Sally Hansen Sweet Tart-an Salon Effects

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I came across some new Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strips while grocery shopping today, and they seemed like a good choice after soaking off OPI Divine Swine - I was up for low maintenance after that!

I've found that there's significant variation from one pattern to the next in how easy or difficult Sally Hansen Salon Effects are to apply, and these seem to be at the more difficult end of the spectrum  With Sweet Tart-an, I ended up with wrinkles, air bubbles, or both on every single nail, and none of the usual tricks to fix them up after the fact were particularly successful.  I didn't use base coat under them, and most of the others I've used have been really easy to apply smoothly all alone, but that wasn't the case here.  I considered taking them off right away since they're not perfectly smooth and will likely get on my nerves, but figured what the heck, I have red tartan nails whether they're perfect or not, added a coat of top coat, and called it finished.

I took a picture of them under artificial light once they were done, and this is my Sally Hansen Sweet Tart-an Salon Effects manicure.

Sally Hansen Sweet Tart-an Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

You can see the bubbles and wrinkles in the picture, but without the magnification they really don't show.  The only real trouble I anticipate is the unevenness getting on my nerves, but for a day or two, I can live with it.  Although this is one of my favorite Salon Effects patterns, the manicure with them is probably my least favorite  Salon Effects manis so far.

That's my Sweet Tart-an Salon Effects manicure and the update for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Sweet Tart-an Salon Effects

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I came across some new Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strips while grocery shopping today, and they seemed like a good choice after soaking off OPI Divine Swine - I was up for low maintenance after that!

I've found that there's significant variation from one pattern to the next in how easy or difficult Sally Hansen Salon Effects are to apply, and these seem to be at the more difficult end of the spectrum  With Sweet Tart-an, I ended up with wrinkles, air bubbles, or both on every single nail, and none of the usual tricks to fix them up after the fact were particularly successful.  I didn't use base coat under them, and most of the others I've used have been really easy to apply smoothly all alone, but that wasn't the case here.  I considered taking them off right away since they're not perfectly smooth and will likely get on my nerves, but figured what the heck, I have red tartan nails whether they're perfect or not, added a coat of top coat, and called it finished.

I took a picture of them under artificial light once they were done, and this is my Sally Hansen Sweet Tart-an Salon Effects manicure.

Sally Hansen Sweet Tart-an Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

You can see the bubbles and wrinkles in the picture, but without the magnification they really don't show.  The only real trouble I anticipate is the unevenness getting on my nerves, but for a day or two, I can live with it.  Although this is one of my favorite Salon Effects patterns, the manicure with them is probably my least favorite  Salon Effects manis so far.

That's my Sweet Tart-an Salon Effects manicure and the update for today, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Numbskull

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm racing the calendar to get in Halloween manicures, so today I have another set of Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips to show you today, this one named Numbskull.  They're the cartoon-y black skull and crossbones pattern in black over white from this year's Halloween Salon Effects.

I didn't use anything under them, and they were way easier to apply.  I have two repairs, on the first two applied, because I was a little too aggressive in stretching them over my tips.  I slowed down a bit and the rest turned out just fine.  The hardest part of applying this set was due to the pattern being slightly on the diagonal, which made visually lining them up straight a little tough.  I've typically centered them at the cuticle to apply the nail polish strips, but after a few of these I found it easier to get one side edge of a nail lined up the whole length and then press them down across.  Then all that was left was filing the overhanging edge off of each as I went, and when they were all applied I sealed them with Sally Hansen Salon Speed Shine.  Here is my Numbskull manicure.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Numbskull

You can see the repair on my index finger's nail here, but it's such a tiny bit I tacked on that it doesn't really show on my hands.  I pretty much love this manicure!  I'm wearing it out to lunch today, and depending on what the weekend holds, I might add a coat of Wet n Wild glow in the dark top coat to it.  Seeing a band is an option, and if I go with that, I believe making this glow will be mandatory.

For the record, there was no trouble with the Ghoulie Girl strips that made me remove them, it's the race to fit in Halloween manis that prompted the change.

That is my Numbskull Salon Effects manicure, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Numbskull

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm racing the calendar to get in Halloween manicures, so today I have another set of Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips to show you today, this one named Numbskull.  They're the cartoon-y black skull and crossbones pattern in black over white from this year's Halloween Salon Effects.

I didn't use anything under them, and they were way easier to apply.  I have two repairs, on the first two applied, because I was a little too aggressive in stretching them over my tips.  I slowed down a bit and the rest turned out just fine.  The hardest part of applying this set was due to the pattern being slightly on the diagonal, which made visually lining them up straight a little tough.  I've typically centered them at the cuticle to apply the nail polish strips, but after a few of these I found it easier to get one side edge of a nail lined up the whole length and then press them down across.  Then all that was left was filing the overhanging edge off of each as I went, and when they were all applied I sealed them with Sally Hansen Salon Speed Shine.  Here is my Numbskull manicure.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Numbskull

You can see the repair on my index finger's nail here, but it's such a tiny bit I tacked on that it doesn't really show on my hands.  I pretty much love this manicure!  I'm wearing it out to lunch today, and depending on what the weekend holds, I might add a coat of Wet n Wild glow in the dark top coat to it.  Seeing a band is an option, and if I go with that, I believe making this glow will be mandatory.

For the record, there was no trouble with the Ghoulie Girl strips that made me remove them, it's the race to fit in Halloween manis that prompted the change.

That is my Numbskull Salon Effects manicure, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Ghoulie Girl

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I'm back with a real post after giving you just promo materials earlier today.  Yesterday I realized that Halloween's less than a week away, and I've shown you a grand total of one Halloween-themed manicure this year, so after swatching yesterday I applied the Ghoulie Girl set of Halloween Sally Hansen Salon Effects, the black background with rows of Pacman-looking ghosts in white and orange, and I thought I'd give you a look.

The Ghoulie Girl strips are thiick in a good, sturdy way, and they were easy to work with.  I put a coat of a non-sticky nail strengthener on before the strips, but I think I need to get over that because they were a lot easier to apply well for the pedicure I did with them, where I used nothing under them.  The only trouble I ran into on the mani was a wrinkle or two where they stuck to the base coat, but I was able to get the wrinkles out pretty well.  To fix them, I used an e-cig battery like a little steam roller over them - the battery is an anodized aluminum perfect cylinder, so it rolled over without sticking at all or making any marks.  I finished the strips off with Sally Hansen Salon Speed Shine, and they're holding up beautifully.  I took the picture just a bit ago, so after they've had twenty-four hours of wear.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Ghoulie Girl

These are so silly fun to wear!  They've gotten a few looks but no comments, likely because I'm forty and otherwise conservatively dressed, and somehow that makes them seem even funnier to me. I'm a fan!

That's all I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Ghoulie Girl

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I'm back with a real post after giving you just promo materials earlier today.  Yesterday I realized that Halloween's less than a week away, and I've shown you a grand total of one Halloween-themed manicure this year, so after swatching yesterday I applied the Ghoulie Girl set of Halloween Sally Hansen Salon Effects, the black background with rows of Pacman-looking ghosts in white and orange, and I thought I'd give you a look.

The Ghoulie Girl strips are thiick in a good, sturdy way, and they were easy to work with.  I put a coat of a non-sticky nail strengthener on before the strips, but I think I need to get over that because they were a lot easier to apply well for the pedicure I did with them, where I used nothing under them.  The only trouble I ran into on the mani was a wrinkle or two where they stuck to the base coat, but I was able to get the wrinkles out pretty well.  To fix them, I used an e-cig battery like a little steam roller over them - the battery is an anodized aluminum perfect cylinder, so it rolled over without sticking at all or making any marks.  I finished the strips off with Sally Hansen Salon Speed Shine, and they're holding up beautifully.  I took the picture just a bit ago, so after they've had twenty-four hours of wear.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Ghoulie Girl

These are so silly fun to wear!  They've gotten a few looks but no comments, likely because I'm forty and otherwise conservatively dressed, and somehow that makes them seem even funnier to me. I'm a fan!

That's all I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Booty Call

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I'm back to another BCA mani with Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Booty Call.  I bought these several weeks ago during a good sale especially for a grand breast cancer awareness manicure because they're pink camouflage.  That seemed appropriate for doing battle with the illness.

I used non-sticky base coat (I found sticky base coat made these hard to work with), the nail strips with a few repairs because I'm too exhausted to even have a shot at perfection, then I finished it off with  BB Couture Top Rock top coat (I generally just use a top coat that doesn't dry polish well on me over strips).  Here's my pink camo mani, Booty Call.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Booty Call Nail Polish Strips

The repairs show in the picture and you can also see that the pattern is composed of dots, but looking down at my hands neither of those things shows - this one just isn't holding up to magnification as well as most.  The result is pink camo nails, and I love them.  They're a nice change from all the glitter I've worn recently but not one tiny bit less fun.

That's Sally Hansen Salon Effects Booty Call and one more BCA pink mani, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!




All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Booty Call

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I'm back to another BCA mani with Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Booty Call.  I bought these several weeks ago during a good sale especially for a grand breast cancer awareness manicure because they're pink camouflage.  That seemed appropriate for doing battle with the illness.

I used non-sticky base coat (I found sticky base coat made these hard to work with), the nail strips with a few repairs because I'm too exhausted to even have a shot at perfection, then I finished it off with  BB Couture Top Rock top coat (I generally just use a top coat that doesn't dry polish well on me over strips).  Here's my pink camo mani, Booty Call.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Booty Call Nail Polish Strips

The repairs show in the picture and you can also see that the pattern is composed of dots, but looking down at my hands neither of those things shows - this one just isn't holding up to magnification as well as most.  The result is pink camo nails, and I love them.  They're a nice change from all the glitter I've worn recently but not one tiny bit less fun.

That's Sally Hansen Salon Effects Booty Call and one more BCA pink mani, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!




All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Girl Flower

Good morning, Dear Reader!

As planned, I'm kicking off my forties today wearing Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in the Girl Flower pattern.  There have been a few questions in recent weeks regarding whether a given age is too old for a particular look, and I think the nail strips give a pretty clear picture of my position on that.

In using various Salon Effects strips, I'm finding that there's variance in the durability of the strips, and the Girl Flower strips seemed a little more delicate than others I've used.  Once I realized that making a little tear in one of the first, I was just more careful in peeling them and didn't have any noteworthy problems.  I applied these to bare nails, no base coat at all, and bare nails seem to be preferable.  I didn't have the application nightmare I did last time, there weren't problems today, so it's fair to say the one tough application was a result of error on my part coming from being tired out. There's one thing I finally thought of doing when it mattered that might be worth passing on: I always start with my left hand, and I remembered to skip my left thumb so I could use that nail to peel the strips for my right hand, which is easier than peeling with a freshly decorated nail.  After applying the strips I added top coat to them to seal them and shine them up.  Here's my Girl Flower manicure.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Girl Flower

I love this.  My index nail always has a kind of messed up spot at the end of my nail bed because of the curve of my nail, but that doesn't show at all without magnification.

That's my forty-year-old's Girl Flower manicure, and I'm off to have one really good day.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nal polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Girl Flower

Good morning, Dear Reader!

As planned, I'm kicking off my forties today wearing Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in the Girl Flower pattern.  There have been a few questions in recent weeks regarding whether a given age is too old for a particular look, and I think the nail strips give a pretty clear picture of my position on that.

In using various Salon Effects strips, I'm finding that there's variance in the durability of the strips, and the Girl Flower strips seemed a little more delicate than others I've used.  Once I realized that making a little tear in one of the first, I was just more careful in peeling them and didn't have any noteworthy problems.  I applied these to bare nails, no base coat at all, and bare nails seem to be preferable.  I didn't have the application nightmare I did last time, there weren't problems today, so it's fair to say the one tough application was a result of error on my part coming from being tired out. There's one thing I finally thought of doing when it mattered that might be worth passing on: I always start with my left hand, and I remembered to skip my left thumb so I could use that nail to peel the strips for my right hand, which is easier than peeling with a freshly decorated nail.  After applying the strips I added top coat to them to seal them and shine them up.  Here's my Girl Flower manicure.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Girl Flower

I love this.  My index nail always has a kind of messed up spot at the end of my nail bed because of the curve of my nail, but that doesn't show at all without magnification.

That's my forty-year-old's Girl Flower manicure, and I'm off to have one really good day.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nal polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Cut It Out

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I applied a set of Sally Hansen Salon Effects today, using Cut It Out, the black and white floral pattern.  Real life is overloaded busy these days, so as the week wears on, I get more and more tired and do dumb things, and this application was riddled with dumb mistakes.  For a reference point, my first try using them was with Laced Up, and they came out close to perfect.  Today, I was able to let go of the hope of perfection very early in in the process.

I've had the gold glitter nail polish strips on as a pedi since I made the first Salon Effecst Strips post, so ten days of wear.  For a few days, one of them has shown a crack when waterlogged, but once it's dry the crack doesn't show.  I was waiting for it to chip and finally decided if it hadn't by now, it wasn't going to and I removed it.  The nice thing about the glitter strips is that they're smooth on the surface, not gravelly like glitter polish, and they removed as easily as the Laced Up strips did.

To start the application, I laid out all the strips from one of the two packets in the box and picked out the five for a manicure.  My hope was to get a full mani and full pedi out of one packet after some of the Laced Up comment indicated that it was indeed possible on longer nails.  When sizing them on my nails, it was clear that the length from the cuticle to the tip of my nails, down the center, was longer than one-half of one strip, so using only the five for a full mani wasn't an option for me.  I trust that it's entirely possible for those who suggested it, so I'll have to give it another shot the next time I have a bad break.  I applied a coat of nail strengthener to give the strips something to stick to, which may well be where my difficulties started.

Here's where the really dumb mistakes came in... I kept placing them really off center or too far from the cuticle so they looked grown out, and my left hand has only one nail without some sort of fix, my index finger.  After the first error I removed the strip for a do-over, but it soon became clear that I'd run out of strips long before I had a finished mani if I kept doing that, so I started just fixing them and moving along.  At the end I sealed them with top cat.  I'll show you the picture first do you can look for the repairs while I tell you about them.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Cut It Out

The first two went unrepaired - my thumb strip is too far from my cuticle and the index has a wrinkle near the tip, but neither is visible enough to risk messing them up doing anything further to them.  My middle nail was the one that showed me this wasn't going to be easy, and not because of the product.  I laid a strip down maybe halfway up my nail, not even in the general neighborhood of my cuticle, and it's the one where I did a do-over.  After the new coat of strengthener dried, I used the closest sized strip to the one I wrecked, which was a little big, and laid it down a few millimeters down the finger from my cuticle, but the overlap was only on the side on the left and along the left side of that nail since I laid it down completely off center again.  At this point I was out of strips that would fit, so I used the little orange stick from the package to fix it.  With the pointy end I made a dotted line between the excess and what was on my nail, and with the flat edge I scraped off the excess, and what remains along the edge there will come off in the shower in a bit.  It's not perfect, but that worked quite well.  My ring finger was another centering issue, so I cut off a rounded edge from the extra length of the strip used on that nail to fill in the side on the left in the picture.  The pattern has a break in it at the overlap, but it's hard to see.  My pinky, I laid it down way too far up the nail again, so didn't press the strip down but gently lifted it back up.  Some of the strip stayed stuck on, so I smoothed that onto the nail, then turned the same strip around to use the other cuticle-shaped edge and just put it over the other, and it worked fine.

For the second hand, I was even more tired but also annoyed with myself so I wasn't thinking, and those look fine.  One right-hand nail has a double layer resulting from falling short of the cuticle, but that was the only problem.  Overthinking when I'm way too tired generally results in mistakes, and that's what happened here.  I'm sure you get too tired to function well too, which is why I wanted to show you how nicely the strips took to tidying up errors.

I'd gone back and forth on doing the pedi through this, and finally guilted myself into doing it when I considered that the opened leftover strips would dry out and be useless, so if I ever wanted a Cut It Out pedi, I'd better get on with it.  However, all that remained after my arduously complicated mani application were the two gargantuan strips and one super-skinny strip, and when I assessed that they'd be enough to cover all ten remaining nails only if I successfully cut out and applied a lot of little pieces, I threw in the towel and threw out the last three strips.  A honest consideration of the outcome of it, in light of today's application skills, made it seem like I just skipped the steps where I cut out and fail at applying the pieces of strips and went directly to throwing them out.

That's my long story of applying the Cut It Out strips.  It was a hassle, but looking at the outcome I'm very happy, and I cringe at the thought of what a Konad attempt would have resulted in today!  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!




All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Cut It Out

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I applied a set of Sally Hansen Salon Effects today, using Cut It Out, the black and white floral pattern.  Real life is overloaded busy these days, so as the week wears on, I get more and more tired and do dumb things, and this application was riddled with dumb mistakes.  For a reference point, my first try using them was with Laced Up, and they came out close to perfect.  Today, I was able to let go of the hope of perfection very early in in the process.

I've had the gold glitter nail polish strips on as a pedi since I made the first Salon Effecst Strips post, so ten days of wear.  For a few days, one of them has shown a crack when waterlogged, but once it's dry the crack doesn't show.  I was waiting for it to chip and finally decided if it hadn't by now, it wasn't going to and I removed it.  The nice thing about the glitter strips is that they're smooth on the surface, not gravelly like glitter polish, and they removed as easily as the Laced Up strips did.

To start the application, I laid out all the strips from one of the two packets in the box and picked out the five for a manicure.  My hope was to get a full mani and full pedi out of one packet after some of the Laced Up comment indicated that it was indeed possible on longer nails.  When sizing them on my nails, it was clear that the length from the cuticle to the tip of my nails, down the center, was longer than one-half of one strip, so using only the five for a full mani wasn't an option for me.  I trust that it's entirely possible for those who suggested it, so I'll have to give it another shot the next time I have a bad break.  I applied a coat of nail strengthener to give the strips something to stick to, which may well be where my difficulties started.

Here's where the really dumb mistakes came in... I kept placing them really off center or too far from the cuticle so they looked grown out, and my left hand has only one nail without some sort of fix, my index finger.  After the first error I removed the strip for a do-over, but it soon became clear that I'd run out of strips long before I had a finished mani if I kept doing that, so I started just fixing them and moving along.  At the end I sealed them with top cat.  I'll show you the picture first do you can look for the repairs while I tell you about them.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Cut It Out

The first two went unrepaired - my thumb strip is too far from my cuticle and the index has a wrinkle near the tip, but neither is visible enough to risk messing them up doing anything further to them.  My middle nail was the one that showed me this wasn't going to be easy, and not because of the product.  I laid a strip down maybe halfway up my nail, not even in the general neighborhood of my cuticle, and it's the one where I did a do-over.  After the new coat of strengthener dried, I used the closest sized strip to the one I wrecked, which was a little big, and laid it down a few millimeters down the finger from my cuticle, but the overlap was only on the side on the left and along the left side of that nail since I laid it down completely off center again.  At this point I was out of strips that would fit, so I used the little orange stick from the package to fix it.  With the pointy end I made a dotted line between the excess and what was on my nail, and with the flat edge I scraped off the excess, and what remains along the edge there will come off in the shower in a bit.  It's not perfect, but that worked quite well.  My ring finger was another centering issue, so I cut off a rounded edge from the extra length of the strip used on that nail to fill in the side on the left in the picture.  The pattern has a break in it at the overlap, but it's hard to see.  My pinky, I laid it down way too far up the nail again, so didn't press the strip down but gently lifted it back up.  Some of the strip stayed stuck on, so I smoothed that onto the nail, then turned the same strip around to use the other cuticle-shaped edge and just put it over the other, and it worked fine.

For the second hand, I was even more tired but also annoyed with myself so I wasn't thinking, and those look fine.  One right-hand nail has a double layer resulting from falling short of the cuticle, but that was the only problem.  Overthinking when I'm way too tired generally results in mistakes, and that's what happened here.  I'm sure you get too tired to function well too, which is why I wanted to show you how nicely the strips took to tidying up errors.

I'd gone back and forth on doing the pedi through this, and finally guilted myself into doing it when I considered that the opened leftover strips would dry out and be useless, so if I ever wanted a Cut It Out pedi, I'd better get on with it.  However, all that remained after my arduously complicated mani application were the two gargantuan strips and one super-skinny strip, and when I assessed that they'd be enough to cover all ten remaining nails only if I successfully cut out and applied a lot of little pieces, I threw in the towel and threw out the last three strips.  A honest consideration of the outcome of it, in light of today's application skills, made it seem like I just skipped the steps where I cut out and fail at applying the pieces of strips and went directly to throwing them out.

That's my long story of applying the Cut It Out strips.  It was a hassle, but looking at the outcome I'm very happy, and I cringe at the thought of what a Konad attempt would have resulted in today!  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!




All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Limited Edition Halloween Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I ran across something cool I thought you might want to know about, so I'm here to tell you.  I've been eyeing the various patterns of Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, and I ran into some limited edition Halloween ones that look really fun.  That's the kind of thing that'll test your last nerve to hunt for in stores much of the time, and the good news is I found them online for $8.  Here are the pictures of the patterns.  They're skinny pictures, so I'll just put the giant versions right here.

Spun For You

Wish Nets

Hot Wired

Numbskull

Ghoulie Girl

I found them listed as "Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips-Limited Edition Halloween" on Ulta.com for $9.99 retail, but the reason I was on their site was a 20% off code, which is 61252.  I don't know all the details of the code like end date and stacking codes, but I'd wager they're on the site somewhere.  It's a good price for them and Halloween stuff pops up and disappears so fast that I thought I'd let you know about them.

I'm really digging these nail polish strips in general (as well as the Halloween ones specifically!) - my mani's still good, but I'll likely change it tomorrow.  I used the gold glitter strips for a pedicure so I can do a real wear test on them though.  I tend to leave a pedi alone for a really long time - I remember crossing the Ridiculous line with one, and made the conscious decision to see if I could bear to just grow the whole thing out and did it (just cutting them and leaving my hot pink polish on there).  I wish I could say that at the time I wasn't writing a nail care blog, but alas...

That's about all I wanted to pass on, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!



**Added 08/30/2011: I just saw a display of these in person.  It's a tabletop display, so one that goes on a shelf, and there are two boxes of each per display.  These pics are representative of all but the green, which looks very cool in person (but I bring you this information empty handed).

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Limited Edition Halloween Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I ran across something cool I thought you might want to know about, so I'm here to tell you.  I've been eyeing the various patterns of Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, and I ran into some limited edition Halloween ones that look really fun.  That's the kind of thing that'll test your last nerve to hunt for in stores much of the time, and the good news is I found them online for $8.  Here are the pictures of the patterns.  They're skinny pictures, so I'll just put the giant versions right here.

Spun For You

Wish Nets

Hot Wired

Numbskull

Ghoulie Girl

I found them listed as "Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips-Limited Edition Halloween" on Ulta.com for $9.99 retail, but the reason I was on their site was a 20% off code, which is 61252.  I don't know all the details of the code like end date and stacking codes, but I'd wager they're on the site somewhere.  It's a good price for them and Halloween stuff pops up and disappears so fast that I thought I'd let you know about them.

I'm really digging these nail polish strips in general (as well as the Halloween ones specifically!) - my mani's still good, but I'll likely change it tomorrow.  I used the gold glitter strips for a pedicure so I can do a real wear test on them though.  I tend to leave a pedi alone for a really long time - I remember crossing the Ridiculous line with one, and made the conscious decision to see if I could bear to just grow the whole thing out and did it (just cutting them and leaving my hot pink polish on there).  I wish I could say that at the time I wasn't writing a nail care blog, but alas...

That's about all I wanted to pass on, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!



**Added 08/30/2011: I just saw a display of these in person.  It's a tabletop display, so one that goes on a shelf, and there are two boxes of each per display.  These pics are representative of all but the green, which looks very cool in person (but I bring you this information empty handed).

All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Laced Up

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have something new to me to show you, Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Laced Up.  If you recall, I tried Sephora by OPI's Chic Prints when they first came out and didn't love them, so despite hearing good things about the Sally Hansen strips, I was reluctant to try them until Sally Hansen offered to send some for review, which is where this pack came from.  They're completely different than the Sephora ones, so I took a lot of pictures to show them to you.

The pattern is Laced Up, which is black lace over a neutral base.  I did a manicure in black Konad over a neutral some time ago, and I thought it was okay, but my opinion of it was higher than the general opinion reflected in the comments (that's my delicate way of mentioning it was largely hated).  I used Laced Up today because I wanted a very cool manicure for something later today but didn't feel like investing the effort in one. I took out the package of nail strips, unpacked everything in the box, and read the directions (to any gentlemen reading, that's the normal way to do it, the unpacking and direction reading).

The directions told me how to clean off my nails for application, recommending totally bare nails.  I normally follow directions precisely the first time with a product, but here, that deviated from how I would reasonably use it so I changed it up a little bit (this is not the normal way to do it).  I chose them because I feel lazy and didn't take off yesterday's manicure, so I took out two isopropyl alcohol pads and used the first to clean the day old polish on each nail of my left hand and set the second aside for my right.  Then I got about the business of applying the nail strips.

The most significant difference between these and the Chic Prints is that these are made out of nail polish while the Sephora ones I tried were some kind of plastic, like decals.  With the decals, I struggled with wrinkles over the natural curves of my nails, with that being the biggest disadvantage to them, and these didn't cause any trouble at all.  Since these are polish, they're super-sealed in the packaging, being sandwiched between two layers of plastic.  I took pictures of the steps as well as I could using a leftover because by the time I did the second hand, each nail was taking well under a minute to complete, so this is really easy and I wanted to show you how easy.  This is the the strip as it comes out of the package.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strip

The top layer is a thin but strong plastic film that gets peeled off from the blue tab.  I mention it's strong because there were no problems with tearing it.  I forgot this step with one, which messed up the nail a little because some of the polish strip came off when I managed to peel the plastic off, but I was able to save it (I'll get to how when we look at that picture).  This is peeling off the plastic.

Sally Hansen Salon Effect Nail Polish Strips, Plastic Peeled

The next step is removing the polish strip from the backing

Sally Hansen Salon Effect Nail Polish Strips, Peeling Strip

Then I took off the little tab, and this is what's applied.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, Ready to Apply

To apply, I chose which end better fit my cuticle and touched the strip down centered at the cuticle, slightly stretched it to the center of the tip of my nail, then stretched each side as I pressed it down.  It's the stretchiness of these that's very cool - it lets the strip really take the shape of a nail.  I pressed down one side of my demo strip and stretched it to show you how elastic these are.  Here, you can see how that came into play in fixing my error - it's at the cuticle of my thumb nail here, at the corner closer to the strip, that I pulled off a piece when I forgot to remove the top plastic layer and ripped up a bit of the strip when I got the plastic off my nail, so I tore off a little bit from the opposite end of the strip and covered the spot.  The pattern is imperfect there as a result, but that's a handy trick.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strip Stretched Out

To finish, the directions told me to lightly file the end with an included file, but I found that while applying them that I could stretch it over the tip and my nail would cut the strip, so I just did that.  My last step wasn't in the directions, which was finishing it with top coat, applied to each nail as soon as the strip application was finished.  Here's my mani, which took under ten minutes from start to finish.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Laced Up

I definitely like these a lot.  The price varies pretty significantly since they're a drug store item that often goes on sale, and of course they're costlier than regular polish, but I think for instances like this, where I really want a cool manicure and it's just not going to happen with regular supplies, they're great.  I'd also bring these along on a trip lasting several days since it worked to put them over an existing manicure and they're not a hassle to get through airport security.  I've seen pictures of a pack that's a bright crazy flower pattern, and those are some that I really want to try now that I know how well they work.

I have a few more packs of these that were sent, so I'll show you more of them soon.  Frankly, I can't believe that smacking something over another manicure worked out so well.  I know it's not absolutely perfect and that if you try, you can see a few spots of the red at some edges in the picture, but the reality is that it's only in the moment that I'm taking the picture that it matters how a manicure looks in a macro picture.  Knowing where to look, it takes a few seconds to identify the red on my hands looking at them, so I doubt anyone else would ever see it.

That's what I know about Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Laced Up

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have something new to me to show you, Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Laced Up.  If you recall, I tried Sephora by OPI's Chic Prints when they first came out and didn't love them, so despite hearing good things about the Sally Hansen strips, I was reluctant to try them until Sally Hansen offered to send some for review, which is where this pack came from.  They're completely different than the Sephora ones, so I took a lot of pictures to show them to you.

The pattern is Laced Up, which is black lace over a neutral base.  I did a manicure in black Konad over a neutral some time ago, and I thought it was okay, but my opinion of it was higher than the general opinion reflected in the comments (that's my delicate way of mentioning it was largely hated).  I used Laced Up today because I wanted a very cool manicure for something later today but didn't feel like investing the effort in one. I took out the package of nail strips, unpacked everything in the box, and read the directions (to any gentlemen reading, that's the normal way to do it, the unpacking and direction reading).

The directions told me how to clean off my nails for application, recommending totally bare nails.  I normally follow directions precisely the first time with a product, but here, that deviated from how I would reasonably use it so I changed it up a little bit (this is not the normal way to do it).  I chose them because I feel lazy and didn't take off yesterday's manicure, so I took out two isopropyl alcohol pads and used the first to clean the day old polish on each nail of my left hand and set the second aside for my right.  Then I got about the business of applying the nail strips.

The most significant difference between these and the Chic Prints is that these are made out of nail polish while the Sephora ones I tried were some kind of plastic, like decals.  With the decals, I struggled with wrinkles over the natural curves of my nails, with that being the biggest disadvantage to them, and these didn't cause any trouble at all.  Since these are polish, they're super-sealed in the packaging, being sandwiched between two layers of plastic.  I took pictures of the steps as well as I could using a leftover because by the time I did the second hand, each nail was taking well under a minute to complete, so this is really easy and I wanted to show you how easy.  This is the the strip as it comes out of the package.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strip

The top layer is a thin but strong plastic film that gets peeled off from the blue tab.  I mention it's strong because there were no problems with tearing it.  I forgot this step with one, which messed up the nail a little because some of the polish strip came off when I managed to peel the plastic off, but I was able to save it (I'll get to how when we look at that picture).  This is peeling off the plastic.

Sally Hansen Salon Effect Nail Polish Strips, Plastic Peeled

The next step is removing the polish strip from the backing

Sally Hansen Salon Effect Nail Polish Strips, Peeling Strip

Then I took off the little tab, and this is what's applied.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, Ready to Apply

To apply, I chose which end better fit my cuticle and touched the strip down centered at the cuticle, slightly stretched it to the center of the tip of my nail, then stretched each side as I pressed it down.  It's the stretchiness of these that's very cool - it lets the strip really take the shape of a nail.  I pressed down one side of my demo strip and stretched it to show you how elastic these are.  Here, you can see how that came into play in fixing my error - it's at the cuticle of my thumb nail here, at the corner closer to the strip, that I pulled off a piece when I forgot to remove the top plastic layer and ripped up a bit of the strip when I got the plastic off my nail, so I tore off a little bit from the opposite end of the strip and covered the spot.  The pattern is imperfect there as a result, but that's a handy trick.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strip Stretched Out

To finish, the directions told me to lightly file the end with an included file, but I found that while applying them that I could stretch it over the tip and my nail would cut the strip, so I just did that.  My last step wasn't in the directions, which was finishing it with top coat, applied to each nail as soon as the strip application was finished.  Here's my mani, which took under ten minutes from start to finish.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Laced Up

I definitely like these a lot.  The price varies pretty significantly since they're a drug store item that often goes on sale, and of course they're costlier than regular polish, but I think for instances like this, where I really want a cool manicure and it's just not going to happen with regular supplies, they're great.  I'd also bring these along on a trip lasting several days since it worked to put them over an existing manicure and they're not a hassle to get through airport security.  I've seen pictures of a pack that's a bright crazy flower pattern, and those are some that I really want to try now that I know how well they work.

I have a few more packs of these that were sent, so I'll show you more of them soon.  Frankly, I can't believe that smacking something over another manicure worked out so well.  I know it's not absolutely perfect and that if you try, you can see a few spots of the red at some edges in the picture, but the reality is that it's only in the moment that I'm taking the picture that it matters how a manicure looks in a macro picture.  Knowing where to look, it takes a few seconds to identify the red on my hands looking at them, so I doubt anyone else would ever see it.

That's what I know about Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.