Thursday, February 14, 2013

Sally Hansen Coral Reef + Neon Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day! I bought a new nail polish recently - a Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Extreme Wear polish in the color Coral Reef. It was so bright and cheerful and eye-catching in its bottle that I thought it would be a great color for spring... or now... or whenever I wanted to wear it, really.

Incidentally, it's the same exact color as a sweatshirt I got recently while thrifting in Vancouver:

sally hansen coral reef nail polish

SO. Guess that color is trending... with me.

This past weekend I tried it out for the first time and ended up taking it two steps further to ultimately create 3 different nail polish options. #thisgirlisonfiahhhh (#ihatethatsonnnngggg) As it turns out you can even wear this today for Valentine's Day!

Starting off with the first option of just rocking Coral Reef, as is. This was a bit streaky after the first coat, but was pretty much good to go after the second coat was applied.

1 coat   vs   2 coats
sally hansen coral reef nail polishsally hansen coral reef nail polish

This polish looks insanely different in different lights. Indoors, it can look either ultra peachy, ultra corally or ultra hooker chic. Like, crazy neon orange looking. Outdoors it looks much pinker and looks more like a neon pink. Look at the color differences below:

sally hansen coral reef nail polish
.  inside  .
sally hansen coral reef nail polish
.  outside  .
That shit cray.

So for the second option, I added white hearts to just a couple of nails using a dotting tool:

valentine's day nails, white hearts on sally hansen coral reef

I was doing this solely for the ensuing 3rd step of adding more colors on top of the white hearts. Nail polish tip:  Just like with any painting project, you'll get a more vibrant color payoff if you begin with a white base. It will really make your top layer's color pop! So I was painting these white hearts as mere base hearts for my upcoming neon hearts, but I really liked the way the white hearts looked, too! I almost stopped there... but I really wanted to see how neon hearts would look, so I kept going...

... to my third nail polish option: Adding neon hearts! After the white hearts had sufficiently dried I used a few different neon polishes to add hearts right on top of where I'd laid down the white hearts earlier. I happen to have a nice selection of bright neon-ish colors:

neon nail polish
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Flashy Fuschia
Neon Green by Love & Beauty
Sunshine by Claire's Cosmetics
(And that's Coral Reef on the far right)
painting nails
.  artsy progress pics  .
painting nails

neon hearts on sally hansen coral reefneon hearts on sally hansen coral reef

neon hearts on sally hansen coral reef

And there you go! Which one do you like best?

neon hearts on sally hansen coral reef

neon hearts on sally hansen coral reef

Happy Valentine's Day biddies! I'd love to see what you end up rocking on your nails today. 
♡ Tweet me a pic @akaBailey

5 comments:

  1. It's crazy how the polish looks so different in different lights! Wild. I think I like the white best. It really does pop. You're getting really good at the hearts!

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  2. I love Sally Hansen's coral reef!

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  3. wow, you're really good at the hearts! :O I've been trying with them for so long but they never come out as defined, more like a two pointed blob eventually lol

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  4. I practiced several times on a piece of paper before I attempted it on my fingers! Mine are definitely not perfect yet but I am feeling better and better about how they come out! #PracticeMakes(Almost)Perfect!

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