The Hunger Games Nail Polish Collection: Capitol Colours

I don't think I've ever been so excited for a movie premiere in my life as I am for The Hunger Games, which comes out in theaters tomorrow. I read the trilogy, and can't wait to see how the movie compares to the first book.

When I saw the China Glaze Capitol Colours collection inspired by each of the 12 districts in The Hunger Games, I knew I had to pick up some of the colors! My favorites are Electrify, Riveting, and Dress Me Up.

Are there any other Hunger Games fans out there who bought any of these polishes? And an unrelated question: are you team Peeta or team Gale?

Group Encounter

One of my biggest beauty pet peeves is nail polish bubbling, as the only places I like bubbles are in champagne and the bathtub. Nail bubbles are not cute, and after dealing with them recently no matter what techniques I tried (not allowing a lot of air in the nail polish bottles, using a base and top coat, using a thin layer of each application, and the list goes on...) I decided to try a new base and top coat because I suspected that my old base and top coats were the culprits. Sure enough, I was right.

Behold my new favorite base and top coats:

Orly Bonder-$9

The best base coat ever, I love the "rubberized" texture that allows nail polish to grip onto your nails sans bubbles.

Out the Door Top Coat

I had heard great things about this top coat, as well as Seche Vite, but Seche Vite's reproductive harm warning was alarming and turned me off. I am very happy with my Out the Door purchase, this top coat is very fast drying and super shiny.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Review

These are my newest obsession. 

I'm not usually a fan of intricate nail art, but I found many of Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips to be wearable. The first ones I tried out were the multi-color glitter stickers in "Frock Star", which I wore during my Bachelorette weekend-they were perfectly appropriate for such an occasion.

Next I tried "Laced Up", the pattern I was most drawn to:

Today I applied "Bling It On":

Each box contains 16 nail strips with varying sizes to fit each nail, a mini file, buffer, and a cuticle stick. I ended up not needing the cuticle stick. The strips are very easy to apply and what's great about them is that you can shape them onto rounded or squared nails at almost any length.

Once applied to the nail, the remaining strip is easily filed off the nail with the mini file/buffer.

Ta Da!

The Salon Effects package claims that the nail strips last up to 10 days, which I've found to be true. I removed the "Frock Star" strips after 6 days since my wedding was one week after I had applied them but they would've held up at least another few days, and I kept the "Laced Up" strips on for almost two weeks!

I love that there is no dry time (also stated on the box), the strips are easy to remove with nail polish remover, and they do not contain any DPB, Toluene or Formaldehyde.

The one con for me is the price ($8.99 at Target), however they are significantly cheaper than Minx and last about as long.

Up next I'll be trying "Misbehaved"

What are your thoughts on Sally Hansen's Salon Effects? Which is your favorite Pattern?

Minx Nails

I'd been wanting to try Minx for months and last week I found a salon close to me that does them. I had no idea how they were applied or anything about them beforehand (except they look really cool!) so I'm going to give you all the low-down on how they work.
When I got there, I picked out the gold minx (from lots of different colors and patterns). They come as nail-size strips adhered to a piece of special paper and are activated by heat. The nail technician put them under a heat lamp and asked me to put my nails under it, too (verrrry hot and when it got painful I took my hand out from under the heat). Once she peeled the minx from the paper, she smoothed it on over my nails and cut it down to my nail length and held it, again, under heat to seal them on.
I love the way they look but I'm starting to get annoyed because the minx will start peeling back from the top of the nails. It's been 5 days now since I've had the minx on and they still look great (probably because I'm paranoid about messing them up) but I can feel them snag on things. For $40-$50 I don't think they're worth it unless it's for a special occasion. I'm missing my regular, painted nails that are smooth right about now, but I'm going to keep the minx on as long as they stay on. Have any of you tried Minx? What was your experience like?
Those of you that read my blog regularly may have noticed that I have a different ring on my finger--I exchanged my radiant cut engagement ring for a round Tiffany with a Platinum band a couple months ago.