Perfect summer nail polish!! Sand Blast in SANDALS

WOW!  I am loving this new L.A. Girl textured polish called Sand Blast!!  Please excuse my immature slang- but this stuff is the bomb!!!!!!!!!!   This pink shade is called Sandals and it may be my new favorite for summer!  Shown here is one quick-drying coat.  Yup, you heard that right!  A textured one-coater that dries fast!  I applied one thick coat when I woke up this morning… then showered about a half hour later and got ready for work and I had no issues at all!  This is perfect for summertime when we’d rather be out enjoying the sunshine than sitting inside painting our nails forever.  Plus, the cool sand blast texture reminds me of the beach and the name Sandals is just so cute.  Oooh I should try this on my toes!

So if you follow my blog you may notice some changes today!!  Springtime is in full swing in New York and it really motivated me to do some spring cleaning.  So for starters, I shortened my nails!!  They have been growing like weeds lately and it became hard to type.  I have been using a strengthener from Sally Hansen called ‘MAXIMUM GROWTH DAILY NAIL GROWTH PROGRAM‘ as my base coat for about two months now and the results were amazing.  No breakages at all for the whole two months and my nails are long, strong and resilient!  I’d highly recommend any Sally Hansen product with the word GROWTH in it for you ladies that are wanting to grow your nails longer.  That Sally ain’t messing around!!  I miss my long nails a bit, but who am I kidding?  I guess they’re still pretty long!  Is there such a thing as fingernail dysmorphic disorder?  If so, I might have that… and I bet I’m not the only one.

I also updated my wordpress theme!  I really loved the old one (called Rounded) that I’ve had since I started blogging in Oct 2012.  The green, brown and aqua was funky and was just my style!  However, my old Rounded theme did not allow me to change my header image.  So- out with the old, in with the new.  What do you think?  I miss the brown and green but hopefully my changes are well-received and that they display well on mobile devices.

As for my new header image- if you google ‘free blog headers’ there’s a lot of graphic designers that offer free stuff on their blogs.  Just add your blog name to their jpg header template and you are good to go.  There’s so many cool ones- it’s hard to decide on just one !  Don’t be surprised if I change it again.

So what do you think of my changes???  Do you miss the funky brown and green too?  Or do you like this new clean design?  And does it display any better or worse on your mobile device?  Thanks in advance for the input!

Crafty xoxo

 

Neon Nails

Day 22 of Julie’s Nail Art Challenge is all about neon nails!

For this mani I used 3 of my absolute brightest polishes:

China Glaze ♥ Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

China Glaze ♥ Sun Worshiper

Cynthia Rowley ♥ Un-named Pink

I also sponged some of the colors over each other – just to blend it a little bit.  Maybe that’s why the french tips look more coral than pink.  I can’t believe how bright this is… plus, it was super-quick and easy.  What great no-fuss look for the summer!  I think I’m ready for my vacay now please! 😀

If you recognize this nail polish then maybe you’ve seen my water marble nails from last week!

Polka Dots and Glow in the Dark Nail Polish Review

It’s day 9 of the 30 Day Nail Challenge for April and the theme is polka dots!

Today I’ve got Glow In The Dark Nail Polish from Claire’s Cosmetics to share with you.  I purchased this un-named pink polish last month at Claire’s Boutique in the mall.  Since the theme is polka dots I used my Konad M79 stamping plate and some black Konad polish to accent my ring finger.  It looks cute and summery but let’s get to my review…

First off, the polish comes in this awesome bottle that has a light in the top!  The whole bottle lights up when you press the button on top of the applicator brush!!  Good packaging ploy, Claire’s Boutique!  They enticed me to spend the $7.

After applying my first coat I was surprised at how sheer it was- it barely tinted my nails pink at all.  So I started investigating the bottle to see if there were special instructions.  Maybe I was supposed to put the polish over top of an opaque color?  I peeled off my price tag- to reveal no instructions at all.  I guess you are supposed to wear it by itself.  But hold on!  Wait… under the price tag sticker I found an expiration date!  The bottle says it was manufactured in Feb 2011 and it expires in August 2013…that’s only a couple months away!  Well, that would’ve been nice to know!  I wish I still had my receipt- I’m tempted to write a letter to Claire’s to suggest that they not intentionally cover the expiry info!

I applied three coats and I still have a lot of visible nail line.  But I figured I’d stop at 3.  It dries fast though, which is nice.  It has a very strange formula due to the particles of glow in the dark stuff that’s in it.  It was thin but gritty and I had to paint with as few strokes as possible.  If I painted over a section that was just painted- then the polish would lift off and it looked streaky and thin.  Application was weird but it dried quickly so the three coats weren’t a hassle.  The final result?  A sheer neon with a gritty matte texture.  Here’s a closeup.↓

I put a nice thick coat of seche vite over top to try and smooth it out.  It still feels a little bumpy though, but no biggie.  So the next question is….  HOW WELL DOES IT GLOW IN THE DARK?

It glows just fine.  Nothing that I would write home about, but I’m not disappointed either.  It works as expected.  I wonder if it would glow more with a bright base coat underneath?  Also, my bottle’s getting close to expiration so perhaps a newer bottle would glow more?  I’m surprised that it didn’t glow in pink… instead, it was more of your standard yellow glow, typical of most glow-in-the-dark stuff.  Wonder what it looks like under a blacklight?  I had a hard time photographing this… but here’s an untouched shot of it in the dark. ↓ On the computer this pic looked okay, but on my Nook Tablet it looked so dark.  Sorry, but I tried!

Overall, I do like this polish.  I really love the tone of this pink.  It almost has a peach tint to it and it makes me look tan!  It’s so summery and tropical and the sheerness of it makes it look like a sheet of neon glass over my nails. Normally I don’t like sheer polishes- but this one reminds me of summertime so I will definitely wear it again.  The glow-in-the-dark thing is fun… so why not?  I’m glad I added this polish to my stash.  The more I wear it the more I adore the color.  I feel like I need a vacation, sunglasses and a drink with an umbrella in it!

Have you ever tried glow in the dark polish?