Influenster Summer Beauty VoxBox 2012 Initial Review

Disclaimer: I received all products for free and for review by Influenster. All of my reviews and later reviews will be honest and will not be changed by the generous gift.

So before I begin my review I’d love to thank all of my followers for following me for giving me the opportunity to get a VoxBox. Free stuff is always fun!

I’m going to start this post off by saying that not everything in this review is nail related and I apologize for that but with me being a woman and getting some lovely womanly summer products I can appreciate the things that I did receive and I will respect this blog by putting the non-nail related things under a “read more” post. I would love it if you guys would ask questions and read the whole thing but there’s obviously no requirement to do so. :)

PICTURES ARE BELOW THE READ MORE SIGN

The first product I’ll do an initial review on is the Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color.

Unnecessary Backstory: I’ll be honest; when the nail trend for magnetic polish just came out I wasn’t very impressed. In fact, I thought it was kind of lame that a nail polish would go for fifteen dollars. Being a poor college student, that never appealed to me. The price really turned me off. I got my first magnetic nail polish when I saw them at Walgreens for five dollars. I got the purple Nabi polish and really fell in love. I honestly didn’t even think they could look better than that, but I was wrong.

My little notecard that came with my box has this as the description for the Magnetic Nail Polish:

NEW! Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color is summer’s hottest nail trend that allows you to create a gorgeous 3-D nail art effect in just seconds! This unique formula was specially developed with metallic particles- just hold the built-in magnet over wet polish to reveal a unique design on the nail.

Review: The color I got was 905 Red-y Response. It’s not red: don’t listen to them they’re liars! It’s actually magenta in natural light and a purple in artificial light. The 3-D effect with this polish is a lot stronger than the Nabi one that I have and initially I thought it was just the magnet was stronger, but I tested the SH magnet on the Nabi polish and it turns out that the actual SH polish is just better for this sort of thing. There’s a lot more dimension and shifting and looks honestly a lot prettier.
Another initial concern for me was the magnet. It seemed really small at first but when I actually went to use it, it covered my whole nail. Woo!

A huge negative, however, is that when I used my two fast dry top coats fifteen minutes after application, it pulled at the design and smudged it pretty badly. For my test, I will have one finger without top coat to ensure that I get the best test results. This polish may be prone to chipping because of the use of such a thick coat to get the magnetic design, so if the fast dry top coats always pull, you may have a problem getting this to last.

Price & Rarity: This polish goes for $9.99 and you can probably get it at any drugstore.

Would I Buy: I’ve gotta say, this polish is a lot better than the Nabi, but you have to remember that it’s twice as much. When it comes to building a collection of polishes, I’d say go for the Nabi because it’s cheaper and still pretty. However, if you see a color that you really want to super-shine and be super-awesomely-spectacular, I’d suggest spending a little extra and getting your favorites out of the Sally Hansen collection.

A Note: For my initial review, I have painted both of my hands with the color and given each designated finger a different topcoat.

Pinky: Rimmel’s Base Coat & Top Coat PRO
Ring: China Glaze Matte Magic
Middle: Out the Door Top Coat
Index: China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
Thumb: None

Sally Hansen Nails & Cuticles Hand Crème:

Backstory: I’m not sure I really need much of a backstory. I have really dry cuticles and really dry nail beds so I have to use a hydrating base coat, otherwise my nails will snap. I didn’t know this product existed and I have high hopes for it.

Description: Made with shea butter, the Sally Hansen Nails & Cuticles Crème softens hands, smooths cuticles and conditions nails. Active Moisture Complex formula with Ceramides helps to lock in nutrients so hands maintain their ideal moisture level. Offers 24 hour moisture and lasts through hand washings!

Pre-Review: This product has a pretty strong scent, like tanning lotion almost. Some people may see this as a positive and some as a negative. I usually get headaches from really strong scents but this didn’t trigger anything thankfully. Okay now that I’ve actually put it on my hands it smells like oranges wow how does that even happen? On the application, it feels really smooth and cold and my hands feel really moisturized and I only used a little of it on my cuticles (probably half a pea on each finger). I actually already really like this and if it can last for the full 24 hours, I will consider this product to be a huge success.

Price & Rarity: My little note thing says $5.99 for a full sized bottle and you could probably get it at drugstores and Sally’s.

Would I Buy: I’m a huge lotion addict and I honestly kind of expected the small bottle I got to be full sized. So for six dollars for a full sized of this, heck yes I’ll probably buy another one when this one runs out. I keep wiggling my fingers around because the cooling effect of this is just like amazing feeling J

Hit “Read More” for pictures of my box and products and for the pre-reviews on the Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Lotion Sunscreen, Quaker Soft Baked Bar in Banana Nut Bread, and Tampax and Always Radiant Collection.

Read More

Updates:

More nail polish problems coming today! Sorry for the long hiatus. We could use submissions though!

I also have a VoxBox coming in that I will post the review for here. It will include a nail polish and some other things. I will put the other things under a “read more” tag. If you guys would like me to post more if I get them, don’t hesitate to suggest that by leaving it in our ask! Also, if you would like me to make a video review instead of a text review, just say so. :)

So begins our July NPP! Hope you guys don’t mind the purple theme. I usually have the theme color matching the monthly holiday but it’s my birth month (yay!) and purple is my favorite color! :)

Have a great day everyone!

shiverstheninja:

This is not a nail polish problem, but more of a solution I thought the readers of this blog might appreciate.

I’ve been wanting to do an ombre manicure since it’s so in right now, but I couldn’t find a lineup of gradient colors in my stash (even though it’s quite large compared to most average nail polish collections). Recently, though, I bought a bunch of acrylic paints for doing nail art, and I thought I would try something different. So far it seems to have worked out.

I applied a base coat (in my case an old bottle of Sally Hansen No More Stains, but I’m sure whatever you have will work), then I painted my pinkie nails the first, lightest color, using a small filbert brush from a miniature brush set I bought a Wal-Mart. I let it dry a bit before each coat and built them up until I was happy with the opacity. Then I added a bit of black, mixed it together, and painted my ring fingers… so on and so forth until all my nails were painted. (Optional: I added a silver rhinestone at the bottom of each nail.) Finally, I use Seche Vite Fast-Drying Top Coat. It smoothed everything out so nicely that you would never guess it’s not nail polish.

So now I’ve got an ombre manicure not only easily and in any colors I want, but on the cheap! I used so little paint, and the bottles of paint I bought were less than a dollar each for a ton of it. Another nice thing is that cleanup is much easier, as most of the paint that I got on my skin around the nail just peeled right off (I used tweezers for precision). My only concern at this point is that maybe it won’t wear so well, but I only wear manicures for two or three days before I get bored of them and remove them anyway.

I think this will help a lot of people get the ombre look with supplies they may already have. Also, the fact you can cover your entire nail with the acrylic paint means that you can mix your own “polish” colors! Aside from the wear, its only artistic downfall is that the majority of acrylic paint will end up as a cream finish on the nails, so for the most part you’ll probably want to keep buying glitter, shimmer, and other polishes that give effects you cannot get with paint. (Of course for glitter you can buy cheap craft glitter, but that’s a whole other story…)

Anyway, I don’t follow a whole lot of nail polish blogs so I thought I’d share this here because I think your readers will get a lot of use out of it. I’d share a picture of my nails but I don’t have access to a camera right now… I swear they look awesome, though!

Thanks so much for the tip! I’m sure you guys could get some use out of advice like this! :)