Summertime Neon

I could not wait to Remove my old mani and replace it with one of my new China Glaze neons. The first one I chose to wear is I'm With the Lifeguard, a bright neon green with light green yellow shimmer.

It applied well in two coats which also gave me full coverage! I found the formula to be a little thick and it got a bit goopy the longer the top was off the bottle. It was easy to apply but I would consider dropping some thinner in the bottle before the next use keep the formula manageable.

As usual it dried to a matte finish which was quickly corrected by a nice coat of Seche Vite. Now it's nice and shiny :)  and the shimmer really makes this polish glow!

I had actually applied this in a rush before going to bed so it wasn't my best application, but I can't remember if I wrapped the tips with topcoat or not. Either way only a couple of days in I got some subtle tip wear, but you can hardly tell. The photos are actually on day two of wear with the "tip wear" visible. Not all that noticeable.

This is a pretty cool shade, the only other neon green I own is Claire's mood polish which changes yellow... Also my only yellow neon lol. I have honestly been intimidated to buy these bright neons in the past because I know they are a pain to apply and maintain especially in the summer. They usually need to be built up to five+ coats on their own or paired with a white base. I'm super glad I choose these neons though, none of that seems to apply, it must be the shimmer.

Do you have any polishes from this collection? What are your favorite neons?

Haulin' Part 1 + A Contest!

I got some nail mail! The first package comes from Amazon, I got me the new China Glaze neons, just in time for the sunny weather too!

I picked up for in total from the collection so far, the newest three additions left to right include I'm With The Lifegaurd, Sunkissed, and Flirty Tankini.

Flirty Tankini doesn't look the same as the photos I saw online unfortunately, right now I don't know what to think of it. It's not as neon as the others either :( oh well! I don't think there is any coral that will live up to Flip Flop Fantasy, I think it is honestly my fave China Glaze polish, it's the only CG I have a backup of! Below are some close ups of each bottle so you can see the shimmer better. Flirty Tankini is not colour accurate at all :( I just could not get the proper shade of pink that it is to show up on camera!

Moving on now to some nail art stuffs! This was actually sent to me from NailPolishCanada.com, so you can expect a review on this starter kit soon. It consists of plate M-36 plus a stamper, metal scraper and white mini special polish. They are also running a contest right now to win a Konad prize pack including the starter kit I will be reviewing! The kit includes:

1 x Konad Basic Kit
2 x Choice of any image plates
2 x Choice of any special polishes

You can enter this contest here.

That is all for now, I am expecting another small package in the mail from Zoya tonight, I can't wait to get tit! Some more summer pretties :) I'll post those within the next few days provided they arrive tonight.

A Glitzy Refresh

Today I have a mani refresh with yesterday's Color Club polish Oh Naturale. I wanted to do some stamping so I grabbed Konad plate M-57 and used the leopard print. I think I have used this one the most out of all the plates I own! I stamped using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind white, this has been my go to stamping polish lately.

It looked cute on it's own but I was feeling something shiny so I added a top coat of NYX Girls Gilded Glitter. This sparkly gold glitter has a faint, sheer base of gold and I realigning the effect it gave over the white, it Madeira look not to stark. The actual glitter pieces are all chopped up and irregular which is the reason why I got it, it's so random and awesome.

Just Peachy

Happy Friday!! I have another orange for you today, it's actually a neutral, peachy orange. Very spring-like even though it is now officially summer! I got this Color Club polish in a set, but only ended up keeping a few I really wanted. I believe it is apart of the Pardon My French collection (Spring 2010) and had to search online to find out that it is called Oh Naturale. It bugs me how Color Club doesn't label their packaged collections! Why!?

The colour it's self is very versatile, it can be worn as a one coater for a sheer or French look. Or you can build it up like I have for full coverage. I only applied three coats, not too bad :)

The formula was pretty good, I applied two thick coats at first and finished off with a thinned out third and did not get any bubbling. I used Seche Vite as always so I can't comment on dry time. It's all I have been using lately, I just don't have the time or patience anymore to wait for my polish to dry!

I can't wait to stamp over this one, i'm thinking something delicate and white, but who knows how I will feel in a couple of days!

Splat!

Some cool splatter manis have been going around lately and I decided that I wanted to try :) using my previous mani, Tangerine Scream, as a base I dipped a regular drinking straw in to a bottle of Orly's Royal Navy and blew through the other end to get the splatter effect on my nails.

The whole method is outlined in detail here. I am actually going to watch it another time before I try doing it again. It may have been the formula of the polish but it didn't give the exact effect I was going for. I do really love the contrast though between the bright neon orange an deep, glittery blue.

What do you think? Have you tried this before? If so what is your technique or what tips do you have?

New American Apparel Polish!!

I just got this in my inbox last night from American Apparel: To celebrate the Summer weather, we've releases a limited-edition (for Summer only) line of 6 vibrant-yet-sheer colors inspired, and named after California beaches. The 6 new shades are; Summerland Beach, Manhattan Beach, Zuma Beach, Moonlight Beach, Redondo Beach, and Pacific Beach.

 These new sheer lacquers are unlike other sheers polishes. It's highly pigmented making it perfect for layering art or ombre effects. These lacquers are cruelty-free as well as DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde free, like all of our other nail lacquers! They are now available online as well as in stores across the US (and soon internationally).

Pretty cool huh? I like how they did the models nails, cant wait to give these a try and see how they build up.

So Juicy and Loud

I LOVE this neon, so awesome! I purchased Color Club's Tangerine Scream a while back now and only picked it out to wear yesterday!

This light and bright neon has a sprinkling of superfine shimmer which in the bottle looks teal/green but on the nail come off as white/yellow/green depending on the lighting.

I find that in direct lighting the shimmer is more of a yellow/golden colour. It reminds me of this old Sally Hanson polish I have that I wanted despirately to be opaque! The formula was so thin, but the colour is beautiful in the bottle, light orangey coral with a gold shimmer. So summery! I think it is one of my first polish posts as a blogger... My, how my nails have changed since then!

Back to this polish, I used 3 coats and it applied perfectly. It dried to a matte finish like most neons, so I topped it with a coat of Seche Vite which gave the perfect amount of shine :) Neons are doing it for me lately.

Bows!

A simple mani refresh today. Just stamped some bows from my Konad dupe plate M59. I believe I picked this up from Born Pretty Store.

To stamp I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White.

The Finger Paints polish is still not colour accurate :( It's actually more of a fuchsia neon.

Glowing

Today I have a new neon! It's actually one of the polishes I picked up in THIS haul for my sisters birthday. She want too crazy about the colour so I traded her another Finger Paints I hadn't worn yet. This is Finger Paints Pink Perspective.

The shade totally freaked out my camera, it shows up red when in real life it is a deep pink neon, a bit closer to the bottle colour in my photos below but more magenta than red. Application was awesome, it was like applying a cream polish and only two coats were needed to reach opacity. As all neons do it dried to a matte finish, although this one was more suede. I also find that with neons I need an extra coat to get the polish extra glossy, but that was not the case at all! Wear so fat has also been fantastic, no chips yet :)

Speaking of neons I finally found the China Glaze Summer Neons for sale on Amazon so I picked them up. I cannot wait for then to arrive!

Fish Scales

Another sea related nail post... Surprised!? lol I think I have gotten it out of my system now. Since Revlon's Ocean Breeze had a slight duochrome I thought it would be the perfect base of a fish scale/mermaid tail inspired mani.

I had my eye set on plate RA-111 from Red Angel's latest collection from before I even purchased them! To stamp the pattern I used my new Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Jumpin' Jade. I love how the Insta-Dri polishes work with stamping, so perfect. Plus I picked this up for one dollar at the Dollar Tree! Not bad for a stamping polish ;)

This one almost even looks like dragon scales or something! I really love this pattern and will have to try it again soon :)

Happy Friday, have a good weekend!

Scent of the Ocean

I just noticed a theme here with the polish and nail art/designs I have been wearing lately, they all have something to do with the beach! Yup, I love summer! Although I honestly feel like the weather for May and June have been reversed, it has been nothing but grey skies and rain the first few days of June :( Oh well, it should warm up soon. Keeping with that theme I have an oldie Revlon, Ocean Breeze.

Ocean Breeze is appart of the first set of polishes I got when I started hoarding, now my tastes have changed a bit and I find this colour to be a bit out of my comfort zone. It is a green, teal, blue light duochrome with a slightly frosty finish. It's not so much frosty as it leaves behind brushstrokes if not applied carefully. This is what I don't like, but this is a beautiful colour.

At a reasonable distance on the nail it looks really cool, but up close the brush strokes bother me, so stamping will probably happen tonight. I know of a way to get rid of brush strokes but didn't have the time when I originally applied the polish.

I almost forgot to mention that this is apart of the scented collection, to me it just smells fresh. Not too strong or overpowering, I actually quite liked it! I could even smell it once I applied a coat of Seche Vite to even everything out.

Ocean Gradient - complete with crushed seashells

Today I have a mani refresh with Essie's Turquoise and Caicos, a gradient refresh to be exact. I used Essie's Lapis of Luxuxy with a sponge and dabbed it on the top of the nail. I have seen many different ways of doing this on you tube and other blogs, but I found the easiest way for me was to apply the polish directly to the sponge and dab it on the nail.

I started out dabbing the polish the max hight of the nail  wanted the gradient to reach, then with each pass after i moved close to the nail tip. I think I went through about three passes per nail.

At this point I hadn't added a top coat and wanted to add a little sparkle, so I used new glitter I got from Nabi, Large RoundG Glitter and applied a thick coat to get all the glitters on my nail. I would say this is fairly similar to Kleancolour's Black Chunky Holo without the murky brown base and heart holo glitter! I didn't want to use the heart for this mani so I made sure to pick them out.

I kind of wish I applied the glitter in a gradient as well but am happy with the overall look :) reminds me of the ocean and the opalescence of the large glitter reminds me of seashells reflecting through the water, while the smaller glitter is more like the shine off the water.

How do you do your gradients?

Small Haul

Hello, hello. Last week was a slow week for me post wise. I didn't really have any new nails to share and was short on time. I did however pick up some polish over the weekend that I'd like to share.

I snatched up a couple more Nabi's including another magnetic. From left to right I have Wine and Clear RoundG Glitter.

While in the states over the weekend I spotted some Sally Hansen Diamond Strength and Insta-Dri polishes at the dollar tree. Unfortunately they were not in the same double packs as the Nail Prisms they were single packs. I picked up Jumpin' Jade.

I was hoping to find the new summer neons display from China Glaze at Sallys, and I did... With only one polish left! Luckily it was one if the many I wanted, Orange You Hot? I hope to acquire a good portion of the rest of this collection very soon :)