Sally Hansen InstaGel Strips in "Faux Real"

Hello everyone!

Sorry I've been MIA lately. As some of you may know, my baby (6'4",18 yr old) brother is a senior this year, and he's playing some of his last high school basketball games. This year has gone by way too fast for me, and I've just been trying to make these final moments last as long as possible. We don't know where he'll be next year as of yet, but I'm sure he'll be going off somewhere sooner than I can get my head around. My little brother has always been my "baby", and I'll always be the big sister that spoils him and gets him whatever he wants. He is a cutie, after all...lol. Anyways, I'm back, and ready to talk more nails stuff.

I got a set of Sally Hansen InstaGel strips in "Faux Real" design as a Christmas gift, and I finally got around to using them. The application process is the same as when applying the regular Salon Effects strips, except you follow up with using the gel coat and curing the mani with their led lamp. I picked up a mini led lamp from Ulta with a coupon I had, and went to work on applying them. Everyone wants to know how long these last, as Sally Hansen advertises them as lasting up to two weeks. Lets see just how well they worked on me, shall we?

I absolutely love the animal print mixed with the neutral colors. It is definitely work-appropriate. I thought, and was hoping that these were tiger stripes, as I'm a fan of the big cats, but it became obvious by my nail buddies that these are more like zebra stripes.  Hey, they're still pretty! Maybe they'll make a true tiger stripe design in the future. Anyways, this is what they looked like right after applying them, in this photo and the one below.

Okay...Here we go with what most people wanted to find out about these. This is what the strips looked like after a week. The chipping wasn't too bad, but it was enough for me to want to remove them. I honestly was expecting to only get a week out of these, as I'm a working girl, and use my hands a lot.

In the end, as a nail strips lover, I am glad I made the choice to give these a try. I have seen very mixed reviews on these. Some I have seen get as much time out of them as I have, and even a couple of people claimed they got only a day out of them; which made me worrisome at first. I think if you follow the directions and take your time when applying these (emphasis on taking your time), you should get a decent amount of wear with them. Two weeks? I don't know about that, but definitely more than a day or so if you truly take your time with the application. I plan on using them again in the future. My mini led lamp came with a set of strips ("Wine Not" color) that I'm sure I'll put to good use. Have you guys tried these before? What was your experience with them?  I'll see you guys again real soon. Baby brother's last high school basketball tournament is this weekend in Lakeland, Fl, and you can bet I'll be there cheering him on! <3
   
                                                               - Tiff

Pink Leopard Nail Fraud Polish Strips

Hi Guys!

    For my "Valentine's mani" I decided to use a set of pink leopard nail polish strips from Nail Fraud that I got from a blog sale. As you know, I'm a huge fan of nail polish strips, so I was excited to try these from a brand that was new to me.

    I loved the design, but felt what ever these strips were made from is a bit strange. They say on the package that they are made from nail polish, but they didn't have that recognizable polish smell. Also, because I always top my polish strips with a coat of top coat to finish it off, I did so again here...big mistake. These bubbled up immediately afterwards. It was such a bummer. They went on perfectly smooth, and quick, as I loved the size of the strips; but they did not like top coat what so ever. These would have come off today if I didn't have a cut near my cuticles that hasn't healed yet (don't want to get any nail polish remover on that!). I did manage to get some compliments on these... I just told people not to look at them up close!

 

    Hopefully you don't see the "bubble-ness" too much here. I plan on using my other set of Nail Fraud strips, and I will definitely skip the top coat next time. I am not sure where you can get these from if you wanted to. Their Facebook Page hasn't had any activity on it in a long time, and I haven't gotten a response from an email I sent to an address on their website weeks ago. I really hope that this brand hasn't gone away, because I have seen some cute designs from them that I am wanting to try, such as their smiley face design and ethnic tribal design. Have you ever used Nail Fraud's before? I'll see you next time!

- Tiff 

Sinful Colors "Starfish" and Revlon "Girly"

 Hi there!


I have a couple of pink-themed posts I wanted to publish this week, being that it will be Valentine's Day on Thursday. Normally I'm not much of a fan of either (pink or Valentine's Day), but I did manage to find a couple of pinks I ended up liking with my skin tone, and who could resist those conversation heart candies? I know I can't, but let's move on to this mani I wanted to show you, using "Starfish" from Sinful Colors, and "Girly" from Revlon.

Here you can see how pretty "Starfish" is on it's own on the left. This color may be my go-to pink. It has a nice dusty feel to it. My final mani has two of the SC polish, and one from the Revlon one.

 I have been wanting to get "Girly" for a while now, and stumbled upon the very last bottle I found at a Walgreens a couple of weeks ago. This is definitely a must-have for polish collectors. I needed to find the perfect pink to layer it over, and "Starfish" worked perfectly. I really like how this came out. Are you planning on doing anything special with your nails for Valentine's this week? See you in a couple of days   with my next post!
 -Tiff

Cobra Colors Holo Mani

Hi guys!

Today I have a quick post about a mani I did for my little brother's basketball team. They are in another round of the high school playoffs, and I'm so happy for them. I put a holo top coat (I think spectra flair was added to a regular OPI top coat... I got this in a swap a while ago) over OPI "a roll in The Hague" and Milani "Dark Coffee" since the school's colors are orange and brown. I think this came out ok, not great. I don't know... What do you think? Go Cobras!

- Tiff

OPI & Mariah Carey Liquid Sand

Happy Superbowl Sunday!


A few weeks ago, I went to my local beauty supply store and picked up the OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Mini Set. There were other colors I was really wanting to get, but I made myself walk out the store with just these. It felt good and not so good at the same time...lol... the life of a nail polish addict. Anyways, here are some pics of the Liquid Sand Minis.

Can't Let Go- I really like this one. I have to admit that the main reason why I decided to wear this one first is because "Can't Let Go" is my favorite Mariah Carey song ;). I'm normally not a big purple fan, but I've been giving it more of a chance lately. This is two coats of the polish, here.

Stay The Night- I like the contrast between the red and black glitters here. This polish would be perfect for a fun night out to a concert or hanging out with your friends ;) Again, I have two coats of polish on in this pic.

The Impossible- There are two versions of this polish. If you buy the polish that comes in the regular sized bottle, you'll get exactly what you see here, but with star glitters in it. If you get the mini set like I did, you will get what you see here. If you're really wanting the star glitters, I would recommend getting the larger bottle as there is no way they would fit in the mini bottle. I had a feeling the stars would be missing when I bought the minis, but I still like how the color looks on me. This is two coats here.

Get Your Number- This one is one of my favorites of the bunch. The formula of this one is more on the jelly-ish side, which I didn't mind at all. I used two thicker coats here to make it more opaque. I love the holographic glitter against the blue base.

Overall, I'm glad I decided to pick these up. I thought I might have needed some time to get used to the sand-like texture of these, but I was wrong. They really are not as gritty as I was expecting them to be. I  prefer this texture over the caviar mani trend that still seems to be present. As far as the formula of these, I thought they worked well; not too thick, and not too thin. I pretty much used two coats for all of them, and thicker coats for Get Your Number. They do take a bit of time to dry, though. I definitely plan on getting larger bottles of a couple of these because I loved the colors. What do you guys think of these?

- Tiff