Revisiting an old friend...

I've done this "revisit an old friend" thing before, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the color more than I did the first time. Alas, today, that is not to be the case.

Today, we're revisiting Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure nail polish in Mermaid's Tale. We chatted about this one way back in the spring (view my first post about it, here.)

Some things didn't change - it's still just as visually interesting to me, and I'm still just as smitten with it. Navy, with small bits of navy glitter, as well as larger pieces of green. It's visually very interesting. I stared at it a long time before I finally bought it.

This time, I swatched the color with a base coat, where I hadn't before. I used Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Extreme Wear in "White On" as my base coat, and 2 coats of Mermaid's Tale.

See? It's kind of neat. The problem? The problem is now as it was then - this stuff chips. Easy. I painted this at 10:00 this morning. It's now 10:00 PM, and I've already had to patch three different chips. And the most stressful thing I did all day was decide what sort of pie I wanted! Never cooked a thing!

So I want to love this, and I want to tell you guys it's good, and great and wonderful, but truth? It chips too easy. Last time, I got chips from picking my son up from school, I give it another chance, and I get chips from eating pie! No thanks!

So my verdict on this one is a solid SKIP IT. I've given it two chances now. It's way more fun to look at than it is to try to wear. Thanks anyway, Sally Hansen.

Just call me - bummed in Michigan. ;)

Later, my lovelies!

Gave myself a pedi today...

...let's talk about it. ;)

I'd spied Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Mermaid's Tale at Wal-Mart, and kind of couldn't stop staring at it. It's a navy polish, with small bits of navy glitter, and bigger bits of greenish blue glitter. Funnily enough, it looks a whole lot like what you'd imagine a mermaid's tale would actually look like.

So I finally decided I had to have it, and the deal was done.

Now, let's chat about the things about this polish I found sort of surprising:

-The brush was wider than I expected to see. It's no paint brush or anything, but it was no dainty, tiny brush either. I used the polish to give myself a pedicure, and could get across my big toe in about four strokes.

The polish went on smooth. It was a little thin, but not overly runny. Why is the polish being smooth a surprise? With two different kinds of glitter, you'd expect the polish to go on a little chunky, this didn't. Although I've not yet removed it, so I can't speak to that.

The polish wasn't as dark as I expected. To look at the bottle, you'd expect an opaque navy. To look at Google reviews, it looks like an opaque navy. To look at Pinterest, it looks like an opaque navy. To put it on, it's not opaque navy. It'd probably be a fun top coat for another color, actually.

But, as a positive - the color did seem to layer well, and dry reasonably quickly. As a bonus too, the glitter isn't really the stand out star of the polish - it's not navy with green flecks, it's navy that you can see green flecks in certain light. So, if you're of an age where you probably shouldn't be wearing glitter (which, if we're being honest with each other - I may not be at that age, but I'm comin' at it fast), but you want a little something funky for your summer pedi, you could work this polish, without feeling too young.

When I looked closer at a lot of the Google reviews that looked a lot darker than mine, trying to understand why they all looked so much darker than mine, I realized that a lot of them were using this color as a top coat. These pictures are this polish only, no extra colors.

The first picture is both feet, my left foot had one coat, and the right had two. In the second picture, there is a close up on two coats. You can see that there really is a nice depth to the color - it looks like I've got on multiple layers of color. The third picture that you see is a close up of one coat. You can see by looking at this picture why I keep saying that this would make a nice top coat - you can easily take another color, and punch it up with a little glitter over the top.

I'm very happy with this polish. It layers nicely, seems to wear well, and the glitter makes me feel kind of sassy. :D My opinion might change slightly when it comes time to take it off, but as of right now, I'd recommend it to a friend. :D


ETA: Woke up this morning to a couple of chips. The most physically exerting thing I did yesterday was pick my son up from school. That's pretty frustrating.