Sally Hansen Topcoat Challenge - Day 1

This week's topcoat is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. This is about as bog-standard as you can get for topcoats, available in drug stores all over. It's cheap, easily available, and dries super fast.

The main issue I had with application was dripping - I had a couple of nails that required extra clean up due to topcoat dripping onto my cuticles. Other than that, this is a quick, easily applied topcoat, with no strong odours.

I cleaned and buffed my nails, then applied three thin coats of Hits No Olimpo in Dioniso, the same polish I used for the Poshe Topcoat Challenge and Seche Vite Topcoat Challenge. I also kept the same unwrapped finger - the middle finger on my right hand, due to how short it is.












Here it is right after application.

Left hand:


Right hand:

Battle of the Topcoats

Inspired by a post over at /r/RedditLaqueristas.

Going through my box of polish implements yesterday, I realised that I had a number of different topcoats. Looking at them, I couldn't think of which one I'd call "the best", so I figured it was time for a challenge!

If you're impatient, you can skip to the end for the summary.

The contenders:



Seche Vite: By far the most popular topcoat on beauty blogs. It retails for ~$8.




Poshe: a bit of an underdog. Loved by some, but I hadn't heard of it til I saw it at my local Sally Beauty. Retails for ~$7




Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: This is the most accessible of the polishes, available at drug stores all over the place. It's also the cheapest of the bunch at ~$6, cheaper on sale.




OPI Rapidry Topcoat:  the Salon alternative. Easy enough to find as OPI products are stocked in a lot of beauty salons and places like Trade Secrets. At full retail price, this is the most expensive of the bunch at $10.

Control: No topcoat.

The polish:



I decided to use something with a bit less shine so I could evaluate on the shine of the topcoat as well as longevity. I also wanted something that I could handle looking at for as long as this experiment lasted! I normally change my polish every 1 - 2 days, so this was tough! I ended up picking YSL Matte Black from the Duo Terriblement Noir. Plain black tends to be one of my favourite colours, goes with everything, will show every single chip, and the matte finish should put the shine factor of these topcoats to the test!

Application:

Cleaned and buffed nails, swiped with polish remover. Applied one thin coat of Deborah Lippmann Rehydrating Basecoat, wrapped the tips, and let sit for one minute. Then applied one coat of YSL Matte Black, again wrapping the tips, and did some initial clean up. This is the result:



This is a beautiful black, with a finish that reminds me of fine leather. The actual polish is beautiful, but the angle brush that it comes with makes me crazy. Here it is next to a brush from the China Glaze Electropop collection:



It's extremely short and wide, on top of being angled in a strange way. All that to say, applying this polish took a fair bit of work and clean up!

I then applied one coat of topcoat to each nail, mirroring on both hands. OPI Rapidry on my pinky finger, Sally Hansen Instadri on my ring finger, Seche Vite on my middle finger, and Poshe on my index finger. I left the thumb bare as a control.

Left hand:



Right hand:



I'm so not used to taking pictures of my right hand! This was incredibly awkward!

Top coat application: 

OPI: Definitely the thinnest of the bunch. This applied easily with no visible bubbling, and self-levelled nicely.

Sally Hansen: Slightly thicker, this was also very easy to apply. It self-levelled and had no bubbling.

Seche Vite: The thickest of the bunch, I ended up having to redo these nails due to bubbling in my initial application. Luckily I have two bottles of SV, so I re-did it with my new bottle. The older bottle will get a bit of thinner tonight! Application of this was trickier, and it tends to have a learning curve, but it does level nicely! It also has the strongest smell of the lot, which may be an issue for some.

Poshe: leaning towards the thinner side, this was also very easy to apply and self-levelling. Smell wasn't as strong as Seche Vite.

Dry time:

All topcoats were dry to the touch in minutes.

Shine level:

The OPI Rapidry is the least glass-like of the four, with Sally Hansen coming in next. Seche Vite and Poshe are, for all intents and purposes, identical when it comes to shine level. All four are pretty shiny and I doubt anyone would notice much of a difference unless they were obsessing over it.


Summary of Initial Application, Day 0:

Application:

1) OPI, 4 points
2) Poshe, 3 points
3) Sally Hansen, 2 points
4) Seche Vite, 1 point

Seche Vite loses due to its strong odour and tricky application.

Dry time:

no clear winner. All topcoats dried quickly, so each gets 4 points.

Shine:

1) Poshe & Seche Vite (seriously, these were pretty much identical), 4 points
2) Sally Hansen, 3 points
3) OPI, 2 points

Totals:

Poshe: 11 points
OPI: 10 points
Sally Hansen: 9 points
Seche Vite: 9 points

After initial application, Poshe is the leader by 1 point.

Tomorrow, I'll evaluate shrinkage levels, shine after fully curing, and if there are any chips!

Vintage nails

I had a lot of fun last night doing this! I set out to do a stamping mani on top of China Glaze For Audrey with a matte finish, but once my nails were painted I figured I'd try my hand at some vintage wallpaper styles instead.



The base is China Glaze For Audrey.

The stripes and dots were done with my Konad stamping polish. This stuff is great for doing nail art - super opaque!

The vintage roses are a combo of Sally Hansen Fuchsia Power and Deborah Lippmann Shape of my Heart, with China Glaze Holly Day and Sally Hansen Mint Sherbet for the leaves. This is where I realised I had no leafy greens in my collection - must rectify that today!

The polish I'm holding is Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, which just arrived at my office this morning. Check out the MASSIVE box it came in! I cracked up laughing when the FedEx guy walked in with this.



All that box and padding for one teeny tiny bottle of polish. Sadly, there's a second box just like it on the way tomorrow with On the Beach inside (they shipped separately for some crazy reason).

Today's manicure: pink and girly!

I've been seeing a lot of pink gradients on the polish subreddit I frequent, so I figured I'd give it a try!

This is a random Sally Hansen Diamond Strength pink (random because the label fell off. Oops!), topped with a bit of butter LONDON Tart with a Heart, and a generous coat of Seche Vite for shine.



I tried a few varieties of this before I settled on this combo, and here's what I learned:

- Super sheer, buildable shades work best. Seems obvious, but I had several failures when I picked a polish that was too opaque!

- Glitter covers a multitude of sins. If the gradient isn't quite perfect, this will cover it up!

I really like this look! It's subtle, shimmery, feminine, and oh so pink.

Comparison: Sally Hansen XTreme Wear Disco Ball vs China Glaze Snow Globe

Just because :) Someone mentioned these might be similar, so I thought I'd swatch them together. It's a slow evening.

The bottles:




Alone (SH on left, CG on right):



Over black creme polish (SH on left, CG on right):



Side by side (from top to bottom, SH, CG, SH, CG):

 

The main difference between these two is the size of the glitter. Disco Ball is tiny, tiny flecks, while Snow Globe is big shiny bits. The colours are pretty much identical, flashing all colours of the rainbow. Both are neat, but I think I prefer Disco Ball as Snow Globe seems to sink into my nail and make it look pitted.

New Year's Eve nails - maybe?

I wanted something simple and pink this morning, so I went with Sally Hansen Champagne Toast. It's a sheer pink polish with iridescent silvery shimmer. This was easy enough to work with, but the frosty tone meant that brush strokes were going to be an issue. I had a bit of that, but it wasn't excessive. I didn't get any bubbling or notice any other issues with the formula itself.

Even with three thin coats you can still see my nails underneath, showing just how sheer this polish is. I could have made it opaque in four or five coats I suppose, but I kind of liked how it looked here so I didn't bother.

Natural light:




Indoors, no flash:




Indoors, flash:



I quite like this, and the name fits the occasion. I'm not sure if it'll last the entire day, but for now I'm happy with it.

New Year's Eve-Eve nails

I'd call this a New Year's Eve manicure, but I know myself well enough to realise that this won't last two full days, and that I'll probably regret doing this at all once I try to take it off!

Two coats of Sally Hansen Celeb City topped with two coats of Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie, and one thick coat of Seche Vite on top of it all.

Celeb City applied beautifully as always, easy to use and fully opaque in two coats. Rainbow in the S-Kylie on the other hand - total pain! Getting enough glitter on the brush, then onto the nail, and getting it to not clump was a bother. Plus it really needs two thick coats of SV to make it completely smooth.

Having said that, it's fun and I like it! I'll keep it for a few hours anyway.


Indoors:




Natural light:

Best of 2011 - at least for me

It's a bit preposterous in my mind to do a list of my favourite 2011 polishes when I've only been playing with polish for oh, about two months, so instead I thought I'd repost what I'm most proud of personally: finally being able to do my nails without flooding my cuticles and making a huuuuge mess! This is the neatest my nails have ever come out, and I'm just getting better at it as time goes on.




I know it's not great compared to what more experienced polish bloggers can do, and it's really a small thing, but it made me so happy to finally be able to do such a nice, neat job on my polish!

It doesn't hurt that the polish in this picture is the gorgeous Sally Hansen Black Platinum either.

Sally Hansen Black Platinum & Sally Hansen DVD

I'm visiting family for Christmas - a small, isolated town without a lot of options for polish. I hit up the local pharmacy (one of two in town) and was convinced I'd find nothing in the teeny tiny polish selection, but I was wrong. I walked out with two great colours that I'd never have picked up if I had access to my usual unlimited array of polishes, and I'm glad I bought them!

I often give short shrift to Sally Hansen - it's cheap and available anywhere so it hasn't got the exotic appeal of brands like Deborah Lippmann or Ozotics. And it's a shame - these cheap, available everywhere colours can be just as striking, not to mention readily affordable.

First up, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Black Platinum. I was intrigued by the way this looked in the bottle - a smokey deep charcoal with flashes of silver shimmer. The first coat was disappointing, splotchy and sheer, but a second coat achieved the bottle colour and I was in love.

This colour is gorgeous - intense, shimmery charcoal with amazing flashes of silver. I was so happy with how this turned out that I almost scrapped my original plan to use this as a base colour for my next swatches!









I'm glad I did. This is two swatches of Sally Hansen Hi-Definition in DVD over Black Platinum. Quite sheer on its own, paired up with a dark base coat this turns to deep purple-blue sparkly magic. This is incredibly unique, unlike anything else I have. It switches from deep purple to bright blue depending on the light. I'm anxious to see what this looks like in the sun tomorrow! I'll have to take another picture then.











Definitely two great additions to my polish collection!

I cheated

And redid my nails with Sally Hansen Salon Effects polish strips in Peppermint Twist. I love these - perfect peppermint nails without any fuss or cleanup. I put these on last night in the space of about five minutes, slapped them with a topcoat, and they were good to go. (Damn I need to clean up my index finger cuticle! This picture shows just how dry it is.)



Compared to other SH strips, these felt a tad more plasticky and seemed more prone to wrinkling. I managed to work most of them out but I can still see a bit of folding if I look closely.

ETA: Scrangie posts about this same set of nail strips here!

My latest haul!

The postman showed up with three packages for me today! First, my Manglaze order came, which thrilled me. Then I got my first ever order from Rescue Beauty Lounge. And finally, my first order from Harlow & Co, with the Ozotics, Glitter Gal, and Picture Polish colours! And then I happened into Shoppers on my way home where they had Gosh on sale for $5 each. How could I resist?




Top: Sally Hansen Salon Effects Peppermint Twist
Middle: Revlon Snow Bunny, Gosh Metallic Blue, Blue Monday, Black Passion, Orange Drops, Rusty, Manglaze Fuggen Ugly, Matte is Murder
Bottom: Nyx Bejeweled, Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso, Scrangie, Glitter Gal Suede 3D holo, Ozotics 520, Picture Polish Voodoo.