NOTD: Shine Of The Times and more

Before I get off on other topics, I wanted to note that Sally Hansen is apparently discontinuing some more of its former core Xtreme Wear colors - at least, CVS has these for 75% off, among others: Celeb City, Strobe Light, Rockstar Pink - and I think we all know that normally means they're about to be discontinued. I have all three of those, but Rockstar Pink is the one that I'm tempted to run out and grab a backup bottle of. It's gorgeous. (I went through a whole bottle of Strobe Light, but complained about it being "too pink" the entire time - in other words, it set off my triggers for pinks that are overly girly. Rockstar Pink, which leans more fuchsia, did not. And I still have most of my bottle of Celeb City - it's super-bright silver metallic, far too bright for my taste. I like my silvers more tarnished than that.)

Also Walgreen's has WildShine on BOGO50, which I was interested in because I used it to get two new bottles of Black Creme for, what, $1.49. Black Creme is endlessly useful and cheap, and there are other cute colors in this line, too, but if you care about getting the extra 50 cents off, you have to act today, probably.


So, I have Essie Shine Of The Times and Wicked (and something else that I've temporarily forgotten) thanks to the lovely KarenD - more on that later - but I did something that didn't turn out too well while I was experimenting with my new treasures:

This is SotT (two coats) over Wicked, which would be okay if it wasn't for that spot where I apparently bumped things and there's a big spot of Wicked shining through. -- No, actually that's not true, because even aside from that, it didn't look great. I don't know what I was thinking, anyway, I was just in "let's experiment" mode, so I put on a couple of coats of Wicked, but really it was Shine Of The Times that I wanted to try, so I kept going and put a couple of coats of that on as well. I'm not sure why I didn't put ONE coat on and stop to see what it looked like, but no, I had to keep going. I had read somewhere before that it was unusually dense for a flakie and that is definitely true. I think one coat would have been plenty. With two, the red of Wicked was mostly but not completely covered up, and it just looked weird.


I also finally tried I'm Not Really A Waitress, which I got for a Christmas present, so it only took me some five months. I did really like it a lot, though. I didn't bother with a picture, because, y'know, it's red. It didn't particularly look different from any other red. But it's very flattering on me.

This polish has been around for 15 years - it was a 1999 release, wow - so there are soooo many reviews floating around: according to various bloggers, it's a blue-leaning berry, it's a cool-toned wine, it's a metallic red, it's kind of a boring neutral. Or else it's pinker and less neutral (than An Affair in Red Square, which I also have, and honestly I would've said just the opposite). I can't find the review I was thinking about where somebody called it orange-ish, but I swear I've seen that too. Actually Shape magazine says it has reflecting mica flecks so maybe it reflects your own skin-tone? I dunno. In any case, a lot of people love it, that's for sure. And most of the ones who don't love it start out saying, "I don't see what all the fuss is about..." so love it or not, it's a classic.