Pantone 2015 Color of the Year: Marsala Polish Picks

*contains press sample(s)

Pantone Color of the Year 2015: Marsala

  I admit to initially being both underwhelmed and reminded of savory food when Pantone announced their 2015 Color of the Year.  Marsala, an elegant, complex shade with an air of lightness, has really grown on me, though, especially when I realized that a number of my favorite nail polishes easily fit the mold of that color.  I decided to do a little shopping and see if I could spot a few other polishes that work with the scheme, and I was mildly successful.  It turns out this rather "basic" color is anything but!

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Swatch Spam

  

  Hi everyone!!  Happy Sunday!  I've been really wordy on a LOT of my recent posts so I'll give you all a break and just post some swatch spam :) You know I LOOOOVE my Sally Hansen Nail Prisms and I recently got a couple more duochromes off Amazon (including one I've been lemming hardcore, lol-- not Turquoise Opal or White Turquoise, alas, but maybe someday...).
  First up is my lem, Ruby Sapphire.  It's a jelly based blue violet to fuschia shifter with some shimmer.  Three coats. 

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Lava

  Happy Caturday, everyone!!  I don't think the Sally Hansen Lustre Shine duochrome collection is more than a year old, yet it seems it's being yanked from the lineup.  The colors weren't groundbreaking in any way, in fact three of them were copies of the China Glaze Bohemian collection (which contained copies of the Deborah Lippmann Mirrored Chrome collection, all of which contained a Peridot dupe and as much as I love my three, even I have my limits), but for Lava, which was rumored to be a copy of discontinued MAC polish Bad Fairy, but EVEN MOAR awesome. (Hey Emily, how's that for a run-on?! XD)

  Anyway, I have this thing against paying the same amount for a drugstore polish what I would for a Zoya, so much picking up and putting down of Lava occurred within the past 12 or so months.  Then, they turn up at one of my local watering holes with clearance tags on them, and $3.49 is a perfectly acceptable price to pay for a drugstore duochrome.  So this is what I've been sporting on my nailses for the past couple days, and ZOMGOSHHHHH I LOVE THIS POLISH SO MUCH!!!!  Not only is it an incredibly powerful bright retro pink to gold shifter, it's a glassfleck.  So, it's got a jelly base and a tremendous amount of sparkle and glow.  Observe.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Pink Pearl

Hello, Happy Sunday, and welcome, new readers!  I'm stoked you're here and I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I do (really hoping that doesn't read like a line from Mean Girls, lol).

The unfortunately discontinued Sally Hansen Nail Prisms have been an obsession of mine since I first laid eyes on Burgundy Orchid two years ago.  I've made it my mission to own them all, and all means every light and frosty shade as well as their beautiful dark duochromes and saturated holos.  I'm kind of an oddball in that I actually really like light pearly colors but so many of the light Nail Prisms are copies of themselves.  I've intended to do a comparison post for something like a year and a half but in the mean time, I'll just show you one of my more recently acquired Prisms.

This is Pink Pearl, a pale pink to pale golden duochrome.

Happy Independence Day!!

I was feeling a high level of love for my Poole manicure from yesterday and it's really hard to take off a mani that still looks pristine, but holo love and the spirit of the holiday took over.  So, my nailses are now decked out in red, silver/white, and blue.

That's Jade Psicodelica on index and middle (full post is imminent, lol), Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Golden Tourmaline on ring, and Polished Components Sapphire Blue on pinky.

A very happy Independence Day to my fellow American beauties, and a lovely day to my international friends, too ♥♥

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Coral Amber

I have another old Sally Hansen Nail Prism to show you today.  This is Coral Amber.  SH rereleased a few of their Prisms with different formulae, tweaking the color or the level of frostiness, but this is one they appear to have changed entirely.  If you read Scrangie's review of it you see that it's one of their jelly-like duochromes, but my bottle (and a quick google search) shows something a little different....

My Coral Amber is pretty clearly a holo, not a duochrome.  It's a very pretty one, though, a very pink leaning coral with a mild holo rainbow that flashes a lot of gold.  So I guess the name Coral Amber still fits....

Maybe I'm straining to see something that isn't really there, but doesn't it kind of look like there's a pink to golden coral flash in there?  Another funny thing about this is that the bottles in both mine and Scrangie's posts look the same.  SH decided to start painting their Prisms bottles for a while, and both of ours look to be painted with a golden coral shimmery spray, so it's next to impossible to see what exactly you're getting until you actually put it on your nails.  So maybe needless to say, I was a little surprised.

The nice thing about the Nail Prisms holos is how color saturated they are.  The holos aren't terribly strong but they're still apparent out of direct sunlight, and the shades are gorgeous, regardless.  They generally need only two coats and aren't affected by top or basecoat.

Nail Prisms are available at varying prices through ebay and amazon.  My number one Prisms lemming, Turquoise Opal, is currently available for the low, low price of $39.99.

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely start to your week ♥

Please notice that my name is spelled correctly in each of my watermarks. ;)

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Fire Opal

Good morning!!  I have another Nail Prism for your viewing pleasure this ayem.  There's a word for my kind, something having to do with not being overly selective about certain things... let's just say that I'm of the opinion that any Prism is a good Prism.  Even so, I've been a little reticent to wear this one, as it's largely seen as the dud of the bunch and does not look like much of anything in the bottle.  I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is on.

 

Fire Opal is a bright, very slightly coral-tinged pink jelly packed with light blue shimmer and giving off a subtle, pale cerulean flash.  It is very sheer and doesn't build much after three coats, but when a polish is this pretty, it's kind of a non-issue.  Some of the Prisms have pretty long dry times, but Fire Opal behaved well and did not make me sit through two episodes of Mad Men before being dry to the touch (though I did do that, you know, just in case).

Fire Opal was showing up pretty regularly in those five-packs we were seeing so many of for a while, and that's how I got mine.  It's currently available on amazon for $2.99 + shipping.

Thanks for reading, and have a marvelous day! ♥♥

Polished Components Azalea + Nail Mail

Good morning :)  I was down for the count at exactly 7:30 Friday night and haven't really done much but sleep, drink water, and play Monopoly on the playstation with C in a cold-induced fog.  Monopoly generally makes me really mad, but somehow I can play it as a video game to better results.  C is really good at it and I'm not, but we have a common ground fighting against the ai players.  I even won a game (which C may or may not have helped with that... cold-induced fog... not really sure).

I've tried to get caught up on my commenting during the last three days, which may or may not have been a good idea.  If I left a vague, typo-filled, semi-nonsensical comment on your blog, I should probably apologize....

The good news is that today I feel well enough to paint my nails again (even if it's just my left hand).  And, I got some exciting nail mail over the weekend.  So please pardon the half-baked cuticle care of the past three days and try to enjoy the show. ;)

 This is Polished Components Azalea, a gorgeous, delicate pinky mauve that could almost be considered a scattered holo, were the holo bits a little denser.  As it is, they're beautifully sparse and perfect for what I think this polish is trying to convey.  Azalea is semi-sheer.  I used three coats and it nearly got rid of visible nail line but I don't generally have a problem with that, especially when the color is this pretty and looks like a spring petal glistening with dew.  I love this color.

Azalea was part of Polished Components' Spring 2012 collection and the indie maker's since found her niche, which includes some slightly risque-named polishes.  Azalea isn't currently available but you do have the option to request a custom item from Polished Components' etsy shop.  Check it out here.

I ordered a few more SH Nail Prisms off amazon sometime last week and those showed up on Friday.

Ruby Diamond, Pink Pearl, and Coral Amber.  Welcome to the family, loves, lolol.

And, my promo Zoyas came in on Saturday!!

Crystal, Jem, and Suvi.  The Zoya faeries called in extra staff to help out in their warehouse and appease those of us who didn't read the part about promo orders taking up to four weeks to ship in their terms & conditions.  Zoya really is an awesome company with great service and they spoil us nailistas tremendously.  If you think about it, take a second to thank them for their hard work on their facebook page.

And with that I'm seriously about tapped out.  Time for a nap, lol.  See you on the flipside, and thanks for reading. ♥

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Lapis Amethyst

Hi kids!!  Today's entry in the Prisms parade is another Christmas gift from C.  I can't even tell you how stoked I was to open this one.  Here's Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Lapis Amethyst.  I officially call this my birthstone polish, not because of the name, but because of the stone it resembles.

Lapis Amethyst is a stunningly beautiful slightly dusty aquamarine to pink duochrome metallic with light pink and blue shimmers.  It's not the strongest shifter, but the best thing about this polish isn't necessarily the shift.  It's the absolutely gorgeous shimmery gemcolored hue.  The tinge of pink on the edges is icing on the cake.

I used three coats of this.  My only complaint about this line is the dry time, and when you've got places to go and things to do, you need to pull out the big guns (aka Seche topcoat).  I've already got some tip shrinkage on a couple nails.  It seems Seche is not particularly fond of non Big 3-free polishes.

Lapis Amethyst is pretty readily available on amazon and ebay for a reasonable price.

Thanks for reading! ♥

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Garnet Lapis

Good morning!!  It's been a couple weeks since I've had to be up this early (in my world, that's 6:30 am).  I'd momentarily forgotten how not fun it is, lol.  The cure?  More duochrome.  (Sorry.  Tired.  That's the best I can come up with at this point.)

This is Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Garnet Lapis.  The force is strong with this one.

Garnet Lapis is a shimmery, jelly like azure/cerulean to royal purple duochrome.  SO gorgeous, but not really garnet-y in any sense of the word.  It's more Lapis Amethyst, if you ask me, but that's another polish entirely.  It's not really lapis-y, either, come to think of it, because lapis is more of a darker, truer, dustier blue.  Whatever.  The color shift is beautiful and super strong.  If you look carefully at the bottle or submerge your nails in water, you can even see an outline of gold.  

Because it's more jelly, the formula goes on thin.  I used three coats here, which is adequate.  Four may or may not be better; I've had mixed results using more than three coats with the sheerer Prisms.  

Garnet Lapis is one of the harder to find Prisms, so when it appeared on amazon last summer, I dove on it, and I'm so glad I did .

Thanks for reading! ♥

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Amber Ruby

I'm feeling a high level of duochrome love right now and the ridiculously shifty-gorgeous Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Amber Ruby is gracing my nails at the moment.

 

If you want to know how I really feel, any Prism is a good Prism, but the dark duochromes just rock my socks.  Amber Ruby is an amazing shifter that goes from ruby to brick red to syrupy amber to golden, with the occasional flash of green, just to keep things interesting.  And, it's laced with dark red shimmers and gives off this incredible glow.  This polish seriously has it all.
Some of the darker SH duochromes are sheer and sort of jelly-like and some are more metallic in nature, like this one.  It's opaque in two coats and dries in a reasonable amount of time.  The formula's a little thin, but not unmanageable.  Amber Ruby is pretty readily available on Amazon and ebay, for about the price of a Butter London, including shipping.
 

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Scarlet Ruby

Hi friends!  It's been a while since I posted about a Nail Prism, and I've got some lovely dark multichromes I picked up this summer that have been sitting around waiting for a cool fall day to be properly worn.  Today I'm wearing Scarlet Ruby.

Scarlet Ruby honestly doesn't look like much in the bottle, but once it's on... HOLY smokes.  We've got rich red, dark pink, amber, golden brown....  From some angles it truly is reminiscent of a ruby, glistening and dark pink-red.  Then from others it's as deep and shifting as a brick red garnet.  Scarlet Ruby's also a metallic, which means its coverage is better than some of the Nail Prisms dark duo- and multichromes.  This one is perfect in two coats.  I absolutely love this color.  It's definitely one of the more underappreciated Prisms-- not so well known, but totally gorgeous.  

Prices and availability of these colors are in constant flux.  Scarlet Ruby's available on amazon right now for $14.99.  I got mine this past summer for less than half that.  It's definitely worth it to pay attention if you're looking to add any of these beauties to your stash.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day! <3

Sally Hansen Gem Crush Razzle Dazzler-- BCA Pink Wednesday Week 2

Good morning!!  It's another Wednesday, and time for another Breast Cancer Awareness pink manicure.  Andrea at Finger Painting Fingers organized this fantastic event for nail gals the world over to come together and raise awareness about this disease that affects us all.  Before I get on to the polish I'd like to post a link to a great site that lays out the risk factors, including some interesting gene mutation stuff.  Take a couple minutes to further educate yourselves.  Here's Breast Cancer Risk Factors from cancer.org, the American Cancer Society's site.

This Wednesday's pink is Razzle Dazzler, one of eight full coverage glitters from Sally Hansen's specialty collection this spring, Gem Crush.

Razzle Dazzler is packed with tiny rose pink glitters and bigger silver hex glitters suspended in a clear base.  If you've been reading for a while, you may or may not have noticed a general absence of glittery polishes around these parts.  If my reaction to Razzle Dazzler is any indication, it's a glitter for gals who don't love glitter.  I LOVE this one.  It's sparkly and flashy and dressed up, not in a playful way, but in a highly glamorous, over the top way.  Think Las Vegas, or better yet, Richard Gere singing "Give 'em the old razzle dazzle" in the musical Chicago. (That might have influenced the purchase of this polish, lol...)

I used two coats of polish and two coats of Out The Door topcoat, and I now know what is meant when someone calls a polish a 'topcoat eater."  This is still a little on the bumpy side, but not to the point of distraction.  Also, I decided to bump up the sizes again for this post only, lol, because this polish deserves a closer look. ;)  Thanks for reading. :)

A White-Hot Holo

... sort of, lol.  After seeing this post on Chloe's Nails back in March, I've been really excited to try creating a white holo look, myself.  So, that's what I did for H day in Gosia's ABC challenge.  I used two coats of Milani Fast Dry in White on the Spot, and one coat of SH Nail Prisms Diamond, as the original poster did.  Here's how mine turned out.

It's okay.  It's not overly holo-y.  From some angles I think it looks really cool, then from others I think it looks like I put a streaky coat of weak silver glitter over white and called it good. lol. 

A couple observations-- first, this white is ridiculously easy to apply, but you do need to work fast.  If anyone's looking for a new white creme, I highly suggest this one.  You can almost get away with one coat.  Second, Diamond clearly comes in at least two formulas, and the other one is stronger and more linear.  Maybe my silver Layla would work better.  

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Golden Tourmaline

Good morning!!  Next in line in Gosia's ABC Challenge is the letter G, and my pick is Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Golden Tourmaline, a richly pigmented and GORGEOUS blue-red linear holo.  This is two coats.

I just love these Prisms holos.  Look how pretty it is even without light reflecting directly off it.  The names, though... Golden Tourmaline?  Because Ruby Diamond was already taken (and is magenta, btw...)?  Whatevs, they're awesome polishes, whether they resemble their names or not.  

In case you're wondering, I get most my Prisms through amazon.  Their prices fluctuate, as does availability, but there are always a few you can get for under $7, including shipping.  Golden Tourmaline's one of them.  Here's the link.

Thanks for reading! <3

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Blush Diamond, Nude Version

Good morning and happy Sunday!!  I think it's become common knowledge that Grocery Outlet sells five packs of Nail Prisms for cheap.  I picked up a couple, knowing I'd get some dupes (Turquoise Opal and Lavender Gold never seem to be in those, though! Y??!).  What I didn't expect was two of the same in the same package, which meant I now had three Blush Diamonds.  It kind of made me a little butthurt.  But then I realized they're totally different colors with the same name.  Here's the nude version.

I love this one.  First off, the SH holos are great because they still look pretty when not in direct sunlight.  They're very low maintenance, no buffing or special care needed; base, two coats, topcoat, and they're good to go.  I also love the idea of a nude holo, and this version of Blush Diamond is perfectly gorgeous.  It's kind of another mannequin hand shade, if my fingertips naturally emitted holographic rainbows, which they TOTALLY SHOULD!! 

Here's the other version, one I swatched back in May.  It's a rosy pink holo.

Nude. 

The nude seems a little more appropriate to the name, and there is a Pink Rose Diamond which may or may not more closely resemble the pink Blush.  I believe the pink one was the original release.

So there you have it!  Got a preference?  Nude or pink?  Thanks for reading! :)