, I don't think you should try and get full opacity. At three coats this polish isn't fully opaque but I think it's how this kind of color should look. The brush is wide and rough cut with the bristles cut at different lengths but surprisingly I didn't have too many issues with it. It doesn't look spectacular and there was a bit of bubbling but it certainly wasn't as bad as polishes I've reviewed in the past.

CONCLUSION: Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure is a perfectly fine polish if you like this look but it can look a little cheap and I did have issues with bubbling. I would recommend this polish if you like the swatches.

SWATCHES

REVIEW of Essie Mint Candy Apple With SWATCHES

Hello chickadees!

I enjoyed my vacation (more or less) but it's very good to be back home. One might even say, it's refreshing. And so I've decided to review Essie's Mint Candy Apple, the polish I wore at the beginning of my trip. But though it's a refreshing minty shade of blue-green, it was rather disappointing in other ways. Let's break it down, shall we?

Color: Essie Mint Candy Apple is a bright minty blue creme polish. It's a bit too bright to be a straight pastel but it's not bright enough to be a true bright or a neon. I wish I'd been home to take these swatches so the polish would appear a little brighter but this is what you get when you go to Germany at the tail end of a storm.
Formula: Terrible. I've chosen this color on one of the few occasions that I've gone to a nail salon and I noticed how thick the formula was but I thought it might have just been the bottle they had at the salon. It wasn't.
Application: The first coat was a little streaky but that's not out of the ordinary for a color like this or really most creme polishes. The second coat was still a little streaky and there was a bit of bubbling. In three coats, the polish was opaque. After I've applied a layer of top coat (Seche Vite) the polish still looked pretty bad. I've certainly dealt with worse polishes but there was no disguising the bad formula and application with top coat. Overlapping uneven brushstrokes were very apparent. And the thickness of the polish was definitely noticeable.
Wear: Obviously, I was irritated with the way this polish looked. But even worse, 2-3 days into wearing this polish it started chipping. For those of you who are new to this blog, my polish almost never chips. I could count the number of times my polish has chipped on one hand. And I'd never expect it of such a popular Essie polish.

CONCLUSION: No, I would not recommend this polish. I do like the color but there are plenty of dupes and similar shades and the terrible formula and application and easy chipping makes it impossible for me to recommend this polish.

 

SWATCHES

REVIEW of OPI Stay the Night With SWATCHES

Hello my little volcanic rocks,

How are you today? I've been holding onto this review for a while since I took way too many photos that I then had to sort through for color accuracy. I had been dying to get this polish for the longest time. OPI Stay the Night is one of the liquid sand polishes from the (relatively) recently released Mariah Carey for OPI collection. To me this polish has nothing to do with Mariah and everything to do with volcanoes. It looked so cool in swatches that I just had to order it off of amazon. So what do I think now that I've tried it for myself?

Color: OPI Stay the Night is a black textured polish with fine red glitter. The liquid sand polishes will be interesting for those of you who aren't familiar with textured polishes. They dry matte but the glitter dries in a way that leaves the surface of the nail slightly bumpy and uneven. This is a good thing as strange as that might sound. It's a very interesting effect but I think you need to pick and choose your textured polishes carefully. Stay the Night is a standout because it looks so spectacular as a liquid sand polish. Personally, I don't like the look of the more colorful glitters. The swatches make the red glitter really pop. In real life, the black dominates more, especially indoors or if you add top coat. I really don't love the look of this with top coat. It's much more unique and special without it. Worn matte, the grit is very fine and it takes me back to high school when I would wear black polish with long nails. I think it looks incredibly chic and elegant with elongated oval-shaped nails.
Formula: As this is a textured polish the formula can't really be compared to regular cremes or glitters. It is like a glitter with a very fine grit. It's not thick at all.
Application: For this application I used Elmer's glue as a base coat again. I used the new nylon paint brush I bought at Pearl Paint to apply a thin coat of glue. As for Stay the Night, it applied pretty smoothly and I was able to even it out without worrying about streaking or balding or any of the usual issues. It's important to make sure you don't have too much polish on the brush though. In one coat you put down a good amount of glitter but you don't get a lot of coverage/opacity. It took three coats for me to get to full opacity but I should note that it's important to not paint super thin coats. I did that on my pinky nail and I needed four coats for full coverage. The one thing that annoyed me is that it's a little gritty around the tips and you'll get this problem regardless of whether you wrap the tips with polish. The polish also takes a while to fully dry so be careful.
Wear: As I mentioned, the grittiness at the tips of the nails was a little annoying. You can feel the texture on the surface of the nail but again it's a very fine grit so it's not something that should irritate you. But you should know that your nails will feel a little abrasive. Like other matte polishes, it seems almost water resistant so don't worry about washing your hands or taking a shower. I do get the lava effect I wanted but it's definitely more pronounced in the pictures which are of course extreme close-ups. I only wore this polish for one day before I applied top coat to do all my swatches so I can't comment on how well this polish holds up long term. With one coat of Seche Vite you can still feel the texture but obviously the texture is much less pronounced.

CONCLUSION: I would definitely recommend this polish. I loved the way it looked and application was easy. However, this polish won't be for everyone. You really need to be someone who favors dark, interesting polishes and texture. Textured polishes are a trend that everyone won't want to follow but I happen to really like OPI Stay the Night.

 

SWATCHES

Turquoise Green Polish Comparison Post: OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Where's My Chaffeur, Essie Turquoise & Caicos

Hi chickadees!

I could not decide what polish to paint on my nails next, so I grabbed all the new polishes I was thinking of testing and in doing so, I realized how similar they were. Now, none of these polishes are dupes but they're in a similar color family so I thought I'd just show you how they look next to each other. If you're not a crazy nail polish addict you might prefer one color to the other instead of buying both. In the future, I'll try and do more comparison posts where I think I've found possible dupes.

KEY: Left to Right
Pointer: OPI Can't Find My Czechbook (aqua, more blue outdoors, more green indoors)
Middle: Essie Mint Candy Apple (light pastel minty blue)
Ring: Essie Where's My Chaffeur (aquamarine, leans green outdoors, very green indoors)
Pinky: Essie Turquoise & Caicos (more green than turquoise, jelly/sheer, 4 coats still not opaque)