Loose Powder

Early in September I was heading to DragonCon, a yearly science fiction convention held in Atlanta, and I wanted to do a fun look for the weekend. I came across Asami’s Space Nails tutorial and I had to try it out!

The looks requires three or four different polish colors and a textured paper towel to sponge on some of the design. I didn’t have the exact polishes that Asami used, so I picked ones I had that were closest.

From my stash, I found China Glaze’s Techno (large holo glitter), Pitch-Black Glimmer from Nicoole by OPI (black with silver glitter), What’s Your Name by Sinful Colors (black with purple/blue micro glitter), and Sally Hansen HD polish in DVD.

Next, I followed Asami’s video tutorial:

The results are pretty great! I love the bits of glitter that catch the light and the subtle clouds of blue.

There are parts I’m not completely happy with, of course, but overall this was fun and easy to apply. It didn’t take much longer than a regular manicure to apply since the layers were thin and dried quickly.

Can’t wait to apply this design again!

I picked up this Sinful Colors polish last month during one of my many trips to Target. Happy Ending is a candy apple green with a yellow/bright gold shimmer.

This color applied well in two coats and with a top coat, lasted the normal week with minimal tip wear. It’s a great, fun color for spring and summer!

Sinful Colors polishes are three free and are available at Walgreen, Rite Aid, CVS, and Target.

I love Sinful Colors polish, especially with the great range of colors for the affordable price of $1.99!

Target recently started carrying Sinful Colors and I picked up Mint Apple while looking through their polish displays. It’s a light jade green with slight gold shimmer.

You can see the gold shimmer in the third picture with the bottle. Two coats got me bottle color and the manicure lasted about a week before I took it off.

Sinful Colors polish is Three Free and is available at Walgreens, Rite Aid, and Target.

It’s been a long while since I did a manicure with a Sinful Colors polish!

What’s Your Name is a black-based polish with micro glitter that shifts from turquoise to blue to purple. Very pretty!

I used two coats and a top coat and the manicure lasted about a week. I did reapply top coat every three days.

The downside is that you can’t really see the glitter or the shifting of the glitter colors on the nails unless you get very close. Sad! Still, I do like the polish a lot and will probably wear it again.

Sinful Colors polishes are toluene, formaldehyde, DBP, and camphor free.

I don’t usually wear pink polishes, especially not sheer ones, so I’m not sure what I was thinking when I picked up Bali Mist by Sinful Colors. Oh, I know! “It’s pretty and iridescent!”

This is two coats with a clear top coat. There was a bit of bubbling you can see on my thumb and I’m not sure if it’s from shaking (I usually roll the bottle, though) or the heat or the brushing. Anyway, I did like the color – it’s very pretty – but it was just too sheer for how I was feeling. So… a couple days later I topped it with a coat of Nfu-Oh #51.

Ah, much better! Look at those holo flakies. Love. Them.

Sinful Colors are available from Walgreens and you can buy Nfu-Oh polish at Fabuloustreet.com. Both Sinful Colors and Nfu-Oh are toluene and DBP free.

While searching for a slate blue, I came across Sally Hansen‘s Complete Salon Manicure in Fairy Teal. This polish is a lovely teal cream and I just had to try it!

Love. This. Color. Applied two coats for bottle color and it dried pretty quickly.

Unfortunately… these polishes don’t have the metal ball bearings inside to help mix the polish, and boy could this use it. All three colors I bought (Fairy Teal, Gray by Gray, and Plum’s the Word) had a bit of separating and it was a pain to get them mixed back together without the balls.

Another huge negative of this particular color is that it stains like crazy. Even using Zoya’s Remove+ polish remover, taking this polish off left stains on my nails and on my fingers. It was a mess! That fact alone will probably have me thinking twice before I apply it again; very disappointing.

After four days with no noticeable chipping (just some edge wear), I decided I wanted to keep the polish on, but kick it up a bit with a top coat. I went to Sinful Colors‘ Nail Junkie.

I think Nail Junkie adds a fun bit of aqua & holo sparkle and was able to extend this manicure another three days with little effort.

I love me some good quality drug store nail polish and Sinful Colors is currently my brand of choice.

While looking for some bright summer colors, I came across Dream On. It’s a opaque fuchsia purple with a satin finish.

As you can see from the pictures above, there is a huge color shift from sunlight to artificial light. Here are a couple more close-up shots in indirect sunlight (left) and artificial light (right).

Two coats gave satisfactory coverage, but I probably could have done three. Each coat dried quickly, though. I was also worried about brush strokes and uneven coverage, but it evened out once the polish was dry.

Without a top coat, the polish did start to wear at the edges after the second day. No chipping, though.

Sinful Colors polishes are toluene, formaldehyde, DBP, and camphor free.

While I do love salon brand polishes, there’s nothing wrong with drugstore brands! Sinful Colors Professional is a brand of polish that I have been picking up lately at my local Walgreens and Rite-Aid. Many of their colors seem to be dupes or similar to colors found in salon brands like OPI and China Glaze, but these bottles run about $2 a piece which makes them a good alternative if you’re on a budget.

This first color is definitely nothing I’ve ever owned or even tried. I’m not a pink girl, but with all these bright summer shades trending, I though I’d give it a try.

Cream Pink is a opaque pearlescent hot pink that dries with a satin finish.

After a day, I just couldn’t get used a pink that bright, so I added a coat of Sinful Colors’ Forget Now, which is a fuchsia with pink and purple-blue shimmer.

Might be a bit difficult to tell from the photos, but the single coat of Forget Now changed the color of Cream Pink just enough for my liking. It also gave it a nice glossy finish, which I love.

In conjunction with my Nutra Nail High Gloss top coat, this manicure lasted me about a week with minimal tip wear.

Sinful Colors polishes are formulated without toluene, formaldehyde, DBP, and camphor. If you can’t find them at your local drug store, check out Cherry Culture.

I’d never heard of the Nfu-Oh brand until I saw a couple swatches on a makeup blog. Nfu-Oh is a South Korean brand of nail varnish and nail art items. The only US supplier I could find was Fabuloustreet, so that’s where I purchased my first three colors.

The first one I tried is #51 – none of the polishes have names, just numbers – it’s a purple jelly base with holographic flakes that shift from blue to green to red to gold. Very pretty!

I’m wearing two coats here, but could have done a third. You can see the flakes changing color if you look at the bottle. Speaking of, I love the bottle! It’s designed like a corset and skirt. The first picture shows the front and the second shows the back. So cute!

Trying to show you the way the colors change… It was sort of difficult to photograph. (Excuse my cuticles.)

And because I can never leave anything alone, I threw on a teal-based holographic glitter polish from Sinful Colors called Nail Junkie:

I think Nail Junkie gives #51 a bit of a kick. Probably wasn’t needed. Actually, Nail Junkie reminds me of a teal version of China Glaze’s Medallion with it’s blue/teal microglitter and holographic hex glitter.

Both are great, fun polishes and I can’t wait to try to other Nfu-Oh colors I ordered!

During my various trips into Rite Aid to find some cosmetic items on sale, I’d often pass by the Sinful Colors display. I never thought much of it — just another polish company with colors that look like dupes of other salon lines.

However, being a bit more money conscious these days, I decided to have a closer look at these inexpensive bottles of color. After a bit of staring, I picked up You Just Wait (pink/green duochrome) and What’s Your Name (black with subtle blue/purple glitter).

You Just Wait is pretty sheer, but two coats got the look I wanted. I decided to Konad using plate m78 with What’sYour Name to see if I could get some of the glitter.

Didn’t really work quite how I wanted, but I like the overall look. You can see the way the color changes in the light at different angles. Very cool!

I think I’ll be picking up a few more Sinful Colors polishes in the future!