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.