Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rio Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Happy Saturday lacqueristas,

Press Sample

Today is a pretty special post for me.  I was so shocked and honored when I was contacted by Sally Hansen to create a few manicures with some of their beautiful polishes. As I always say anytime I am asked to swatch or create nail art for a brand it's always a mega honor and I'm always flattered.  And if you've kept an eye on my manicures then you know I've been a long time fan of this brand, but in particular a lot of my nail art features the Insta Dri line!  I use these mainly for stamping since they are opaque and often in brilliant colors that I don't have available elsewhere.  I'll be sharing a few of the new ones later, but today I have select swatches and nail art from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rio Collection.  These polishes are matte glitters contained in a clear base, and as with most matte glitters they represent a great way to create instant nail art.

Proud Beauty Bloggers Of Color Present: Orange

Hey lacqueristas,

This is an inaugural post for me! I joined this group about a month ago when it first started called Proud Beauty Bloggers of Color.  The concept is pretty simple -  it's just many women of a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds that blog about beauty.  Now I'm not sure I classify myself as a "beauty" blogger per say, but somehow they invited me along anyway which I thought was really nice.  I missed out on the groups first post so I thought I couldn't miss this months theme which was a manicure devoted to the color orange.  My regular viewers already know that's like a no-brainer for me since I love orange and own a lot more of the shade than is probably common in my polish collection! And of course I could never just choose one. So here's what I came up with....

I am holding a coral bottle because my camera went insane when I tried holding up my nails and the orange bottle simultaneously :/

DRK Nails Cool Tone Abstract Nail Art

Hey varnished vixens,

Press Sample

God I can't stand all this heat! Yesterday it was well into the high nineties here in the District and honestly I wanted to melt.  So today I thought I'd cool down with a little blue tinged neutral nail art and of course as promised I wanted to take my new DRK Nails plates out for a spin.  If you didn't see it I posted a review of the 2 Designer Series plates yesterday (read here).  My impression of these plates is that they are gorgeous and affordable with some of the best etching I've seen to date.  Of course this meant I couldn't wait to play.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base color: Zoya Taylor

Accent colors: Zoya Darcy, Essie Bikini So Teeny, Fashion Playground, and Find Me An Oasis, Color Club Age of Aquarius, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #3

Stamping plates: DRK Nails Designer Series D1 & D2

Image from lower riight hand corner is the repeating pattern

I love nudes - polish, lipsticks, and shoes! They are so flattering and they work with everything under the sun.  Because I chose Zoya Taylor as the base every other color popped by comparison.  And as I said before the detailing on these Designer plates is truly exquisite.  You can go through a lot of the manicures I've created on this blog and Instagram but you won't find anything like this!  I can't stop staring at my nails.  The pattern that's featured the most is from the DRK DS 2 plate while the accent is from the DRK DS 1 plate.

So what do you think?  I really adore how this turned out as you can tell! I only wished it was as cool outdoors as the color palette is for this mani lol.  If you're interested in purchasing the DRK Nails Designer series you can find them here for $6.50 per plate plus minimal shipping.  You can also follow DRK Nails on Facebook for updates on newly releasing plates.  Yes that's right there are whispers of new XL plates coming out soon and hopefully we'll also see an expansion of this series! I hope you enjoyed the art and I'll see you next post....

These products were sent to me for honest review.  For more information see my Disclosures Policy.