So Hot You'll Melt Your Popsicle

Neons, neons, everywhere! I have been rocking neon shades on my nails almost exclusively this summer. One I had been lemming for a while was Orly, Melt Your Popsicle.

Melt Your Popsicle is a bright traffic cone neon orange polish. I had heard it was an amazing neon and I had to try it out. Although it is a great neon orange, it really isn't anything new or special. I feel like every brand of polish has their own version. Unfortunately it pull more red in these photos, but I assure you it is the perfect orange neon.

 

I applied three coats for full opacity. The formula was thin, but buildable and easy to work with.

Sun Worshiper

I picked up China Glaze, Sun Worshiper on clearance a little while back, however, it has always been a shade I wanted to pick up. That bright orange leaning yellow, and not to mention the name, totally me in the summertime! But hey, with this polish I may not need to spend as much time in the sun, it's so bright it makes my tanned no matter how long I have spent in the sun!

Sun Worshiper is definitely a neon and apart of the 2010 Poolside collection. It is an interesting shade, radioactive cheese comes to mind as a description. I layered this shade over a white base to get the maximum brightness on my nails. I applied three coats of Sun Worshiper total.

The formula was good for a neon, a tad on the sheer side but it is a yellow shade and that is what the white base was for. It dried pretty quickly to a matte finish, however, the many layers, likely combined  with the white base, did take some time to fully set and dry. Mind you, I was in a hurry when applying. I think it may have been more of the white bases fault than Sun Worshiper re. dry time.

Overall this is an awesome shade for summer and I actually wore it on my birthday!

xxx

Snapshots from Jamaica - My Honeymoon Manis

Yes, multiple manis... on my honeymoon. I honestly could have dealt with just one shade for an extended time but brought some fun neon shades with me in case I decided to change things up a bit.

Glad I did because my manis were kind of chipping all over the place! Next time I will definitely be doing a gel mani before I leave! I had a gel base of my wedding mani, no in-between chipping I'd have that for a few days at a time as well. Let start it off with what I wore on my tips...

China Glaze, Celtic Sun - bright neon yellow, 2-3 coats over a white base

China Glaze, Pool Party, new version - Bright neon, orange based coral, three coats over my gel French tip base.

China Glaze, Flip Flip Fantasy, original version - Bright neon coral, 2-3 coats over my French tip base. Yup, I brought this discontinued baby with me because I have another full bottle at home!

Bio Seaweed Gel, French Mani - more on that here.

Next up, toes

Are You Jelly, new version - The most perfect shade of purple leaning magenta, 2 coats

Flip Flop Fantasy, original verison - 2 coats, no base (forgot to pack it! Opps!)

I would have preferred to keep Are You Jelly on my toes the whole trip, but I didn't bring a bottle of the stuff with me.

A few snippets from my vacation through my manis. Do you bring nail polish on vacation with you?

Summer Time Haul, Y'all!

I am in full summer mode and atiently awaiting a bunch of fun things in July; my birthday, my wedding and a honeymoon trip! So many exciting things to come in my favorite month and season of the year!

Summer screams brights and neons to me, today I have some of my latest purchases (first and largest in quite a while now). It's so surprise that they are all China Glazes, they manage to put out fun and exciting polishes summer after summer that I actually want!

I'll start off with my picks from the Lite Brights, summer 2016 collection first.

Papa Don't Peach and We got the Beet

Papa Don't Peach is a jelly-like coral shade with gold shimmer and iridescent glitter running throughout. Bright and flashy, I love it!

We Got the Beet is a deep plum jelly with golden shimmer throughout. I honestly like this one more than I thought I would! so pretty!

Two coats of each are shown on the nail wheel below.

Bite Me, What I Like About Blue and Lime after Lime.

Bite Me is a bright pink neon with a golden microshimmer running throughout. Excellent formula on this one! The golden shimmer makes the pink warmer toned.

What I Like About Blue was the must have polish for me! A gorgeous bright blue with a golden and slightly iridescent shimmer running throughout. The shimmer is way more visible in this one compared to Bite Me.

Lime After Lime. I love this name, it makes me think of the choreographed dance sequence from Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion! Light, bright and right on the verge of being a neon green. It has that bleached bright thing going on. Another one with great formula.

One to two coats of each are shown in the nail wheel below.

Next up I have some randoms I picked up for a beauty supply clearance section:

In the Limelight, Daisy Know My Name? and Sun Worshiper.

In the Limelight, an oldie but a goodie! From my research, I have found that this was originally from the Wow Factor collection back in the summer of 2006. This shade a bright green neon with a lightly duochome shimmer, flashing green or blue depending on the light source.

Daisy Know My Name? is from last summers Electric Night Collection. I am actually wearing it right now! Its a bright yellow, but not highlighter yellow. Outside in the sunlight it is close to neon teritory on it's own, but I feel it would really pop with a base of white.

Sun Worshiper is a polish I have admired from afar for way too long. A part of the 2010 Poolside collection, this is a bright, in your face nacho cheese neon! I can't wait to wear this with a tan!

Two to three coats of each are shown in the nail wheel below.

So many exciting new polishes to wear making it hard to decide what to wear next! What is your favorite shade for summer?

Ghostess with the Mostess

Hostess with the Mostess is apart of the Ghouls Night Out collection released this year apart of China Glaze's Halloween collection.

I decided to layer two coats over a bare nails (plus a base coat, of course!) to make the most of each piece of glitter. I couldn't decide on a base shade that would be truly complimentary to each coloured glitter.

Ghostess with the Mostess is made up of matte black, pastel green, pastel orange and striped purple hex glitter of various sizes. In hindsight I thought of a layering idea of layering the glitter between a black or orange glitter. Heck, even green or purple would work too!

It applied nice and smooth, the consistency of the clear base was a breeze. There was lots of glitter on the brush, didn't have to fish around too much, just played around a bit with the brush on the nail for placement of glitter so it was not overlapping. So far it has been wearing great!

Ziggy Zaggy!

Today I have a Halloween inspired refresh inspired by @Stormandstars on Instagram (shown below).

I'm not sure exactly what products were used, but I just loved the look!

My base is Del Sol Trick or Treat and I used Bundle Monster plate BM-201 with Konad black for stamping the zigzag pattern.

 

I LOVE this look, although I must say I am a bit rusty at stamping. It's been a while! My nails are also a tad long and the pattern just reached the top. I actually filed then down a bit to ensure the pattern looked complete.

A fun and quick way to Halloween up your nails!

A Halloween Favorite

Today I have a Halloween favorite that I try to use sparingly, Del Sol Trick or Treat.

Trick or Treat is a UV activated colour shifting polish. In it's regular state it is a bright orange jelly with holographic micro glitter. When in the sun or exposed to UV light it turns a dark shade of purple, almost black jelly! Such a great shift and colour changing polish. I wish there were a heat activated version as well!

I used two coats over (two layers) of my Deborah Lippmann All About That Base base coat. I decided to use two layers of the base to help with opacity of the polish, and save a layer or two of polish. All and all the technique worked very well!

Comparing the colour shift from the last time I wore this polish, it's safe to say there is a bit of a difference. This may be due to a few factors, either age of the polish or quantity of layers. Age may have affected the colour shift or additional layers are needed to produce a better effect. I'll have to test the polish out to know for sure.

Do you have this polish? How is the colour shift like from your bottle?

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.

CosmoProf Haul

Today I have another bright neon haul to share with you! I was pleasantly surprised to find the Electric Nights collection at my local CosmoProf. I have been finding it harder and harder to track down the latest collections at Sally's recently and CosmoProf usually has what I'm looking for. I picked up four polishes from the Electric Nights collection, and one re-promote from 2013's Summer Neons collection.  I have to admit that at first glance this collection didn't appeal to me, but after all the hype online and finally seeing them in person I got why they were so popular.


First up is Are You Jelly?, UV Meant To Be and Treble Maker.

Are You Jelly? is a a neon magenta based purple neon. I originally picked up this shade in 2013, but this re-promote is not the same as the original. The original is more of a true purple crelly. It dried to a matte/satin finish. If you compare the photos in this post to the previous one (original formula) it is not very apparent they are different. In person it is easier to see the difference. Let me know if you are interested in a comparison post.

UV Meant To Be is a light blue with a hint of dustiness. Hard to describe, but really pretty. The only one I purchased from this collection with a glossy finish.

Treble Maker is probably the hardest to describe and one of my favorites! It is a medium green that verges on being a neon, but is not as in your face. this dries to a satin finish.

Next up is Red-y To Rave and Let the Beat Drop.

Red-y To Rave is a bright red/orange coral neon with coverage rivaling a creme. It is super bright and unique. It dried to a satin finish.

Let the Beat Drop is a neon glitter suspended in a clear base. I returned Point Me To The Party due to lack of assistance from China Glaze (they did not respond to me when I contacted them regarding the bleeding of glitters in the polish). I am hoping that the glitters in this one don;t bleed overtime as well, is consists of orange pink and purple neon glitters of various sizes.

Below are swatches of my haul:

And another one of me recreating Point Me To The Party by layering Let The Beat Drop over Can I Get An Untz, Untz. That was a mouthful!

 

I will be layering this combo over white very soon!

Bright Colour Block

I have a fun and bright mani refresh of China Glaze Japanese Koi. It was starting to wear a bit at the tips after about three or four days as I still light the bright shade on my nails, so I covered it up with another China Glaze, Papaya Punch.

Papaya Punch is a yellow based orange creme. It is not a neon, however it is still bright! It is a nice contrast to Japanese Koi. I used some striping tape to mark off about a third of my nail and applied one generous coat of Papaya Punch to the top of the nail. Shortly after application, about a few seconds, I used tweezers to help me quickly remove the thin strip of tape from the nail to get a clean, sharp line.

I added a generous coat of Seche Vite over top with a soft hand to avoid and smudging. I am quite pleased with it and do not want to take it off!

Flashback Friday

What a blast from the past this shade is! I was searching through my collection to find a bright neon to wear and found this, China Glaze Japanese Koi. I remember the first time I ever spotted this polish, I was in a salon for my first ever pedicure and picked out this shade. "China Glaze" I read to myself, never seen this polish at the drug store before...

Japanese Koi, I love the name by the way, is a bright neon orange that lean on being a jelly. The formula is thin an manageable and applied very well. It is on the sheer side, especially on the first coat and it almost appears to have more pink in it than orange, but it definitely builds up to orange in the end. I used a total of three coats over Deborah Lippmann, All About That Base, hoping it would help to eliminate viable nail line, but it is still slightly there, nothing to noticeable though. Especially in direct sunlight when the orange is pretty much blinding!

It has been wearing quite well for a neon, especially a China Glaze neon. just some minor tip wear after 4 days. I have never tried this one over a white base, but may try it out next time for full coverage and any even brighter pop... if that is even humanly possible!

Happy Halloween ^_^

Happy Halloween!

I just love the whole month of October because to me it is basically a whole month centred around Halloween. I mean, who didn't love halloween as a child? Dress-up and free candy? I would be down for that every day of the year! 

It's funny though, ever since going vegan I have rethought a lot of my food choices and aside from the obvious (meat, dairy and eggs) I don't include white sugar or high fructose corn syrup in my life and if it's presented, I try to avoid it as much as possible. That being said I have still found so many fun ways to create delicious and healthy Halloween treats that I enjoy even more that my old favourites! So many things to love about Halloween, horror movies, PUMPKINS and of course, fun nails.

For Halloween I decided I wanted something classic, meaning black and orange. I used an unexpected favourite of mine from last year, China Glaze Bump in the Night. This is an opaque black textured polish. I love how it looks like dirt or asphalt. I applied this to my pinky and middle fingers. I did the reverse of this on my right hand.

To the rest of my fingers I applied 2-3 thin to medium coats of Maybelline Color Show in Dotty. Another unexpected favorite! My boyfriend talked me in to trying this one out. I told him I was going to leave it and he said, and I quote; " you can't leave it, it's so cool i'm going to get it for you". What a guy :)

In the bottle, Dotty looks like a rusty orange, but on the nail it is the perfect pumpkin orange. The orange jelly base is thin and the black and white matte glitter is dense. I had no issues with application, but I must warn you to be patient with application. I was getting impatient and decided to add thicker coats to a few nails, and although not very visible, it did cause some small bubbling to occur.

All and all I am super happy with this mani and my October. Lots of fun was had this month at haunted houses, watching scary movies, making awesome treats, hay rides and a pumpkin patch!

Fave Halloween Polishes 2014

Halloween is quickly approaching, I just can't wait for Friday! Today I  have a short list of my all time favorite Halloween themed polishes... this year anyways! Every October I go through my stash and go through all the Halloween shades I have. Here are some of the polishes I cannot get enough of in the month of October. For previous swatches of these polishes, click on the polish name in the title.

China Glaze Its Alive

A deep green jelly base saturated with bright lime green glitter in various sizes. The deeper base makes the glitter appear to be darker. Such a great shade, China Glaze has amazing green polishes for Halloween.

Sally Hansen Pumpkin Spice

The perfect Halloween shade must include orange and black! Pumpkin spice is made up of a murky black jelly base and coper orange glitter. At first I didn't see the hype over this polish, but I was in love the first time I wore it. And yes, I have two bottles, it's that awesome! I needs about three thin coats for full opacity, but it is well worth it for the final outcome.

Orly, Monster Mash

A slimy green jelly base jam packed with green and holo glitter of various sizes. This polish is so awesome! My favorite of Orly's Halloween collection from 2012. I actually layered this over It's Alive for Halloween in 2012!

China Glaze Boo-gie Down
This is the newest favorite to my list, I purchase it last year at the end of the Halloween season.
I just recently wore this as an accent in a Halloween themed mani last week. There is a lot going on in the bottle, matte black (various sized hex and bar glitter) and white glitters with a sprinkling of gold and copper hex glitter. Such a great mix for Halloween. I love it over a sheer nude, super classy, and the formula is awesome! Super easy to apply with great coverage as a topper at one coat.

What are your favorite colours and polishes to wear during the month of October?