Sally Hansen HD Hi Res!

Good morning my loves!  Happy July!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I spent mine in KY helping my friend with her wedding planning!  She's getting married in September and it's a half Jewish half Indian wedding and I'm SUPER psyched about it! 

Anywho I thought I'd bust out a pretty bright pink for today!  I did this swatch a few weeks ago (hence the nubs) and was busy and never posted it!  I don't have a ton of Sally Hansen colors, but I was excited to get this in a swap package since I've been wanting to try her HD polishes!  This is Hi Res:

Hi Res is like a semi-metallicy pink, super bright and perfect for summer!  The formula was a little thin and runny but not unmanageable in the least!  Two coats could have been okay if you were in a rush, but I used 3 to be completely opaque with no VNL!  Based on the formula of this I don't know if I'd buy anymore of the HD polishes, but I'm glad I got this one because I love the color!

Have you tried any of the Sally Hansen HD polishes?  What'd you think!?

Whitney

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms!

Soooo I went to Ross lately and found THREE of the Sally Hansen Prism sets!  One for me and two for swapssss.  If my second swap proposition doesn't go through, I'll add it to my Blog Sale :)

All I can say is WOW!  I love these :)  I'm all about my pink holos!  Check 'em out:

First up: Ruby Diamond:

Ruby Diamond is a deep pink holo...it's loveeeeely.  It goes on kind of thin and took 3 coats to become opaque, but when it got there it was amazinnggg!  It's not as linear as some of the other holo's I've seen but it's awesome nonetheless.

Next is Blush Diamond, another pink holo!

Blush Diamond is very similar to Ruby Diamond, but a little lighter!  It's also pretty thin and needs three coats.  The formula on these is pretty great for SH, though! 

Here is a comparison of Ruby Diamond and Blush Diamond, side by side, on a nail wheel so you can see the difference between the two:

Look at that fab holo!  On the left/top Ruby Diamond, on the bottom/right Blush Diamond

Those are my two faves of the whole set--I'm so glad to have 'em!

Here's the next one, a duochrome called Lapis Amethyst:

Lapis Amethyst is a beautiful lavendar/gray/blue duochrome.  This one I believe I used 4 coats on because it's a little frosty and my nails have a lot of ridges.  If I would've used ORLY Ridgefiller I probably could've been fine with three coats!  This is one of the prisms available in my giveaway!

I should mention that I was so excited to swatch these that I didn't do a very good job cleaning up and my cuticles look kind of like poop...I apologize for that!  However I ended up getting lazy and didn't want to swatch the last two, so I did them both on one hand:

Silver polish: Diamond, Cream polish: South Sea Diamond

Diamond is a lot prettier on the nail than I thought it would be.  It's a multi-dimensional scattered holo super fine silver glitter.  I can't tell if it's in a gray base or if the shimmer/glitter is just so dense that it makes it look that way!  I really, really like this polish a lot and wish it'd come in the larger bottle!

Diamond is a suitable name for this

South Sea Pearl is a pretty iridescent, frosty pearl-colored polish.  It took four coats to become opaque (I just slapped it on, so this up close pic below doesn't do it justice) and it has a beautiful shimmer to it. However, it's got just a bit of a yellowish tinge to it, that no matter what I do, I just think it looks off with my skin tone!  So I also added this one to my giveaway!

Wow...my lack of clean up is evident

Wam blam!  Those are some fab polishes obtained for not very much money!  Look out for these at Ross...that's the only place I know to get them so far.  I'll let you ladies know if I find any more for those who'd like this collection!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win South Sea Pearl and Lapis Amethyst!

ALSO I added some brand new HTF polishes I found to my blog sale, so check them out!

<3 Hope your week is going well!

Color Club Beyond The Mistletoe Review and Giveaway! **CLOSED**

Okay so I have GOOD news.  First of all I started a BLOG SALE!  Please check it out and buy things :) I'm really trying hard to get some extra money saved!  It's open to both US and International buyers!  It's got some great stuff on there.

Next up I have a review of a few of the colors from the Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe holiday collection!

First: Sugarplum Fairy!  A beautiful silver/lavender holographic glitter

This one is really exciting!  It's is a mixture of gorgeous silver/lavendar holo glitters in a clear base that looks awesome in the sun!  These pictures are shown with 3 coats.  It's pretty opaque after 3 coats.  It's also a dupe of Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos. 

Next: Beyond the Mistletoe!  A lovely seafoam green-ish holo glitter!

Beyond the Mistletoe is another lovely holographic glitter polish consisting of green holo glitter in a clear base.  This one is thinner than Sugarplum Fairy and it took 4 coats to become opaque.  It is also a dupe of a Funky Fingers polish: Baby, Baby, Baby.  

Last: Holiday Splendor!  My favorite of the whole collection! (And I haven't even tried them all)

Darker lighting to show the vibrant color!

Holiday Splendor is different than the rest of the collection as it consists of green/teal holographic glitter in a green jelly-like base.  It was easily the most gorgeous color of the whole collection.  This one only took 2 coats to become opaque.  I don't know what else to say except..wow!  I'm usually not a fan of teals or greens with my skin tone, but seriously this is probably in my top 10 faves now.  It's perfect for the holidays!

Now, there are three other colors in this set, but the day I was swatching these I got lazy and frustrated with my lighting situation, so this is all ya got right now :)

However, you'll have the chance to swap them for yourselves because I'm giving a set away!

In addition to the entire Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe Collection you'll also get:
--1 Maybelline's Lots of Lashes Mascara in Very Black,
--1 Maybelline New Baby Lips Moisturizing Lip Balm in Cherry Me,
-- 2 Sally Hansen Nail Prisms: Lapis Amethyst, and South Sea Pearl!

Here are some additional photos:

The Color Club Collection is new and purchased by me and the Maybelline products were presented to me by BzzAgent to give away as I see fit :)  I threw in the SH Nail Prisms but they have been both been swatched one time on one hand (which I will post within the next few days so you can see what they look like!). 

Here are the giveaway rules:

1) You must be 18 or older to enter or else have your parents permission to give away your address if you win
2) This is open to U.S. residents only (I'm really sorry, international followers, it'd cost me a butt-load of money to ship all this stuff, and as you can see from my blogsale I'm trying to save money...I'll work on an international giveaway soon)
3) Enter ONLY once, if you enter more than once you will be disqualified.  If you can't remember if you've entered, shoot me an e-mail at EStyles.WW@gmail.com and I'll let you know! Also, if you don't do all the possible entries and decide later you want an additional entry via twitter or something, send me an e-mail with the links, don't fill out the form again!
4) This is open until December 15, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. EST!
5) To enter you MUST be a follower via GFC.  That means on the right sidebar you need to click the button that says "Follow" and sign in using Google (or whatever other accounts it asks for) or create an account.

You get 1 automatic entry for being a GFC follower and filling out the form!  Here are some ways you can get additional entries into the contest:


-Follow @ElementalStyles on Twitter [1 entry]
-Tweet about the giveaway (provide a direct link!) [2 entries]
-Blog about the giveaway (on sidebar, giveaway page or blog entry--provide a direct link) [2 entries for a link, 3 entries if you use one of the pictures]
-Add Elemental Styles to your blog roll (provide a link please!) [1 entry]
-Follow Elemental Styles on Facebook (provide Facebook name) [1 entry]
-Answer the extra question on the form [1 entry each]


**THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED!**

30 Day Challenge Day 7! Color Club De-Luxe-Cious!

So this is the first day of my original challenge! Are any of you ladies doing polish challenges?

I picked silver nails for day 7! Now, I have plenty of foils and glitters, so I thought I'd try something new.

I bought Color Club's De-Luxe-Cious quite a while ago and never tried it even though I loved it in the bottle. It's got a blue-ish/gun metal gray with silver holo shimmers in it. LOVE! I tried to wear it on it's own but it is pretty transparent, so I did two coats of Sally Hansen Midnight Sky (Which I'll do a whole post on later!):

I love this by itself

And thennnn I added two coats of De-Luxe-Cious on top and got a wonderful combination:

I broke both my ring-finger nail and my poor pinkie...ugh so ugly :/

Blurred so you can see the glitter effect

I really loved this polish.  I can't believe I only have one Color Club, hah!  I would like to try it by itself again with maybe 3 or 4 coats and see how opaque I could get it to look...or maybe add one coat over black!  It's just so pretty in the sun.

Has anyone else tried this polish?  Did you LOVE it?!

<3 Whitney

31 Day Challenge, Day 1! Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chip Polish in Resilient Red!

So. I've decided to try this 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge that so many people are doing right now.  With how often I've been updating, this challenge may seem silly.  BUT I'm going to do it my way and do the challenge regardless if I am able to update every day.  I'll finish it eventually :)

I'm also going to be switching some stuff around here soon...won't be huge I don't think, but I do want to get back into blogging and I'm trying to re-organize my life and priorities so we'll see what happens.

Here is the 31 day challenge list in case you haven't already seen it!

SO onto Day 1: Red!

I picked Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chip polish in Resilient Red!  I wanted an obviously red cream since my nails are so stubby.  Anything glittery I don't like on short nails, so here's what I ended up with...and I'll get back to you on how long this mani lasts without chipping ;)

P.S. I failed miserably with these pictures and I apologize.  This isn't how I wanted to return from another 2 week hiatus, haha.  It was pretty dark outside already and I didn't realize until I just now edited these pictures that the polish looks a little bumpy, but it's just water droplets from when I rinsed my hands! Ugh. Fail!

So this polish went on pretty smooth...I actually enjoyed it for a red.  I used three coats, but two would've been plenty as it was pretty opaque.  It was a bit hard cleaning up, but you'll have that with darker colors usually!

And thennnn I decided to stamp a little daisy with my new stamping plates that I (finally) got from Born Pretty!  And holy moly, I give you ladies who stamp a TON of credit because I just don't have the patience for it.  I probably tried to get it on the stamp like 5 times each hand and then I got it but it's obviously not centered and ugh.  Just a mess.  I've been trying for a few days, too, it just hasn't worked out too well, lol.  Any tips?  And any suggestions on good stamping polishes??!!

I tried to fill it in a bit...didn't work...and then I blurred the picture.  So much fail in this post.

Ohhhhhhhh well.  Day 1 down, 30 to go!  Any of you ladies trying this challenge??

<3 Whitney

Happy 4th of July!! Fireworks mani :)

Happy Independence Day!

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  I love the summer air, cookouts, and nothing is better than fireworks!  It's just a happy holiday!

I spent a long time thinking about what I should do with my nails and when I decided on fireworks I tested out a couple of ideas on a nail wheel.  They all looked the same except with a different background color and since I have issues with being symmetrical, I didn't skittle the background colors haha.

This is how the final look turned out:

Anyhow here's a little walk through on how I did it! First, I decided on silver and used Sally Hansen Celeb City for the background (PS sorry for indoor, bad lighting pictures!):

I used an Art Club nail art polish to make red fireworks.  It was pretty difficult to work with, actually!  To get curved lines was annoying...my right hand looks a lot worse, haha.  But oh well!

 
On the ends of the fireworks, I added dots of China Glaze Ruby Pumps with a dotting tool just to give it a bit of sparkle on the ends.  I think used Funky Fingers 220 Volts for blue fireworks using a dotting tool:

After the blue fireworks were done I added a bit of Funky Fingers Curacao + Sand and Stilettos to dot on the ends of the blue fireworks to give those some glitter as well.  To top it all off I dotted some white randomly with the white Art Club polish I have and put on a top coat.

And that is that!  It turned out quite a bit sloppier than I hoped it would, but that's okay.  I kind of like it and it's festive so it's all good!  I tried some nail art a couple of days ago that turned out much better but you'll have to wait until Thursday to see it :)

Hope you guys all have a GREAT 4th of July!

<3 Whitney