Award and Laced Up with Sally Hansen

I got Tagged with a Blog Award, So a big thank you goes out to Polish Wasteland for the Award.

This fun award comes with a few rules:

 Link and thank the person who gave you the award
 Share 7 things about yourself
 Award 15 other bloggers
 Contact the bloggers to tell them about the award

Here are 7 random tidbits of Ilectra goodness..

1. Until 2010 I spent my whole life as a chronic Nail Biter and Im often still tempted.

2. Im a Foot Fetish Model part time

3. Cheese is my all time fave food

4. I just got married for the second time in Oct of 2010 and im only 28

5. I turn 29 on the 31st of this month

6. Im part of a 3 girl Comedy Troop on youtube Called Sketchywhenwet

7. I learned how to sew via machine within the last 3 months and love it!!

Ok sooo those are random heh Now for the blogs I nom/tag.

1.Addicted To Polish

2.Alizarine Claws

3.Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss

4.Chromatic Misadventures

5.Elle Hearts Blogs

6.Frazzle and Anipolish

7.Beauty Before Breakfast

8.keerthamina pretty ballerina

9.Mirannie´s nails

10. Hands On Colour

11.ANOTHER Bottle of Polish?!

12.Lemming Monster

13.Miss Makeup Fairy

14.Nail Polish Nonsense

15.Nail Spotting

and that's that :) Thanks again for the cool award and this was pretty fun.

Ok now on to the meat and potatoes of this blog. The new Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips.

I was very weary of these as they seemed lik your run of the mill sticker type nail polish strips for which Im not a fan.. also I have very large thumb nails and wasnt sure they would include a size to fit my crazy thumbs.

But they had so many cool designs and the no dry time and that equaled up to an impulse buy.

I only got #360 Laced Up to try it out so here's the down low.

 The box says that this is "Real" polish and lasts up to 10 days.It also says its Big 3 free as most are these days.

Outta the box you have 2 packs of strips for a total of 16, a wooden/orange stick and nail file/buffer and Instructions.
To prep your nails it advises to start with clean, dry nails.. big duh on that one . then push your cuticles back with the orange stick. then shape nails and buff the surface. The final thing to to be sure to swipe nails once more with polish remover to assure clean oil free surface for the polish. It also says applying with warm hands is desirable.

After ALL of that prep you simply peel and stick .. stretching the design a lil is helpful for a good fit.
Then you just file off the excess.

This is what I ended up with, I got much better at it as I went along..This is reg room light at my vanity table.

This is with flash. You can see that they aren't a perfect fit but its not so bad that its bothersome.. micro always shows every lil detail but in person at half arms length away they look just about perfect.

This one is after one day of wear in sun light. I loved the no dry time but just had to add a top coat to make me feel more secure in theyre staying power.. I put them to the ultimate test.. the HOT SHOWER OF DOOM!!! with me my polishes always seem to fail this test.. but holy cow these things are still on without a dent or a chip or even any lifting at all.. So although im not keen on the fit or the PITA to apply them Im pretty much in love with the designs and the wear and the zero dry time as Im a clutz and always mess up my nails within 15 mins of painting them..

So what do you think? ive seen um range from $5.99 to $10. Have any of you tried them?
Thanks for reading ladies
-ilectra

Mrs Claus, Red or maybe Pink?

Im starting to think the sun might not come back out til the spring.. lots of overcast days.. or more like nothing but overcast days... I love winter but hate to many overcast days. blah..

But with Christmas around the corner and all the holiday polish colors out, its a great brightener of the overcast days..

Today Im showing you guys a polish that perplexes me very much. China Glaze's Mrs. Claus from the holiday collection. When I got this I could have swore it was a red glitter polish with a pink tinge but once I put it on It was very very pink with a lil reddish tinge. Somehow I dont feel like pink glitter is very "christmasy" but it's still really pretty and sparkley.

 

Above is the bottle looking very reddish.

 Here's a close up of it layered over American Apparel's Berry Polish.

 This is 2 coats of Berry and 2 coats of Mrs Claus, notice that each bottle pic really looks very red.

But the Glitter is bright shiny pinks, light pink and fuchsia.

Im on the fence about this polish, I love that it's very eyecacthingly Shiny but otherwise its just ok.

What do you think? Somewhat unique?

That's it for now, thanks for reading -ilectra

Fireberry Red and the amazing art of Conni Togel

Im posting my fave polish of the week today, Best formula and color ive worn in ages.
Sally Hansen's hard as nails Xtreme Wear in Fireberry Red, It was a summer limited collection or early fall in my area.

 I was a bad girl and didnt use a base coat with this polish or a top coat, I was in a hurry so this is 3 thin coats no base or top coat. It dried really quickly which I loved.

 Indoors this color takes on a deeper tone and becomes rather luscious and channels a vintage feel.

Ive never been a huge fan of red nail polish for so many reasons but this polish is fantastic, if you can get your hands on a bottle I say go for it cause its a new fave for me and could be for you too.

On a somewhat related note I would like to introduce you guys to my fave artist, Her name is Conni Togel
and her amazing work can be found at http://www.charisma-art.com/ .
I got to see her and buy some prints from her over the weekend at a local Craftsman art show, this was my second time meeting her and buying art from her. She noticed my polish when I was checking out and commented that she really liked the color, it was the one featured today Fireberry Red. I loved that an artist such as her who has mastered beautiful colors on canvas liked this color, talk about good taste..lol ha ha.
But anyway here's a pic of one of the prints I got from her, I watermarked the photo for the safety of her art.

It's titled Firefly Ballet and no you aren't seeing things those are sheep, all of Conni's work is Sheep, whimsical, silly and fun sheep. No other artist's work has made me smile so much as hers and so I had to share it with you and it didnt hurt that she loved my polish :)

Well im feeling a bit more back on track, did ya miss me?? I know I missed you guys.
That's all for today's post, Thanks so much for reading. -ilectra

Holy Cow, Everyday is Halloween?

Looks like its time to play catch up. Im so far behind so tonight I'll be making 2 posts.

For this one I went thru my Halloween nails I had done this year and picked my favorite one and the one that could maybe be worn for something other then halloween.

I wore this to a Halloween party and everyone loved it and kept grabbing my hands.

I was a Fairy Princess for the party and the hubby went as a Modest Skeleton ,lol.

Anyway even though its past Halloween I hope you guys can enjoy this one.

 The base color is Orly Iron Butterfly and the blood coat is Sally Hansen Salon in Cocktail Party

 I painted the tips in 2 thick coats, before it dried used a toothpick to drag the color in streaks down the nail.

Super simple but really had quite the party fan base, it'd be a cool Vampire nail mani.

Well hope you guys dig this one, next post im getting back on track and back to updating ive gotten so many great polishes Im dying to show you guys and a few that im disappointed with I want to review..

Thats all for this post, thanks for reading -ilectra

Autumn Cold and Halloween Nails

So what have I learned this month?? Having Jason Vorhees kill you and shove you into the lake will give you one hell of a cold, so ive been battling a monster cold but now that it's passing I wanted to share with you my nails, I have been doing halloween nails since my last post and even sick Ive been taking pics for you guys.


Today Im sharing the mani I have on right now, I'll call it Danger, Hot Lava. (All pics can be enlarged by clicking)

 I used one coat of Sally Hansen Salon, Pat on the Black and is a blackened plum. Then down the middle I stripped each nail with Hard Candy's Lava I topped it all with a quick dry top coat ans then when back over the Pat on the black with Essie matte and I finished it all off with a Halloween decal on each ring finger.

Close up of the matte/shiny and decal, the red/orange Lava looks like red foil when it catches the light over the top of this darker color.
Im really loving the Halloween season cause it's inspiring me to do more nail art rather then just plain polishing, I enjoy trying to be creative and that brings me to my final thing to share today,above I mentioned how I managed to get a cold and Im sure a few of you were like huh???
Well Im one of 3 members of a comedy troupe on youtube , we are all good friends and we do comedy silly videos for fun so one of our videos for halloween the one that gave me the lovely cold I thought I would share with you guys.. we are no pro's be we do love what we do.
Crystal Lake Water
Ok that's about all for this blog post, the cold is going and the nails are lookin cute, hope you check out and enjoy me and my friends silly video.
Thanks for reading -ilectra

IDK Wedding NOTD

Doh!! it's been 2 weeks since I posted, the Wedding and everything involved was way way more then I had imagined, I worked my butt off and it was hell on my hands.. But while on honeymoon I did manage to snap some pics of the Mani/NOTD that I did for the wedding.

I used IDK From the China Glaze OMG Collection and added a pretty nail decal on my ring fingers.

 I love my wedding band!!!

Wow at all of the holo goodness, This is 2 coats with seche vite over the top and these pics were taken after 3 days of wear and tear.

On a mushy note:

It was everything I had hoped it would be, I hope you guys dont mind me sharing some of this with you.
I am now back from honeymoon and things are slowing down so more nails and nail fun to come, sportin halloween nails right now and thinking of keeping in the fall/halloween theme for the rest of the month.. Wonder how fast before I get bored..lol Ok more soon, also want to share a few pics from the honeymoon next post. Thanks for reading -ilectra

Flakie Week: Franken Friday, Bar Hopping

Alas it is Friday so we have come to the end of our Flakie week, and it was fun but today I an sticking with our theme and sharing a Franken I made with Nubar 2010 that I call Bar Hopping.. It's by far a total success as a flakie franken but the color and tone that I ended up with makes me so happy so that is way its a total keeper for me.. Here she is in pic spamage..(click pics for larger size/more detail)

 The weather was real crap so I had to take pics in the light box, this one in shade conditions.

 I am so in love with the color this came out, its a jelly/shimmer/cream mix .

 This is two coats but as you can prolly tell it could have used one more. I made the base thin enough so that with each layer you could still see the flakes in the layer under it.

 Close up above you can see the flakes peeping out, its very subtle but just enough to add some fun twinkle of color to the baby blue.

I really wish I could have gotten pics of this in day light, its so lovely outside, soft and interesting.
But again as a Flakie franken not a huge success but im still very taken by it, what do ya think?

Well guys and gals, that's the end of flakie week I you guys enjoyed it..
On a side note it's now only 8 days til my wedding so things are getting hectic, im going to try and stay on top of blogging here but I feel like it'll be mostly NOTD's til after the Wedding.. But Ive got fun stuff planned after the wedding so think good thoughts for me the next 8 days heh Im gonna need um :)
Thanks so much for reading -ilectra