NPP Day 16: Sheer fun

I’ve been getting a little ambitious with the stamping lately. Today’s look is definitely one of my favorites, and I’ll probably be replicating it as soon as this nail polish experiment is over.

Let’s talk polish:

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Plum’s the Word

I love this color. I love this formula. I love everything about this. As a stamping polish, it worked like a dream. This is a total keeper.

Essie in Pinkadelic

Everyone needs a sheer polish. This is it for me. The formula’s good (though, not the best) and it’s sheer but not too sheer. Unless a better sheer polish pops up in my collection, I’ll be keeping this.

Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Razzle Dazzler

As far as glitter polishes go, this applies fairly opaque and heavily. I gravitate toward these pinky-plum colors, so this makes for a great accent nail. I’ll be keeping this.

And now, the look:

I’m really pleased with how this came out. The sheer polish was a great backdrop for the plum stamps. They stamped super smoothly (with the help of my new stamper!) and I think the whole thing looked great 🙂

NPP Day 15: Roses

So I’ve been pretty bad at posting to a schedule. Painting my nails everyday is easy, but taking the time to sit down and write the blog post has been a real struggle. Here’s yesterday’s polish situation. Spoiler alert: I”m keeping all of these.

OPI Liquid Sand in Jinx

Once again, I love  the liquid sand from OPI. It’s a great gimmicky polish and it wears well. I’ll be keeping this.

Sinful Colors in Rich in Heart

This is a good color and a solid formula. I’ll be keeping this, but I’m going to try to use it up so I don’t have so many mini-bottles laying around.

OPI in My Pal Joey

I obviously bought this because it was hello kitty. The color’s great, and it’s the usual solid OPI formula.

Here’s the look:

NPP Day 14: Stamps!

I finally got some stamping plates in the mail! So obviously today I had to use one of my stamps out.

China Glaze in Spontaneous

I don’t really have anything against this polish, but I have like a MILLION purples, so I’ll be checking this with the other purples in my collection to see if I have a close enough match elsewhere. This is a maybe.

OPI in I eat Mainely Lobster

It doesn’t really show in the picture, but this polish actually has some very fine microglitter, so it has a slight shimmer to it. I love the color, and the formula is great. Bonus points for having a Maine-related name. PLUS, by some miracle, this polish is actually still available to buy. Most of my polishes are probably from the mid-2000s so that’s not usually the case. Total keeper.

Konad white stamping polish

I was a lot happier with how this polish performed than I was with the blue Konad polish. It applied really opaque and stamped well (as it should, since it’s specifically a stamping polish). I’ll be keeping this one.

And here’s the finished look:

NPP Day 13: Mermaidy Goodness

Oops, I thought I had queued this up to be posted, but I actually just left it open in my drafts. My bad. So this is a late post, I guess.

Three polishes today:

OPI Liquid Sand in It’s Frosty Outside

Liquid sand was a limited edition thing from OPI and it’s honestly one of my favorite polishes of all time. The texture isn’t overwhelming, and the sparkle is to die for. You can top it with a clear topcoat if you want to smooth out the texture, but it wears really well without a topcoat as well.

SaQu Polish. No name, just a sticker on the bottom that says 099

This no-name polish works pretty well, but the wear time could be better. I’m keeping it for now, but I’ll be tossing it if a close enough color-dupe comes around.

Sephora by OPI in Tempted By Teal

I really like this polish, but I also really like teal. As usual the OPI formula is solid. No complaints here.

And here’s the finished look. I love the teal and green together. Full disclosure, I picked three colors I knew I loved because I was going away for the weekend (spoiler alert: I actually pre-painted my nails for the week and queued them up) and the mani ended up holding up on my fingers for 5 days before some serious chips started happening. So overall solid job, nail polish.

 

NPP Day 12: Hella Orange

Today was, uh, not the most imaginative mani I’ve ever done. It also didn’t really show off one of the colors, but let’s get on with it.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Gilty Pleasure

Look, a polish that hasn’t been completely discontinued! This particular color isn’t available anymore, but I love this formula a lot. Unfortunately, I did an extra bad job of making it show up on camera, but the polish is lovely and I’ll be keeping it.

KL Polish in Snickerdoodle

I love kathleenlights, and I love nail polish, so naturally I picked up some of her polishes when they were available for pre-order. The formula and brush actually remind me a lot of the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, which is a good thing. This color is a lovely “I just accidentally put too much cream in my coffee” shade, and would be super great for work or going out.  Also, my initals are KLP so I kind of love it. Total keeper.

Sephora polish in Torrid Shimmer

Aaand another Sephora brand polish. These don’t even exist anymore. I was very pleasantly surprised by how opaque and streak-free one coat was. It was also super glittery without being chunky. This is also going in the keep pile.

Here’s the look. I tried doing an ombre from the KL Polish to the Sally Hansen polish, but it turns out Gilty Pleasure is just a glittery version of Snickerdoodle, so it really doesn’t show up on camera.

Yep. I’m super bad at getting rid of things.

NPP Day 11: Floral Stamping

I totally ordered a bunch of nail plates on amazon but they still haven’t shipped yet. So here I am using the only cute stamping plate I have on every nail.

Sephora x Hello Kitty polish in Minty

I think we all know why I own this nail polish:

1. everything I own is inexplicably mint
2. hello kitty is my weakness

This could probably be the worst polish in the world and I’d still never get rid of it. Luckily, it’s not. It’s pretty solid after two coats, and the color is to die for. Total keeper.

Essie in Nothing Else Metals

This is very similar to the Forever 21 polish I wore yesterday, but just ever so slightly different enough to justify keeping. It’s a little more opaque than that polish on the first coat, but they perform surprisingly similarly, considering there’s a $5 price difference between the two. This is also a keeper

Covergirl in Vio-last

This polish was a great example of a good stamping polish when I was mentioning that in my post the other day. This polish performed. The stamps were opaque and bold enough to stand out on both colors of polish. Totally a keeper.

And here’s the look. I really loved this color combo:

NPP Day 10

Sally Hansen in Fuchsia Bling

This color is great. This formula is great. This is a keeper. In general, Sally Hansen polishes have never failed me. This is probably going to be a trend.

Forever 21 Polish in Dusty Lavender

I figured this was going to be a garbage polish, but I was actually stunned by how beautiful this was. It only needs one coat for full opacity, it wasn’t patchy, and the color is to die for. Definitely keeping this.

Mood Struck Polish in Teal to Turquoise

This really did nothing for me. First off, I couldn’t see a visible change in the color when I applied heat or cold, but maybe that’s because the colors are so similar. This also dried very matte, and not in the cute way. More in the shitty nail polish from the dollar store way. I’ll be tossing this.

And the look:

The lighting wasn’t working in my favor, but see how GORGEOUS that lavender polish is?? The teal didn’t woo me, but I really like this look otherwise.

NPP Day 9: Very Sloppy

Full disclosure: I’ve gotten a little lazy with my polish now that I know it’ll only be on my fingers for a day. Today’s a little bit incredibly sloppy. Now that you’ve been warned, here are the polishes in question:

saQu nail color in White Fever

As far as white polishes go, this is second place so far. White polishes are SUPER difficult to make look good, and this did a fairly okay job at doing its job. It looks TERRIBLE in the picture, but that’s because I got impatient and layered it on without letting it dry fully. I’m going to hold onto it for now, but if I’m not happy with it after a few more manis, I’ll be tossing this.I’m still not a super huge fan of any of the white polishes in my collection, though. I may need to go out and find a good replacement once I’m done going through my collection.

ORLY polish in Spark

I love this color. I’m gonna keep it. That’s about all I can say about that.

China Glaze in Flip Flop Fantasy

This is a unique color in my collection. The formula honestly isn’t ideal, but how often am I going to be wearing a radioactive polish? Once again, this is a keeper.

And here’s the (super ugly) mani:

Not my best, but new polish tommorow so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

NPP Day 8: A Stamping Miss

We’ve got some hits and some misses today.

CHI Ceramic Nail Lacquer in Wrapped Around My Little Pinky

Yep, that Chi. I have to admit, my straightener’s a Chi and it’s older than most tweens. I thought this was pretty gimmicky, because there’s actual ceramic in the polish, so I didn’t have high hopes. Once again, I was proven wrong. It’s a pretty solid polish, though it does chip easily. If I have a dupe in my collection for this (which I’m pretty sure I do), I’ll likely be getting rid of this.

Konad stamping polish in Blue

A few years ago, I asked for some stamping plates for my birthday. While I really love the concept of stamping, the plates I received were pretty lackluster and I was too lazy to buy any new plates. I recently grabbed some new ones on amazon so once they get here, my polish game is sure to improve. This polish, however, is pretty lacking. It’s supposed to be specially formulated for stamping, but I always found myself grabbing better, more opaque polishes in my collection. I’ll be getting rid of this.

MAC Cosmetics polish in Formidable!

This is the cousin to what might be my favorite polish of all time (Mac Mean and Green). It doesn’t pick up well on camera, but it’s a gorgeous burgundy with blue and purple glitter. The shift is gorgeous. Not as gorgeous and Mean and Green, but still gorgeous. Obviously, I’m keeping this.

And here’s the look. I’m VERY much not a fan of the stamping polish:

That’s at least one more polish down!

NPP Day 7: Halloween Vibes

Today was a pleasant surprise. Spoiler: all three of these were a win.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Poppy

This polish is ANCIENT, so I wasn’t expecting much. As usual, Sally Hansen kills it again. This polish only needed ONE coat and looked amazing.

GAP polish in Pageant Pink

Once again, the GAP polish holds up. This is honestly not in any way pink, so the name’s a weird choice, but the color held up a lot better than the white NYC polish I tried out, so I’ll be keeping this one unless a better white shows up in my collection.

Revlon in Sparkle Aplenty

As usual, I didn’t have high expectations for this. The glitter looks ridiculously chunky in the bottle, and glitter polishes tend to have a history of being not-so-opaque. Once again, I was proven wrong. The black polish could stand up on its own, and the glitter was chunky, but not a gloopy mess. This is a keeper.

And here’s the look. You’ll notice a little bit of patchiness on the white, but whites are hard to work with. You’ll also notice my complete lack of ability to clean up my polish around my cuticle.