Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamonds and Rubies

Only one photo because the bottle shot color was inaccurate

I figured I had enough red cremes, and only purchased Diamonds and Rubies on clearance at Ulta as a Christmas present for a friend last year. A few days later, she complained to me about how a monthly subscribed cosmetics box had sent her "another red", which she was tired of. I thought, "Oh?" and went back to Ulta and bought her some snazzy Zoyas and kept Diamonds and Rubies for myself.

It's a nice red! A classic retro shade with a very easy formula. One coat for a bright and almost completely opaque color, two for deeper (but not deep) and full coverage. This is my first time using the Diamond Strength line, and I love the firm, skinny (that's what she said) brush. Normally while applying a red creme, the polish would run everywhere and stain my skin, but not so with this brush. It led to a very easy application.

The most similar red in my collection is Zoya Sooki; Diamonds and Rubies is darker, though perhaps not substantially. I may be the only person in the nail cult world who isn't a fan of Sooki despite its cool cherry tone, because my bottle has a jelly formula requiring three coats for an even color, and 2 coats versus 3 leads a very different shade, so god help you if you get your polish amount uneven nail to nail.

Diamonds and Rubies chipped during my second day of wear after two hours of book-handling at work. That job is often hard on nails (I make sure I keep them painted partially to protect them), though the OPI manicure featured in the last post held up strong against it. OPI is tuff.

In addition to this, my other favorite retro red creme is Zoya America, which is lighter and brighter.

OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm? and OPI Snow Globetrotter

 OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm? is one of those indigo "blurples" that you are never going to get a color-accurate photo of. Under indoor lights, it can appear to be a darker blue. Then you take it outside, and WABLAM, you have a bright-ass indigo. When I took this photo, I actually had overcast outdoor lighting that made it look like the radioactive indigo it is, a neon purple compared to the Sinful Colors Endless Blue-esque shade in this photo. I literally had the camera view screen up in front of my hand and could see the radically different color being portrayed on the digital screen. And that is what you see before you.

I used two coats on most fingers and three on one of my thumbs. It has the kind of thin formula where you think you have it completely opaque until you look at the sides of your nails and see the thin coverage along the edges. It's almost jelly-ish, but not, drying without the shine. I felt that OPI Eurso Euro was similar, but I think Stockholm has a superior formula, and the color is exactly what I wanted Eurso Euro to be.

Yes! The color is gorgeous. Get it. That bright indigo was actually my favorite color in high school; my old Livejournal theme was an exact match.

I purchased Snow Globetrotter as the same time, and it is the perfect winter wonderland combination. Snow Globetrotter has white and iridescent glitter of varying sizes. The iridescent also varies in shades. When applying, you swish the brush around in the bottle to collect a lot of glitter, wipe only a little bit off, then place it on your nail and smush. It is so pretty!

SHABLAM!