Franken #394 SF Laser

Surprised to "see me" again? I am, and I'm even back with another manicure.

I got close to a week out of the last paint job before I whacked a nail, taking a big chip off the side (but at least it didn't break) so it had to come off and another put on- after having painted nails for three weeks, the naked ones were decidedly ugly. I had trouble picking a brand or even a color because 99% of my polish collection is "untried" so in the end I settled on one of my own, an early SpectraFlair franken though not one I'd call "autumnal" since it's primarily purple.

The formula is below but it went through changes when suspension base became available and TKB Trading starting selling Cherika Moon. I've omitted the tweaking and left the basic ingredients here.
#394 SF Laser: (Full size bottle) 1/4 Sally Hansen Laser, 1/4 Sally Hansen Purple Potion, 2d SpectraFlair 35, 1/2 Glam base, 1/2 smidgen, 2d TKB Cherika Moon.

SF Laser is blue toned purple that, under the proper lighting, will shift slightly more pink, displays its holo effect in the sun and the blue sparkle from the SH Laser and Cherika Moon in all lighting. I was shooting for something that was holographic but also duo-chromatic and I achieved that but its difficult to capture both effects simultaneously in pictures. Unlike some of my frankens, I didn't have too much trouble with the thickness or application- three thin(ner) coats here for opacity.

Bottle Shot

VERY early morning sun

And a little later...

I'll end with these, the first a little blurry but super holo.

I might add a couple more pics later but I can rarely get my camera to see what my eyes see. -MK

Walgreens Sale & Klean Color Polishes

This will not be a major post, more like a "heads up".

The highlight of my day yesterday, my week really, was a trip to my local Walgreens to pick up prescriptions and look at nail polish- as most of you know, Walgreens is good for Sinful Colors, the typical drugstore brands and the occasional limited edition/exclusive. I picked up a few Sinfuls from recent displays (Karen at Frazzle and Aniploish is always good for showing us these), two Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes because Walgreens had a Buy One Get One Free deal on them and that was all I found until my husband and I walked past this giant bin of Klean Color polishes. Unfortunately these were just thrown in a bin about a foot deep by three feet wide but that didn't deter me from digging around although I would have liked to transfer handfuls to another basket so I could dig more efficiently. Hubby gratefully went to wait in the car, having indulged my polish browsing for long enough.

I left the store with 22 new colors and some extras for frankening if the mood ever strikes me. I've never seen any Klean Color polishes in a retail store but I freely admit I don't get out much. Since I moved in May but my father didn't, I now get to hit two different Walgreens but I don't know if the other one, or indeed any other Walgreens, has this same bin but it could be worth checking out.

A side note, inventory at one my local Dollar Trees rolled over again and I found some Milani and Maybelline polishes there, again for $1.00, along with the usual assortment of generic brands and L.A. Colors.

-MK

Three Months Worth of Polish

I've got some bottle spam for you today because, in the past three months, I've done what I refer to as "store hopping" and acquired a lot of polish, most of which I'll probably never wear but will happily franken with. I've managed to hit Dollar Tree, Sally Beauty, Meijers, two CVS, two Walgreens, Walmart and Kmart, broke my $2.00 per bottle limit and come to the conclusion that no one restocks often enough and Walgreens is boring. As often as I've been there, I continue to expect to find something special and am irritated when I don't.

Walgreens is useful for Sinful Colors, Wet 'n' Wild and more recently, Essie which is where I've picked up several bottles of Shine of the Times from their Luxe Effects collection for $8.00- that remains the most I've paid for a single bottle. I guess everyone is over the orange-to-green flakes because they're always in stock. Inset shows the color shift over black in sunlight.

The only new Sinful to come home with me is Kissy although I knew on sight that it wasn't all that different from Wet 'n' Wild's Teal of Fortune or their Deeper Dive from the Spoiled line. While the inset shows it over white and in sunlight, Kissy is vibrant green-blue layered over black. Sinful Colors sell for $1.99.

I also picked up Sally Hansen (Insta-Dri) Uptempo Plum and Punk Rock from the Hard as Nails line but neither are as remarkable as they appeared in-store.

Punk Rock ended up being a different duochrome than I thought, somewhere between Sinful Colors Love Nails & Gorgeous, one of those slight aqua to blue duos, sheer like the rest of the line. The price was right, $1.99 and it could be good to franken with so I’m not too disappointed.

I am disappointed with Uptempo Plum though. It was in the discount basket and marked down to $2.95 so I picked it up more than once before deciding to buy it, won over by it’s appearance. In the bottle, it sparkled and seemed to have a slight purple to orange-ish duochrome but none of that translated to the nail when I applied it. Instead it was a vampy plum color with little sparkle and no discernable color shift. Now I know why it was in the basket.

Insets show both colors over white in sunlight.

The point of going to CVS was to check the Confetti brand for anything new and to find the Spoiled brand. Confetti had the same old colors I've already picked over but I found the Spoileds and noticed that most of them look like re-bottled Wet 'n' Wilds or Sinful Colors. I bought most of the glitters and a few of the shimmers with duplicates for $1.99 each, brought them home, swatched them and hated every single brush instantly- but I was warned, having read on others blogs that they were abysmal. All swatches were taken in full sunlight over white.

From left to right: Pet My Peacock, Shuffle the Deck, Jewelry Heist, Trust Fund Baby, Cougar Attack and Use Protection

From left to right: Deeper Dive, The Parking Meteor has Expired, Vitamin C, Ants in My Pants, Are Mermaids Real and Shrimp on the Barbie

Comparisons?

Deeper Dive = Teal of Fortune, Sinful Colors Kissy

The Parking Meteor has Expired = Sinful Colors What's Your Name and See You Soon

Vitamin C = 9.0.2.1.0range

Shrimp on the Barbie = Waves of Enchantment (LE, Mermaids Cove collection)

When I went out in February with my sister, we went to Sally Beauty where I purchased my first Orly polishes (again breaking my $2 limit) and a few other brands that were marked down. Along with Orly's Meet Me Under the Mistletoe and Fantasea, I got Finger Paints Comets Collar, Savvy Champagne for $1.99 a piece and three little bottles of a purple to green Sally Girl duochrome, $0.99 each.

Insets show polishes in sunlight. For Comets Collar, the polish is over black and white. Both Champagne and the Sally Girl are over white.

I can't remember where now but I saw Orly's Fantasea on a blog and had to have it because that orange with purple is an unusual combination. I chose Meet Me Under the Mistletoe because of the sparkly duochrome. The bottles are huge, I had no idea! They’re only 3ml more than the standard size but they even feel huge holding them in my hand and the size offsets the $4.00+ price. I like the colors so much I feel the urge to go buy more so it’s probably good I go there just once a year.

Fantasea's inset on top shows the polish layered over black and white, the next two captured the color shift from gentle orange to reddish-pink. Mistletoe's duochrome, shown here over white, was a little harder to bring out but there's a shift from a green to a more blue color.

Meijers yielded several finds- the limited edition Color Icon polishes from Wet 'n' Wild, the Studio M and Pure Ice brands and three glitters from Milani.

Milani's Teal, Hot Pink and Gems. I might've been able to come close to duping these but large size non bleeding glitters are always good to have lying around.

The Wet 'n' Wild Color Icons I found on a shelf at the end of the aisle. There wasn't a display anymore, just 6 bottles crammed in between other miscellaneous cosmetics and I grabbed them all. Unfortunately I didn't get Bow In My Presence but I did get an extra each of two others. $2.79 each.

The Crown Is Mine, Speak When Spoken To, Born Into Privilege and Jewels for Your Highness

The Studio M I bought were copies except for Lust which could qualify for a polish version of TKB Trading’s Libra Blues pigment, blue based with purple interference. Electronica is a deep but not quite vampy purple with small particles of blue and pink mixed in. Total Mystery is not quite as blue as it looks but I'm not sure how to describe it other than saying that there is a slight purple tone to it and it sparkles without being a metallic finish. Total Mystery and Electronica are layered over black here while Lust is shown over both black and white. They were $2.49.

Electronica, Total Mystery and Lust

In my local grocery store, Remke's, I found some polishes that surprised me because normally the store has little in way of cosmetics.

These are from Diamond Cosmetics and I bought them for $3.00 something purely for the glow-in-the-dark novelty. They are colored in the bottle but extremely sheer so even several coats wouldn't change the color of the polish it's layered over.

Glo Worm Green, Tangeglo, Pink Flaminglo, Blue Moonglo

These are two "Artist Expressions" sets from Nailene, simply called Warm, left and Cool on the right. I didn't think to photograph the packaging but you can see them on Nailene's website.

Each comes with a glitter striper, a small vial with coordinating holographic glitter and a sparkly duochrome topcoat which is why I decided to buy them. The insets display the color shift of the topcoat when layered over black, photographed in sunlight. $8.00+

During a trip to Kmart, I found most of the newer Jordana Glitters. Initially I grabbed a bottle of each color but reconsidered and wiped out the rest. When I went back the next weekend, they still hadn't restocked so I almost feel bad for whoever came in after me wanting the same thing… I said almost, I'm a believer in buying in bulk the first time. $2.99 each.

In the top row: Funky Gold Town, Celestial, Magenta Magic, Cosmic and L.A. City Nights. In the bottom row: Sequins, Celebration, Blue Bash and Copper Blaze.

And my last purchase from Kmart for $1.99 was a solitary NYC polish, Broadway Burgundy Frost which is neither burgundy colored or frosty. Seriously? A good comparison would be Sally Hansen Red Carpet, same concept but with less glitter. Inset shows polish over black and white, in full sunlight.

My Dollar Tree finds were Fingers Nail Art pens to be used for everything but nail art (I draw on paper, not fingernails) and the Sally Hansen Chrome pens. I bought every one they had and they haven’t had any since, sorry to say.

Green Chrome, Fuchsia Chrome, Red Chrome, Pink Chrome and Silver Chrome

Caution, Dare, Boy Crazy and Hottie

Dollar General is alright but the Dollar Tree seems to have a better selection and more variation, the point being that you never know what you may find so it’s always worth stopping in. You spend $20, you walk out with 20 things, that's my kind of store. -MK

Wet 'n' Wild Fast Dry Comparisons

Links checked 12/12/13

In my last post, I showed you Wet 'n' Wild's new line of Fast Dry polishes in bottles and made comparison to other brands. In this post I've got actual nail swatches of those comparisons but please don't hold it against me that the paint job leaves much to be desired; I am aware, believe me. Even when I try to do it neatly, it ends up… well, you'll see.

The first set is Sinful Colors Let's Talk versus Wet 'n' Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer. Shown below, Let's Talk is left and Buffy on right.

Both of these are 3 coat, very vibrant purples and I do like both but Let's Talk is slightly more pinkish while Buffy leans more towards the blue side. Both are more purple than they appear here. If I had to choose between them I'd still choose Sinful Colors because its thicker consistency seems to suspend pigments in frankens better.

The next comparison I'd made was Sally Hansen Hi Def (original HD line) and Wet 'n' Wild Sage in the City; they are similar but hardly identical like they appeared in the bottle. Hi Def is left, Sage is on the right.

 Outdoors, direct sunlight.

Indoors

I'd never worn either one before this and I found myself surprised by how much I actually liked Hi Def with its lime green color with mint green highlight. Sage doesn't have a minty highlight and is more green in person as well as being more sparkly. These were both 4 coats.

I made a visual assessment and compared SaGreena the Teenage Witch to Sinful Colors HD Nails in the prior entry but found, once I did a side-by-side, that they really are nothing alike. HD Nails is far lighter and stands alone. SaGreena is closer to Sally Hansen (Xtreme Wear) Emerald City and I added Sinful Colors San Francisco for further review. From left to right: HD Nails, SaGreena, Emerald City and San Francisco.

Shown here are, from left to right, Sinful Colors Midnight Blue, Wet 'n' Wild Saved by the Blue, China Glaze Frostbite and Sally Hansen (Xtreme Wear) Blue It. By appearance, Saved by the Blue is most similar to China Glaze Frostbite but I must admit the quality and application of Frostbite beats Saved by the Blue hands down.

 

After painting these swatches of Sinful Colors Cloud 9, left and Wet 'n' Wild Magic Trident, on the right, I decided I really don't like this color on me. That being said, they are identical in color but Cloud 9 has far more sparkle. They were both too thick which could be fixed with thinner no doubt but I didn't bother.

Wet 'n' Wild Gray's Anatomy, left is next to my polish Venus (middle) with Sally Hansen (Nail Prisms) Emerald Amethyst on the right. Since these three are true duochrome polishes, it required several pictures to even come close to capturing the color shift. Venus is the more pigmented version of Gray's Anatomy but Emerald Amethyst is very close on the color wheel.

 

 

 

-MK

Related Entries:

Wet 'n' Wild Fast Dry polishes- Updated