Honest Babes

OPI tends to give Ulta three exclusive colors for Valentines Day and for the winter holidays.  I heard that the Valentines Day exclusives were out, so of course I had to stop by an Ulta.  I found an exclusive named Pink Me I'm Good (SR B94.)  It's a dark hot pink jelly with golden glitter.  Here are some pictures in fading sunlight:

Click me!

A long time ago, in a land not so far away, a young company named butter LONDON offered their polish for almost free.  Plenty of us availed ourselves of that deal.  But complaints were not few.  The cost of the polish, at full price, was not cheap.  The bottles themselves were relatively small.  The polish tended to dry out because it was hard to twist the cap onto the bottle all the way.

Clearly BL listened to the complaints.  While the polish is still a wee bit expensive at US$14, the bottle size has increased from 0.3 fl oz to 0.4 fl oz.  (A bottle of OPI is 0.5 fl oz. for US$8.50.)  The caps are much, much easier to remove, revealing a smaller plastic nub to hold while polishing.  Of course, the caps have always been removable, but it practically took a bodybuilder to wrestle the older caps off.

When I caught a "buy one, get one free" offer from Beauty.com, I caved and bought another BL polish.  I'm not sorry I did, either!  The free polish was Portobello Pink, and since it was in the 0.3 fl oz bottle, it must've been old stock.  But I didn't think the cap was as hard to remove from it, so I doubt it was that old.  The polish I decided to purchase for the deal is British Racing Green, one of the more recent BL colors.  It came in the 0.4 fl oz bottle, and the cap was easy to remove.  The cap even had a cute sticker on the side, letting me know to "lift to open."  Good idea, BL!

And now we get to the pictures part...

I thought I'd give you guys a break after all that Alice posting.  But I'm back with some more bottle pictures!  I nabbed these Urban Outfitters polishes for US$3.50 each right before Christmas.  They may be back up to $4-5 now- I'm not sure.

If you're curious to see the colors...

I personally think that Sephora has really stepped it up with their new 500 point Beauty Insider reward.  I'm likin' this one much more than the glittery Kat von D eye shadow quad they used to have as a gift!  While the colors aren't earth-shattering, I think they're good nail polish collection building blocks for most folks.  The gift consists of three Sephora by OPI colors, which retail for US$9 each, so the gift is valued at $27.   You get a work-appropriate polish, a girls night out polish, and a sexy, vampy date night polish.

Wanna see the colors?

Some sunlight pics and a dark indoor pic, too. I'm not sure the gold in Alice is coming through, or the multicolored glitter in Hatter, but I can assure you that they are present on the nail!  I did three coats for Absolutely Alice and Mad As A Hatter, but Thanks So Muchness! only needed two.

A decent amount of pictures awaits...

I need to do some sunlight swatches, but I promise I'm going to be done tomorrow with the OPI Alice in Wonderlands.   So one more post after this one, honest!

Indoor flash pics ahoy

I picked up three of the Alice in Wonderland polishes this afternoon.  I didn't opt for Off With Her Red! since it was so warm.  (If you didn't catch the swatch, it's here.)

Some bottle pictures...

The OPI Alice in Wonderland collection has shipped. That means you can start stalking your local polish haunts for it soon!

If you'd like to know a little more...

I picked up four of the new Xtreme Wears by Sally Hansen. I assume that these are limited edition for spring, but it's possible that they might be added the the permanent collection. I found them at Walgreens in the "new stuff" section in the beauty department.

I just can't shake this overwhelming urge for gray nail polish...

Sally Hansen is replacing their old Salon line with the new Complete Salon Manicure line. Gone is the visually appealing square bottle and rubber handle. Now the bottles have a weird dumpy shape that resembles a halfheartedly cut gemstone. The handle is shiny with a rubber ring at the bottom, next to the bottle. If you have a latex allergy, you'll still have to use caution with these new Salon bottles.

Even more in-depth details!

Being a Sally Hansen fan can be very frustrating.  You never know when a collection will show up at your local drugstore.  You never know what's current because they update their website every two years, or so it seems.  They reuse numbers, even in the same line, for completely different colors.  But I got lucky recently- I found new Insta-Drys at one drugstore, and new Complete Salon Manicure and Hard As Nails Xtreme Wears at another drugstore!  If you have a Walgreens nearby and are in the US, I believe that the Complete Salon Manicures are buy one, get one free through Saturday night.

I haven't tried these new Insta-Drys yet, but they're gorgeous, vibrant and spring-y.  Mint Sprint (4917-28) is a dark light crème green with a bit of blue added.  Lively Lilac (4917-26) is a warmer lilac with silver pearl.  Snappy Sorbet (4917-30) is an orange with white pearl. It's a smidge lighter than the picture below shows.  These three colors make me wish for spring and the end of cold weather!

I picked this picture because (hopefully) you can see both full sunlight and some shadows on the bottles.

Essie's Spring collection is... hold onto your hats, folks... filled with pastels, a pink, and a red!  Well, perhaps you didn't need to be a mind reader to guess that.  Essie knows how to do light colors, especially pinks and sheers, and has quite a nice collection of reds as well.  I guess this is one of the many collections that plays to Essie's strengths.

Dying to know more, or simply just curious?

Happy holidays to you and your loved ones.

Today only, Ulta Professional nail polish is buy one, get two free with a coupon on the 12 Days site.  At least I think it's BOGTF- the coupon will only come up once.  I can't get it to come up for me again, so if you think you might be interested in the deal, print out the coupon once it pops up.

I recently came across an article that questioned how long nail polish was good for.

“Two years,” says Dashing Diva’s head nail tech, Pattie Yankee, who explained that after that time, polishes have a tendency to become thick, sticky, and stringy. Yankee recommends keeping your stash in a cool place and flipping the bottles from right side up to upside down every couple of months to keep them at their best.

Issue #1: You can combat that thick, sticky, stringy issue by using nail polish thinner (not nail polish remover.)  Someone who is a head nail tech would know this.  However, if someone throws out all of their nail polish and wants to replace some of it, guess who said nail tech wants you to buy from?  The company she works for!

It is entirely conceivable that not all nail polish will survive after say, ten years.  There may be some ingredients that just won't last.  But by and large, nail polish will last just about forever if the following steps are taken:

Store nail polish away from excessive heat, cold or humidity.  Keep it out of the sun.

Gently shake the nail polish bottles every 3-6 months.

Use nail polish thinner if the polish gets thick.  Do not use water or nail polish remover.  Start with a few drops of thinner, then put the brush back in the polish, close it, and gently roll the bottle between your palms.  Wait a few minutes, then check the polish consistency.  If it's still too thick, repeat the thinning process.  If you overthin the lacquer, just leave the top off of the polish off and check the consistency of the polish every 15-30 minutes.

Issue #2: I also disagree with the suggestion that you should flip your polish over every few months.  Have you ever had a bottle of polish that you just couldn't open?  One possible explanation is that polish got onto the threads of the polish bottle and dried, essentially glueing the bottle to the cap.  That can happen when nail polish isn't stored fully upright.  Granted you can also have the same issue by not being careful when wiping polish off your brush, but I find the former more often than the latter. If you do store your polish upside down, and then can't get it open... you might decide to throw it away and replace it with more polish.  I know a nail tech who would be glad to suggest a brand...

If your polish does get to the point where you can't open it, use "tools" that may be at your disposal:

Put rubber bands on the cap and the bottle of the polish and then twist them in opposite directions.

Use a rubber jar opener to grip the polish cap and twist it.

Put rubber gloves on and twist the cap and bottle in opposite directions.

Run very hot water over the cap and top of the bottle (be careful that you don't ruin the polish label by running water over it) and as a last resort, soak the polish bottle in hot water.  (I have achieved success with hot water on the cap and top of the bottle, but if you are going to try either hot water option, be very careful.)

Use a dropper to drip some nail polish thinner into the cap while holding the polish bottle upside down.

It's really very simple.  You don't need to throw out your polish every two years.  At the end of the world, only the heartiest of things will have survived.  Cockroaches, Spam, Willie Nelson and nail polish all fall into that category.

Lest it sound like I am impugning Ms. Yankee's character, I would like to make it clear that she is entitled to her opinion.  Mine just happens to differ.   Don't believe everything that you read, ya dig?   For those of you who'd like to try some press-on nails (is that what these are called?), Dashing Diva has some for sale on  Sephora.com.  I actually look forward to checking out Dashing Diva's polish next time I'm in Hickory, NC, preferably after a meal at the Old German Schnitzel Haus.  Mmm, Spaten Optimator...