Sally Hansen Hard As Nails-Merlot

Front cover of journal

This brush is so thin. It's makes applying the polish awkward.

Merlot is a deep berry/burgundy color.  2 coats for full opaqueness. 

I do like the formula and the color though.

Ha! My writing bump on my middle finger is back! I started writing/journaling daily while on vacation, and have continued here at home. This is a page waiting for some writing in my new journal. That "Dream" is a rub-on from a booklet I found at Marshalls on vacation.

I have Sally Hansen Continuous Growth and esssie Ridge Filler under the Merlot.

What do you think of this color? Do you have it or something similar?

Do you have a writing bump too?

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Co-bolt Blue

Well, don't I feel like a schlemiel.

This is formulated to be only one coat. I peeled the paper off the back of the bottle, and voila, there it was in black and white.  Well, it's exciting, non-the-less.

I love this strong, bold, shiny cobalt blue. It goes on smoothly. But take care. If it's not entirely dry, it can make a big staining mess on the skin. 

I have Sally Hansen Continuous Growth on my nails, then essie Ridge Filler.  Having 2 base coats stops most of the staining on my nails.

Oh, pretty color!

Before I painted my nails with Co-bolt Blue, I did some swirl experimenting.

I took several different stripers and painted lines from cuticle to tip.

This is the only nail that worked out:

Please pardon the dry skin. I was putting on and taking off polish to try and get this right.

I tried to make stripes with a dotting tool from right to left but that wasn't working out.

With this nail, I just sort of swirled it with the dotter.  Not sure I could recreate it again.

I topped it with one coat of Confetti Ice Ice Baby. (Because glitter makes everything better!)

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Quick Sand

Oh, this is a pretty nude.

With Flash

I started with my same routine.

• Sally Hansen Continuous Growth. Followed by
• essie Ridge Filling Base Coat

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 140 Quick Sand

I bought this at Ulta when they had them on a buy one get one free sale. The formula is not too thick or thin. It's almost opaque with one coat. And it does dry very fast! The brush is kind of clunky though.

What do you think of this color? Do you own any SH Insta-Dri's? Do you like them?

Confetti Lonesome Dove

 Lonesome Dove was part of my CVS haul when I was in Costa Mesa last month.

I started with one coat of Sally Hansen Continuous Growth

 And then 1 coat of essie Ridge Filler

I forgot to mention this when I was lamenting my sparse essie collection on a recent vlog. I absolutely LOVE this base coat. Have I said that before? I think I did on my vlog. It is absolutely fabulous!

This stuff makes my nails so smooth. A wonderful surface for the polish to glide across.

Two coats without top coat

 Natural light

With Flash

I really like this light gray color. What do you think?

Do you have this or something similar?

Confetti Crimson Cutie

Late, really late last night, I decided to do my nails.

I started by removing the polish and Tasmanian Devil glitter I had on my nails. The glitter left a few pieces that came off easily when I used my nail. I scrubbed my hands with H20 Spa hand and cuticle scrub.

I applied Sally Hansen Continuous Growth to my nails. And watched a youtube video while it dried. (That's one of my problems. Impatient and won't let the layers dry thoroughly)

After the base coat (I'm trying to get my nails to grow. This is the second application of Continuous Growth) I applied a layer of essie ridge filler.

I absolutely love this stuff. My nails have gullies, and ridges.  This stuff fills in them in and makes a smooth base for the nail color.  Even the deep gully on my left thumb is less with essie ridge filler.

I started with two coats of Confetti Crimson Cutie, one of the polishes I picked up in Costa Mesa. It's red with a pink cast to it.

Well, I liked the results. However, when I went into my craft room to get my Barielle quick drying top coat, I saw Sinful Colors All About You, and thought, hey, maybe that would be nice on top. All About You is a gold glittery polish with some red flecks mixed in.

So I brushed it about 2/3rds down my nails.  The gold is a little lighter on my right hand because I thinned the brush out more.  I don't know. I think it's just enough blingy interest.

I can't just leave well enough alone. ;p