Over The Moon!

Summer is still here, and I don't thin it's going anywhere any time soon! Since the sun has been in full force I decided to put on a blindingly gorgeous, bright blue holo.

I purchased Color Club, Over The Moon from a blog sale a while back and this is the first time I have tried it out. I must say, for a linear holo polish, application was fantastic. I forgot to use a special base (usually I use Nfu Oh's Aqua base) and thought I would have problems applying the polish but it was really no big deal. I mean, if I had applied a thicker first coat I would only need one coat. I prefer two so two thin coats it was, and it built up beautifully. 

I typically don't apply a topcoat to holo polishes, however, I tested out my pinky first and it didn't seem to dull the effect, and if it did, I couldn't tell! That being said, the wear of thish shade wth a topcoat is fanominal. Very minimal tip wear with just about a week of wear. 

East Austin - Remixed!

I actually had time to spare on the weekend and decided to pull out my nail art plates, blow off the collecting dust (from who knows the last time I used them!) and play with my nails.

I decided to try out a new plate I got from  Born Pretty Store, likely late last year. It is plate BP-L030 and is a larger, rectangular plate.

The graphics consist of a large scale abstract lace and florals. I used more of the floral pattern from the bottom left-hand corner of the plate. I attempted to use another new product from Born pretty store, their XL squishy stamper, but it was a total fail so I gave up and used my regular one.

I really like this plate, the final look is more interesting than the standard "copy and past" of each graphic on to every nail. I purposely picked up different parts of the design to stamp on my nail so the design on each nail was unique.

There is something about a bold, black pattern over neon polishes that just SCREAMS summer to me!

East Austin

I am feeling summary and pulled out Color Club East Austin for the first neon of the season!

I love this shade because it is coral (one of my favorite polish colours), it's a neon (duh) and it's soft. It has that sun bleached look to it while still being bright.

Application was good, I can't recall if I applied two or three coats for full opacity now... But I want to say it was two. I remeber the formula being pretty opaque and not very thinned out.

Love this on it's own, but if you wanna check out some nail art (I know, it's been a while!) stay tuned for the best post!

Foxy Mama!

Last neon of "summer". I totally forgot about skipped over posting this mani from early September for the last long weekend of summer.

Color Club Foxy Mama is such a great neon. Not only is it an awesome colour with a gorgeous shimmer, but the wear is fantastic, especially for a neon.

Foxy Mama is a bright orange neon with a yellow/gold shimmer that runs throughout. The shimmer is not too dominant and shines more in direct lighting or bright sunlight.

This lasted me well over a week, it was the perfect polish to end my summer on.

My Vampire is Hot—Pink!

I decided I wanted to a non-traditional French tip. Something not so classic and more modern. What I decided on was a light, fully opaque base and a slip neon tip.

For my base I used OPI My Vampire is Buff, which as I mentioned in my last post  is an awesome neutral shade. It has more yellow undertones than pink, which work really great with my skintone. Two easy coats were applied to my nails.

Shortly after the base had some time to dry, I applied my hot pink tips. For this I used Color Club Raspberry Rush. Raspberry Rush is apart of the Wicked Sweet collection released in the summer of 2011. All of the polishes in the collection have a fruity scent. I would have assumed the scent of this polish I be raspberries, however to be it smelled exactly like my favorite flavour of bubblegum as a child, Bubblicious, Paradise Punch. Childhood memory below!!

The scent wasn't too overbearing, I really had to sniff my nails after they dried, and almost or got it was scented! I sure if it was applied to the while nail the scent would be stronger.

Using the brush from the polish, I carefully applied the neon shade to the very tips of my nails. With a steady hand and and quick swipe, I matched the other slim crescents on the rest of my nails. I wouldn't say it was 100% perfect, however I am really happy with the end result. I also do think my photos show off every imperfection but in person it looks a bit more flawless.

The one think I learned about using a neon on the tips of my nails is that they wear fairly quickly. Other than the slight tip wear to most the nails. This wore very well. I am also considering applying the same thing to my toes!

Color Club Not So Mellow Yellow

Happy Friday! Bright and sunny shades are getting me in the mood for summer! Today I have Color Club Not So Mellow Yellow a bright neon yellow with an interesting shimmer.

The shimmer, based off my photos, look to be yellow or green, however up close it is actually an orangey red! This is odd since you would never guess based on what you see at first glance.

The formula was pretty great for a yellow, I applied three coat total with the last being thin to help smooth everything else out. I really love this bright shades for summer. Am I the only one who thinks that these types of colours feel hot or sour? Like a sour ball!

The photo below shows you just how bright this shade is in direct sunlight! A quick shot I snapped on my phone while waiting for the bus.

I totally should have layered this glitter over top while I was still wearing it, such a great combo.

This polish wore fantastically for a full week with very minimal tip wear. For a neon and a light shade such as a yellow, this is usually not the case.

Wanderlust Spectacle

I have a quick and easy mani refresh to share. It's been a while since I have had any urge for any kind of nail art. I have come to the conclusion that a lot the the bloggers that got me going back in the day and inspired me to do nail art are either no longer blogging or mostly just swatch polishes for reviews.

Once I came to this realization it kind of made me sad. So many great blogs gave me so much inspiration and I want to inspire you as well! Have a look below at some of my favorite blogs from from past and present:

Getcha Nails Did
Chloe's Nails

Kronicles of a Konad-er

Chalkboard Nails
The Nailasaurus
Nails by Asami (no longer up, which is unfortunate because there was AMAZING inspiration, however she has started a new blog that I was happy to find for nail art and crafting here.)

 Of course this is just a short list off the top of my head. If you have a blog or know of a great one for nail art inspiration please share with me in the comments below! I'd love to see them and get inspired!

On to today's mani, I have a simple update to China Glaze Wanderlust, I simply created a slight gradient using a cosmetic sponge and Color Club Wicker Park.

I sponged on the gradient two times each for each nail and applied a coat and a bit of China Glaze Make A Spectacle to the tips of each nail. I topped it of with a coat of Ask Nails top coat which is thin and quick trying for manis like these.

My only complaint with this polish is that is smells like a skunk... not sure... why but I love the thin formula since it doesn't add much more bulk to the many layers of polish already on the nail.

Nail Fail

It may not appear to be a"nail fail" exactly, however I do pride myself on great photography and editing...

I wanted to do a simple mani refresh with Color club, Pardon My French and Bundle Monster plate BM-423. From afar it looks great, maybe even in the first two photos I have displayed as well.

I have a feeling it may have been the actual plate that threw me off with this one. The design may have been too deeply engraved and with the stamper being squished on top, it created the weird texture with in the design. You can see more clearly in the photo below.

Not the worst nail fail, but it still bothered me to the point of removal for a different Easter mani. I'll have the play around with different stamping polishes to make this pattern work because I really love it and want to get a nice clean image the next time I decide to try it out.

Have you had problems with this design as well?

Color Club Pardon My French

I have another lovely spring polish today, I just love spring polishes! This is another Color Club polish, Pardon My French, which is a baby pink creme with just a slight hint of yellow which makes it a slight coral pastel.

The formula was just okay. The first coat was streaky, the second coat was a little less streaky, but also not 100% opaque either. For the third and final coat I decided to add some thinner to the bottle of polish to add one last thin layer to even out any remaining streaks. This is common for me to do so I don't have loads of polish on the nail which can lead to bubbling or premature wear/peeling.

Three coats still did not produce 100% coverage, however, once I added a good coat of Seche Vite it helped to even mostly everything else out. I would say the final mani looks about 95% opaque, the camera, however, does not appear to show the polishes flaws. From a distance it looks great, so it works for me!

Color Club Bell Bottom Babe

Happy Friday, Good Friday that is! Let the long weekend Easter feasting begin...

Also time for my first summer polish of 2015! Well, it's not in your face summer neon, but it was apart of the Color 2014 Poptastic Summer collection. The 2014 collection, not to be confused with the originals from a few years back, is a compilation of neons with shimmer running throughout. I chose to wear Bell Bottom Babe.

 

Bell Bottom Babe is an almost periwinkle blurple base with a pink/purple shimmer. The first layer was quite thin, but the second coat built up pretty well. In hindsight a third thin coat would have been perfect, although it is not 100% apparent in the photos.

 

As an accent nail I layered a thin coat of L'Oreal, Too Dimensional? over my ring fingers and thumbs. Too Dimensional? is a glitter based polish with gold and purple glitter of various sizes in a deep purple base. I LOVE it! It is so smooth on the nail unlike most other glitters that can dry gritty.

I've included a few other right hand shots above to show you even nail shape. They will all be a little shorter and closer in relation to each other in my next post! Happy Easter to those who celebrate, hope you all have a great long weekend!

Cosmic Fate

Holo photo spam ahead!

I haven't worn a holo polish in a while and was feeling springy, so today I have (what I think is) Color club Cosmic Fate. This polish doesn't have a label at the bottom unfortunately, but I am pretty sure it is Cosmic Fate... I hope!

In the bottle the shade appears to be a peachy nude holo, but on the nail it looks more of a peachy pink, more saturated that I originally thought it to me. Maybe it's just my skintone? I am still wearing my Bio Seaweed Gel base, I find that when I have worn this before under a holo polish it really helps the holo to come through more and look glossy without a topcoat. It also makes application a breeze! I don't recall if Color Club's formula for holos is usually difficult, however, I did not need to apply a special (ie. Aqua Base) base polish.

I only needed two medium coats for full opacity and it dried quickly and smoothly as most holos do. What a rainbow effect! So fun and bright. Below is a photo of my rarely seen right hand, in case you can't tell in the photos above, I had a break in my middle nail, of course, just when everything else is growing out perfectly! I figured I should include a photo with a more even length of nails.

I plan on filing my nails down a bit, not to match the break exactly, but to help them look more even. I'll do this after removing the gel base in a few days.

Let's Go to the Park!

I picked up a set of seven Color Club polishes and am having a heard time finding the collection name! luckily the bottoms of the bottles were labeled so that helped out, looked to me a mix and match set. I located the collection for two of the shades, East Austin and Wicker PArk are apart of the Girl About a Town collection, which looks to be an interesting collection. One would think it would be a spring collection full of pastels but it is actually mostly darker, fall shades made up of many different finishes and textures.

I chose to wear Wicker Park, a lovely magenta leaning lavender pastel. It is bright and cheery and I LOVE it! It is a welcome change from the China Glaze pastel I wore last, Spring In My Step. The formula was fantastic, I only needed two coats for full opacity and it was easy to control. The finish also impressed me, it appears to have a slight neon pigmentation, similar to Spring In My Step, however it dried quickly to a shiny finish. It was even more glossy with the addition of Seche Vite on top.

I can't wait to wear the other neon/pastel shades I picked up in this set. The wear so far has been great, no chips 3 days in! In a day or two I will probably do a mani refresh, something I have not been able to do in a long time since polish has been chipping so quick on me.

Hauling in 30 Minutes or Less!

While waiting to meet up with my boyfriend last Friday I was lucky enough to be in the vicinity of a Sally's Beauty and a Trade Secrets... hauling ensued.

First stop was Trade Secrets, they had an awesome selection of soon to be discontinued OPI's, likely to be left overs from earlier collections, BOGO. I decided on Pirouette My Whistle and Did You Ear About Van Gogh?

Pirouette My Whistle is a glitter topper composed of white iridescent hex glitters and smaller silver glitter in a clear base.

Did You Ear About Van Gogh? is a beige/nude shade, very neutral. I would say it is a shade darker than My Vampire is Buff.

Next Stop, Sallys. Lucky for me today was the first day of their promo for 50% off all sale items! Unlucky for me, I forgot the other promo of buy two polishes and get the third free, I potentially should have gotten another polish free, oh well. My picks from the sale selection included China Glaze, Tail Me Something and Finger Paints, Psychedelic Hue. Both for under $5 total!

Tail Me Something was one of the polishes from the latest spring Sea Goddess collection I regretted not picking up when I had the chance. It is a purple textured polish with silver glitter.

Psychedelic Hue is a dense pastel flakie suspended in a clear base. I missed the Kaleidoscope collection the first time around but was not too interested in it to be honest. The one flakie that I liked the most was Psychedelic Hue which I was lucky enough to come across!

Since I had some more time to wait I headed over to Marshals where I came across a beautiful Color Club set. I am pretty sure this is not a new collection, or it may have been and someone rearranged the polishes. Either way, there was no titling on the packaging that mentioned this was a full collection. From left to right I have Wicker Park, Take Me To Your Chateau, East Austin, Mad About Mint, He Loves Me, Si Vous Please and Club Clear.

I didn't realize prior to purchasing that this set included Take Me To Your Chateau, as I already own it. I am also not in need of another pink, glitter topper and clear coat, so I am on the fence about gifting this set. It was only $9.99 which is an awesome price for seven polishes.

My favourites from this set are Wicker Park, East Austin and Mad About Mint. They are neon pastels and dry to a shiny finish, unlike most other neons.