Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts

Sally Hansen - Pumpkin Spice

Posted by Erin on 10/31/11. Filed under: , , ,
No Comments »

Happy Halloween to all of you who actively celebrate it. I rarely do anything special for Halloween myself. Last year I went to a party and drank almost an entire Heineken mini keg that was strapped to someones back (he was dressed as a scuba diver). Each time I went to fill up my cup, I'd ask if I could "tap that ass" (Get it? Hur hur derp). I spent the entire next day hating myself and nursing a hangover. This year I'm curling up in bed with some Real Housewives instead. There's slightly less self hatred involved in that. Slightly. 


I know I promised some Halloween nail art but the truth is I just wasn't feeling inspired. So instead, I give you Pumpkin Spice from Sally Hansen. 

Color: 
Greenish greyish jelly base with orange glitter. A close dupe of ChG's Ick-a-Bod-Y. 

Application:
Meh. It's incredibly sheer and required 4 coats for opacity, which I wasn't happy about. But each coat dried pretty fast so I guess that's a plus. 


Downside:
It's sheer as hell, as I just stated. You might want to just layer it on over a coat of black. 

Bottom Line:
This is a pretty good dupe for Ick-A-Bod-Y (which I LOVE), but there are some major differences in the formulas- both good and bad. First, Ick-A-Bod-Y is much more opaque than Pumpkin Spice. It's a 2 coater. So in that aspect, Ick-A-Bod-Y wins. But Ick-A-Bod-Y is also very very gritty and eats top coat in a matter of seconds. Pumpkin Spice is actually quite smooth and has more depth to it because of that. 

So while Pumpkin Spice is a real pain in the ass in regards to opacity, it's also a keeper. I still love my Ick-A-Bod-Y though, and would probably choose it over Pumpkin Spice if I had to make a decision. 

And just for the hell of it, here is Pumpkin Spice with a layer of Hard Candy's Mattely In Love over it:

Fantasy Makers - Vamp Red

Posted by Erin on 10/30/11. Filed under: , , , ,
3 Comments

It's winter already here in Boston. Last night it snowed, and I had to turn my heat up to 75 degrees this morning. I now have to do swatches between the hours of 12 and 4pm due to the dwindling daylight hours. 


If you don't already live in New England, I would not suggest you move here. It wreaks havoc on your mental and emotional states. I can only imagine what it must be like to live in Alaska or Scandinavia. Just thinking about it makes me want a xanax. 

I suppose the one good thing about the colder weather coming in is the influx of new polish collections. I still wish that mother nature had held off on the snow until after Halloween though...

Speaking of Halloween, I should probably stop yapping and complaining and show you todays polish. It's Vamp Red from Fantasy Makers and I was lucky enough to find it at CVS. Normally the CVS near me is a total flop when it comes to nail polish. They never even got the Sally Hansen Halloween nail strips. Basically, they're lame and there isn't a single polish in the place that I don't already own. So when I saw that they had a Fantasy Makers display, I was pretty happy. No Creepy Pumpkin though :( Sucks. I really wanted to buy a backup of that.

Color:
They don't call it Vamp Red for nothing. It's an incredibly deep dark wine color. It looks a lot like a creme but it has a tiny amount of shimmer in it that's mostly invisible to the naked eye.

Application:
Not bad at all. Drying time is a little slow though.

Downside:
There's some color bleed around the cuticles. Not a huge deal, but not a positive either. And again, the top to this does not align properly when you twist it as tightly as it should be. Why the hell didn't they fix that problem???

Bottom Line:
Vamp Red isn't a totally unique color or anything, but I'm glad I bought it. Application is better than many other wine shades I've tried, and it only costs $1.99. Plus it comes in that cute tombstone bottle.

Fantasy Makers - Creepy Pumpkin and Black Magic

Posted by Erin on 10/14/11. Filed under: , , ,
3 Comments

I think I might be the last person to do a Halloween post. I love reading everyone else's and I especially love the nail art I've seen. I have yet to come up with any fresh ideas for Halloween nail art, but when I do I'll post them. Until then, I do want to share these 2 colors from Wet n Wilds Fantasy Makers line. I actually took these photos over a week ago but never got around to posting them. 

This is Creepy Pumpkin:
Color: 
Orange jelly with golden shimmer. I am really impressed with this. I've never seen such a true jelly turned into such a true shimmer before. Usually those turn out to be glass flecked, but this one isn't. Does anyone know of any others like this? I'd love to have more in my collection with this type of finish.

Application:
When I called this a "true jelly", what I meant by that is that not only does it have the high shine and sheerness of a jelly, but it's also on the thick side with a slightly gel-like consistency. So it creates a pretty thick layer on the nail, which obviously adds to a slow dry time. BUT, because it has all that great shimmer added in, it's not streaky like it otherwise might be.

 Downside:
These don't close properly. When you screw the top back onto the bottle, the tombstone shape no longer aligns with the bottle the way it should. Not a huge deal, but an issue that I would have thought they'd have remedied. Maybe mine are defective?

Bottom Line:
Creepy Pumpkin is awesome. It's unique to me and I wish I'd thought to pick up another bottle. Hopefully they're still available by the time I go back to the store. 

This is Black Magic:
Color: 
Black creme base with a strange array of glitter added. There's orange (which actually turns out to be more of a peach), green, and I think I might spot some blue in there too.

Application:
No issues to speak of, really. But...

Downside:
I'm not sure if this will make sense to anyone else, but this polish just feels cheap to me. I don't necessarily think that it looks cheap, but the formula is very reminiscent of an old Wet n Wild that you kept in the bottom of a junk drawer, and by the time you get around to giving it a nice shake and applying it, the pigment had already separated and it's just a big fail. That's what this reminds me of.

Bottom Line:
I could take Black Magic or leave it. It's not bad, but it's not great either. When I slapped my SD card into my computer and loaded up iPhoto I had a better appreciation of it though. In person it just wasn't dazzling. In the photos it actually looks a lot nicer.

I look forward to doing a few more Halloween posts before the 31st. For some reason none of the drugstores in my area are carrying most of the halloween polishes though. I haven't even managed to track down any of the Sally Hansen nail strips, and I really wanted the skull printed ones. Perhaps I'll make a trip to my sisters house this weekend and use it as an excuse to raid the (much better than the one near me) Rite-Aid that's on the way. If not, I guess I'll have to come up with some nail art!

« Previous Entries