Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri in Mint Sprint

On the hunt for a perfect minty polish, I picked this up. Fell in love with it the moment I put it on, but heavens, that's not minty! Or is it? Do you think this is minty? I don't. To me, this is the most perfect "sea-blue" creme I've ever seen. It is a little more green and minty in real life than in my photographs, but it's still not minty. Not by far.

This is the third Insta-Dri I've bought, and it's my favourite of the three. They all have great application, dry in a matter of minutes. The weartime of this one was about 4 days, and removing it was average. It only needed two coats to be completely opaque.

This polish looks even better with nice rings - here I'm sporting the ring from my Summer Trend post on big, bold rings.

Product (65%) - 9/10

Value (10%) - 9/10
Would I repurchase? (15%) - 8/10
Packaging (10%) - 8/10

Overall - 9/10

Love,

Miss Diorista

P.S. Any nice minty polishes out there that I should try out? Please spill the juice on the mint :D

Sally Hansen - Complete Salon Manicure in Naked Ambition, 210

Ugh. Not a success. I initially bought this bottle of polish for French manis, but now I think it's a little too peachy for that. However, I fell for the unique peachy nude colour with the silver sparkle flecks, and though it would be a gorgeous nude polish.

Nope. How wrong I was. The application was horrible (as you can see from my pictures), the colour was just "blah" and don't even get me started on removing this! The silver flecks where a nightmare to remove, I still haven't got some of them away.

This is 3 coats. The only "not-so-horrible" thing about this polish was the weartime, which was approx. average. As you can probably imagine, I won't be wearing this again anytime soon. Even though the polish was gorgeous (which it isn't), I doubt I would put my nails through the removing process again.

Product (65%) - 3.5/10

Value (10%) - 7/10
Would I repurchase? (15%) - 2/10
Packaging (10%) - 7.5/10 (I don't like the look of the rubber ring...)

Overall - 4/10

xox,

Miss Diorista



Sally Hansen - Xtreme Wear Nail Color in Emerald City

Oh my, isn't this pretty?!? Just looking at it makes me feel so good, lol! I recently hauled this polish (haul), and I'm sorry how long it has taken me to get the review up for you. Want to know why? Well, I like to take my polish off before reviewing, so that I can tell you if it's a pain to remove, and how long it lasted before it started chipping. Usually, a polish starts chipping on my nails on either the 3rd or the 4th day of wear. That's normal. This one went 6 days without chipping! So that is why it took me so long!

This colour is really beyond beautiful. I don't own a lot of green nail polishes (but I do love the colour green so I'm on the hunt for new ones - I'm thinking mint green and lime green!), but this one is simply stunning. The colour is exactly what the name describes - a shimmery emerald green. However, what really made me fall head over heels, was how it changes with different lighting. It can be a darker, Christmas tree-kind of colour, or a beautifully bright, emerald green (in natural sunlight). I love it, and got so many compliments on it!

As I mentioned, it went 6 days before starting to chip - Sally Hansen clearly hit the spot with her Xtreme Wear formula! Also, the polish didn't take too long to dry, which I had expected since it is long-wear. That's nice!

Removing was a breeze - you would expect something different when dealing with such a pigmented, green colour which can be on the darker side, but nope. So easy!

Lastly, here is a comparison between the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear brush (upper) and a regular OPI brush. As you can see, the bristles are just slightly shorter on the Sally Hansen one, and the brush is also slimmer.

Product (65%) - 9/10

Value (10%) - 8.5/10

Would I repurchase? (15%) - 9/10

Packaging (10%) - 7.5/10

Overall - 9/10

Love,

Miss Diorista

P.S. I've decided to include inspirational quotes at the end of my posts when I feel like it. If you have any that you would like to appear here on Miss Diorista, please e-mail them to me ;) Here's the first one:

"Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream?" -Poe

Sally Hansen - Lip Inflation Extreme in Sheer Cherry

 I bought this lip maximizer a few weeks ago (check out my haul here), hoping for some dramatic effects... well, no, it didn't give me those dramatic effects. But it's nice. The colour is Sheer Cherry, which is a very pretty, slightly shimmery, reddish pink colour.

I do really like the packaging - looks sophisticated. The lipgloss has your typical brush applicator.

When you put this on, you get that slightly tingly feeling - not to the degree where it hurts; you can just slightly feel it. I actually like it.

I do see some slight difference in the way my lips look - they become a bit fuller. But really just a bit, and I'm not sure that it's something I would definitely recommend if you are looking for a lip maximizer. However, it is really pretty as a lip gloss, and has an average weartime.

I also really love the strong cinnamon scent this has - but if you don't like scented products or don't like cinnamon, then this is nothing for you, 'cause that scent is strong, let me tell you!

Here you can see the colour - it's sheered out to the right. As you can see, it is really pretty - but once on your lips, it looks rather sheer.

Product (65%) - 7/10 (lost points because it didn't really maximize that much...)

Value (10%) - 8/10

Would I repurchase? (15%) - 6.5/10

Packaging (10%) - 9/10

Overall - 7/10

Love,

Miss Diorista

Depend Cosmetics - Cracked Effect in Blue

I bought this polish last weekend (nail polish haul), and if you are familiar with the new OPI Shatter polish, then this one does the same, except it is a whole lot cheaper. Also, Depend Cosmetics make them in colours, not just black (review for the red one coming up), which is fun!

Above you can see what it looked like on my nails, without top coat. Underneath it is a Kron polish, really cheap one, the closest to a silver that I currently have. Isn't that just so pretty?!



 Again, no top coat. You can see that the blue colour is matte - you don't get the depth to it.

However, here we have the top coat on (Dior one), and I know you can't notice a huge difference in the photos, but in real life, you can. The polish just comes to life, and becomes this beautifully deep, shimmery blue.

So obviously I love the effect that it gives me. The only thing I don't like is the weartime. It started chipping after about a day, and in two or three days, the chipping had become pretty bad. However, that is something I can live with, since this is just so pretty! And maybe it just chipped because of the cheap Kron one... I'll test it with an OPI soon, and update this review.

Also, I should tell you that this polish dries super-quickly. We're talking a few seconds here, really.

Product (65%) - 7.5/10

Value (10%) - 9/10 (those are seriously cheap!)

Would I repurchase? (15%) - 9.5/10

Packaging (10%) - 8/10

Overall - 8/10

Update!!!

This left two or three horrible, blue stains on my nails, even through the other polish! Not satisfied at all, so I'm changing my rating:

Product (65%) - 5/10

Value (10%) - 9/10 (those are seriously cheap!)

Would I repurchase? (15%) - 6/10

Packaging (10%) - 8/10

Overall - 6/10

I'll test the green Sally Hansen one I showed you tomorrow, so the review is just around the corner ;)

Love,

Miss Diorista

P.S. Have you tried the OPI Shatter? It won't arrive in Iceland until the end of February, but I will try to get my hands on it and compare them for you!

Nail Polish Haul!

First of all, sorry for the post-overload from me today! This is the last one, though :) I just have so many posts that I want to get up for you... and also this new Blogger system is really helping, since you can make blog posts in advance now! Yay for that ;)

So on to the nail polishes!

 

L-R:

• Those two polishes, the blue and red ones, I'm so excited about! They're by Depend Cosmetics, which I believe is a Sweden brand, and they are a part of their "Cracked Effect" collection. In case you've heard about or purchased OPI Black Shatter, then those polishes do the same thing - when worn on top of another polish, they crack and shatter as they dry, leaving you with a unique nail design on every nail! I can't wait to try those out! And the colours are simply "Red" and "Blue". I believe they also carry black, white, pink and purple.
• And finally, I bought Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Nail Color in shade 10, called Emerald City. I've been lemming this for some time, since it's seems to be a beautifully deep, shimmery green, but couldn't find it anywhere until now. You should have seen my face when I grabbed the last one they had ;)

 

Been buying any nail polishes lately? I'm on a nail polish kick, so if you know about any great nail polish blogs (I already read and love Varnish Vixen ;) then please let me know!

 

Love,
Miss Diorista

Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri in Jumpin' Jade

Going all dark for January, I guess :) I recently reviewed a nail polish by Sally Hansen in Blue Streak (read my review here), and I loved the colour and formula so much that I went back and got myself another one. I was actually on the hunt for a more poison-green colour, but didn't find any (know some great ones?) so I settled for this.
It is a really dark, green jade colour - so dark that you sometimes can't figure out the green tone to it. It has a lot of shimmer, but not of the obvious kind - you can wear this even though you don't like shimmer a whole lot.

The brush is much bigger than one is used to (see a comparison between this one and the OPI ones in my Blue Streak post), so you have to be careful, or you'll get too much product on your nails.
I do like the colour, though it's not my everyday thing, and the polish dries extremely quickly, which is good if you're in a hurry.
One big flaw, though, is that this is actually rather hard to get off. Just cleaning around my cuticles (I mess everything up when doing my nails, so I always have to clean the mess up ;) was a huge task. However, this is something which often comes with darker polishes.

Product (65%) - 7.5/10
Value (10%) - 9/10
Would I repurchase? (15%) - 6.5/10
Packaging (10%) - 8/10

Overall - 7.5/10

Yours,
Miss Diorista

Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri in Blue Streak

I recently bought this Insta-Dri (why not Insta-Dry?) in shade number 12, called Blue Streak. It is a gorgeous, oh-my-goodness pretty polish, a teal colour with tons of shimmer (not glitter). Isn't that just beautiful? My camera was unable to capture its full beauty, but you can still see how amazing it is.

I needed about two coats to get it opaque, but you might maybe want three, since it is a bit runny (nothing I can't live with, though). To my pleasure, it was not a pain to get off with nail polish remover. On the pictures I have no top coat on, and no base coat (though I later added a top coat by Dior).

After about five minutes, I felt comfortable touching my nails, so that is of course a rather short time, so if you're in a hurry, I would definitely go for this formula.

At first, I didn't like how big the brush is, compared to the classic OPI brush, but after about two or three nails, I actually began liking it. You have to be careful, though, since the brush can deliver way too much polish.

Here you can see the difference between an OPI brush (left) and the Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri brush (right). The SH one is also a lot longer, as you can see.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this nail polish, the colour is adorable (I've been getting comments on it from everyone!) and the formula is good, too. I will definitely try out more shades from the Insta-Dri collection.