Neon Grunge

Sorry this post is kinda late but I just got back from my fitness class.  Luckily this mani was already done so I just have to whip of the post.  (:

I was inspired by Sarah of Chalkboard Nails' distressed nail art tutorial, specifically her neon version.  Instead of using a black creme polish over the neons, I used OPI Spotted which has failed me once again.

If you all happened to see a guest post I did for Nail Polish Addiction awhile ago, I briefly explain the technique I used for the "radioactive" mani and how my OPI Spotted was a bust.  I used that same process this time except with neon shades in China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada (green), China Glaze Creative Fantasy (purple), Color Club Lava Lamp (orange), Sinful Colors Pink (pink), Ulta Blue Streak (blue), and of course a white base - Zoya Purity.  I applied OPI Spotted and I can't say it was a complete fail.  I mean, it did separate but the colors were not as visible as I would have liked so I dipped a cotton swab in acetone and gently removed or smeared some of the black to create that grungy look.

Thanks to Sarah for making a great tutorial eventhough I didn't follow it to a tee.  lol I really enjoy both versions of this mani and I hope you all do too.  Let me know what you think in the comments below!

7 Days of Halloween - Day 6

OMG Halloween is tomorrow.  I'm sad I don't get to dress up either.  I have to work and last year they let us dress up (within reason) but this year they said no.  We can't even hand out candy to the kiddos.  Lame!  Anyway I do have a fun sugar skull mani to prepare.

These didn't come out exactly as I'd hoped but they're not bad for being sorta rushed.  I don't remember the colors I used either.  lol Sorry!  I just remember that I wanted to chose fun neon colors for the flowers around the eyes.  The mouths are pretty rough (lol) but I did what I could.  I definitely want to recreate these in the future to really perfect the sugar skull designs and maybe add more detail.  I feel like my nails are too short though.  Wah!

Darling Diva Erotic City and Wild Child

Just as promised I have swatches of the other two Darling Diva polishes that I received from the maker Carrie.  Can you believe I had to swatch them twice?  The first time I forgot to hold the bottle.  I know that seems minor but I like my photos to be consistent so, of course, that did not stand.  lol  I think my other swatches were better but it's kinda hard NOT to make polish look good when it's just as gorgeous on it's own.  So true!

First up is Erotic City.  You may remember this from my 31DC2013 post for galaxy nails where I used it as my base.  I think it looks like a galaxy even without all of the nail art on top.  Erotic City is a deep purple jelly base filled with holo micro glitter and blue opalescent hexagonal glitters.  When I first put it on, it looked like clear glitter, as if the color had bleed.  I was really sad about it until I put my hand closer to the light and that's when the blue really shined so definitely no bleeding.  I know you can see every inch of it in these photos.  I used three coats just to get rid of my VNL and the formula was a bit thick but very manageable.  

Next is my second favorite out of the four I received, Wild Child.  I mean how can you not love a rainbow glitter polish?  The base is clear but I chose to layer two coats over a grey (Julep Meryl) because I always love the contrast between neutral and neon.  The base on Wild Child is clear and there are so many different glitters in here like large pink hexes, medium blue hexes, small green hexes and squares, small pink squares, and then pink and green tiny glitter.  There is definitely a good distribution of the larger glitters so you don't have to fish them out too many times.  I think out of the two coats on each nail I only had to fish out one of them.  All the glitter seems to lay flat to my nail except the large ones but I do have pretty curved nails.  On my thumb and people with wider nails there would be no problem.

I really think these are amazing.  Carrie is such a lamb for sending these to me.  If you like what you see you can purchase them from Darling Diva's Etsy Store for just $9.00.  She also has a new collection so don't forget to check it out.  Have a great night!

Color Club Lava Lamp

Good Evening!  Today on the blog is super hot creme to go along with the super hot weather today.  

Here I have Color Club Lava Lamp which is such a Summer-y color.  Lava Lamp is a blinding neon orange creme that dries semi-gloss as most neons do.  I used three coats for this swatch to get full opacity.  The formula was a tad on the thick side but not unmanageable.  It was also a bit streaky and had some bald spots but it builds up nicely and the three coats helped smooth out those flaws.

I know I said I was ready for Fall, but it's always nice to post a season-appropriate manicure.  lol  Have a great night!

Tribal Stamped Mani

Happy Saturday Everyone!  Today I have a pretty fun mani for you all.  It's a little different from my usual mani.  Jacki from Adventures in Acetone mentioned in a conversation that she wanted to use some of Target's swimwear as inspiration.  With that being said, I had to try it myself.  This is the one I found and HERE is the link.

*7.21 UPDATE: THIS is the link to Jacki's Target swimsuit post.  I got to see it before she posted to her blog today.  Enjoy!*

Not only do I love this as a mani, but I want to own this swimsuit as well.  I love the design and the simple color choice.  Yeah.  I need it.

So there you have it.  I know on the swimsuit the tribal goes across and not the green but I stamped this so I couldn't figure out how to make that happen.  lol Even still I loved this mani so much I wore it for a good 3 days or so.  I started with the white base coat and then I did the stamping first using a sparkly black polish.  The stamp is curved on my middle and ring fingers because it's a design that is meant for a "funky french" mani.  For the other two, I just taped off my nail in a diagonal and used the same design.  Then I applied my neon green over the remaining white and done.

It was a lot simpler than I thought it would be.  Of course if I had freehanded the tribal design, it would have been more difficult and it also would have turned out sloppy.  I know that from past designs I've attempted.  lol

WHAT I USED:
Sally Hansen White Tip - white base
BBCouture Dark Knight - black
China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard - green
Bundle Monster plate bm-219

Heart Stamps

Hey Everyone!  I'm not feeling very well today so I decided to skip Water Marble Wednesday.  Maybe I'll do one for you all tomorrow for July 4th...maybe.  I just don't really feel up to doing anything except sleeping, but unfortunately I still have to go to work.  However, I did manage to dig out this cute heart stamped mani.  Let me know what you think?

For this mani, I used 3 coats of a super streaky white.  Ugh!  It was all I had within arms reach.  lol Then I just chose 3 fun colors for the "drawn heart" stamp.  Enjoy!

WHAT I USED:
NYC French White Tip - white
Sinful Colors Pink - neon pink
China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard - neon green
Hard Candy Beetle - shimmery heart
essence Stampy plate and stamper - bought it at Ulta for $3.49

Water Marble Wednesday

Hooray for another Water Marble Wednesday!  I decided to do a random pattern on each nail.  I didn't even use the colors in the same order for each nail either.  They came out looking like neon wood grain to me.  lol You tell me what you think.

Oh and why did I add a bow?  I really don't know.  It was a better idea in my head and then it was stuck once I decided that it wasn't anymore.  Oh well!

WHAT I USED:
white base
Orly Oh Cabana Boy - pink
Color Club Lava Lamp - orange
popBeauty Loud Lime - green
Milani Blue Print - blue striper polish
China Glaze Creative Fantasy - purple

Tye-Dye Stamping

At least that's what I'm calling it.  I haven't seen this technique too much through the other nail blogs, but I have seen it.  Basically I couldn't decide what color to use so I used them all.  (:

This was my first attempt.  I think the tye dye effect came out just the way I wanted it to but the stamping didn't quite work for me.  I'm not the best stamper in the first place.  I used a bright green, neon orange, and blue polish over a baby pink.  I really loved how all the colors worked together but again, the stamping job is so sad.

So my second attempt came out much better BUT the tye dye effect didn't quite work.  However I did get tons of compliments today so it can't be all bad right?  Once I was finished and happy with how it all came out, I used a matte top coat to make the color really pop and it did.

WHAT I USED:
China Glaze White on White - white
popBeauty Loud Lime - green
Color Club Lava Lamp - orange
Ulta Blue Streak - blue
Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love
Bundle Monster plate bm-214

I hope you all love it as much as I do.  I'll definitely be doing this technique in the very near future until I get it perfect.  You may have also noticed that I changed my watermark this time around.  I'll be playing with it a little more until I get it just the way I want it so don't be surprised if it's different tomorrow.  lol

China Glaze Blue Sparrow and Nail Foils

Yes I'm double posting today.  lol I just did not want my only post today to be a somewhat negative review. That doesn't make for a Sunday Funday does it?  I wanted to do something super bright and fun just because.  I also haven't used this polish yet.  Well sort of.  Funny story...I know I've told you all differently but this is actually my first China Glaze polish ever (I said it was In the Lime Light), but I didn't like it once it was on the nail wheel so I took it back for an exchange.  Now here I am 2 years later searching everywhere for it.  I'm so glad I found it.

Here I have 3 coats of China Glaze Blue Sparrow which is a definite neon so it dried matte.  I'm not a big fan of blue but this is super pretty.  It's actually darker IRL so it's like a cobalt blue with neon blue micro glitter.  There also is no visible nail line IRL either.  The flash just shows it all.  

I added my essence Gel-look topcoat to really bring out the sparkle.  I noticed that each coat of Blue Sparrow dries super quick, but you should still wait a minute between coats because I did get some dragging and bald spots on my second coat.  I know this used to be part of China Glaze's core line but then I found it on clearance at Sally's for $2.99 so it may not be anymore.  

Anyway, I have been wanting to use my nail foils again from Dollar Nail Art.  I think I bought 6 or 7 of them.  They are super cool.  I did a tutorial awhile back which you can view HERE on how to apply them.  They have over 100 different designs and each one is $1.00 just like everything on their site.

This is my favorite photo btw.  Anyway,  I decided to apply the glue in random spots over my dry polish.  After it dried I just started sticking the foils on in random spots until all the glue was covered.  The designs I used are called Leopard, Ocean Mist, and Laser Optics.

You have to be careful about what top coat you apply because it can mess with the foils and wrinkle them up.  I noticed that the Laser Optics (purple) and the Leopard foils didn't react at all to the top coat, but the Ocean Mist wrinkled up.  The site says these wrinkles will smooth out but that's not the case.  It says not to use a quick dry (like Seche Vite) or super shine top coat directly over the foils so I used a gel top coat and then Seche Vite.  I really think it's just the one foil (Ocean Mist) that is reacting weirdly because I've never had an issue with this top coat combo over foils before.

I am super duper in love with this mani.  It was so easy and since I did random spots, each nail is different than the next.  I think on my other hand I'm going to try and do a pattern with using the same polish and foils.  I'll let you know how it goes.  (:

Rainbow Gradient?! Yes, Please!

Yes you read it right!  I have a full on rainbow on my nails tonight.  I have been wanting to do a vertical gradient for awhile but I didn't just want to do the same colors on each nail so I decided to use them all.  I mean, why not?!  Rainbows are fun!

Here it is!  It's super bright and I love it.  I think it's so fun and quirky...like me!  I don't really think I need to explain how I did it seeing as how almost everyone knows how to create a gradient by now.  I didn't do the sponge method though.  I just did it using the polish brushes.

As you can see some of the colors didn't blend as well as I had hoped like neon green and teal blue on my middle finger, but whatever!  You can't tell me that it looks bad.  lol  I did this entire mani over a white base if you were wondering how they all got so bright.  I had too since three of them are jellies.

Are you ready for the list of polishes I used?  It's long.  There are ten of them.  The reason for there being ten is that I used all these same polishes on my toes (which you will see below so if you don't like feet then don't read any further than the polish list) for an ombrè pedicure. 

WHAT I USED:
Orly Oh Cabana Boy - pink
popBeauty Ablaze - neon orange
OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear? - orange
Spoiled Did I Dye It Too Blonde? - yellow
China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard - lighter neon green
China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada - darker neon green
butterLONDON Slapper - teal
China Glaze Blue Sparrow - blue
China Glaze Creative Fantasy - darker purple
China Glaze Señorita Bonita  - lighter purple

Next is my pedi pic...look away if you aren't a foot person (who really is a foot person though).  I promise they aren't bad.  (:

Thanks for checking in tonight.  I had so much fun doing this mani and you better believe I'm going to stamp over this.  lol

Orly Hot Shot Revisited

So today was a good day and then it wasn't anymore.  I thought I was okay, but I'm not really.  So I'll just give you a quick post tonight.

Orly Hot Shot is a super punchy pink crelly.  It's showing up a lot darker than it is, but I couldn't get it to come out.  It's a little more pink then it's showing, but it's just as neon.  I used 3 coats for full opacity.

Sorry I'm not more into it, but I hope you all understand.  /:

Pinterest Week Day 7/Sat-ART-day Mani

Today is a multi purpose post.  I knew when I started Pinterest Week that I may have to skip The Crumpet's Sat-ART-day mani.  I just couldn't have that happen so I tried to find something that I pinned that could work for The Crumpet's 60s Inspired theme as well, and I did!!

Day 7: The Sugar Cube
MY PIN HERE
ORIGINAL POST HERE

WOW!  Talk about bright, ya know?  Yeah so I thought for the Sat-ART-day theme (60s Inspired) I would do tie dye!  This was my very first time doing a needle marble, but I think I nailed it.  LOL...nailed it.  I'm so lame.  Anyway, when I think of the 60s, I think Woodstock, psychedelic colors, MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR.  I should have been this age in the 60s.  

I got the inspiration from Erin of The Sugar Cube blog.  She used different colors than I did and she did her needle drags horizontally, but I thought doing them vertically on my nails worked better and it was a lot easier for a first-timer.  I also thought the neon colors worked well with the 60s theme.

WHAT I USED:
Zoya Charisma - magenta
Sinful Pink -  neon pink
Color Club Lava Lamp - orange
Spoiled Did I Dye It Too Blonde? - yellow
China Glaze  Kiwi Cool-ada - green

I had a lot of fun with this needle marble so I will definitely be doing it again.  Back to the Sat-ART-day part...Don't for get to check out everyone else's 60s manis below.

I hope you all enjoyed Pinterest Week.  I had a blast recreating the manicures that I've had pinned for so long.  This was a really great excuse for me to do them and also to get nail art practice.  I will be sure to keep it up.  Have a wonderful Saturday, and if you decide to recreate any of these manis let me know.  I love seeing how other polish addicts interpret nail designs.

Color Club Wicked Sweet Minis

Hello Everyone!

I'm alive!  I'm sure you would have never guessed.  lol I am still in the process of moving to my new place so posting is not high on my list of priorities.  That's sad.  Anyway, I have a fun mini collection for you today.  It's the Summer 2011 Color Club Wicked Sweet Collection AND they are scented!  I know a lot of people who aren't crazy about scented polish, but I love it.  I love scented everything actually.  Scratch 'n' Sniffs are the best!

Again these are only minis so there are only 4 however, I don't think I would have worn the others anyway (except for that orange).
This is the full collection...

...and these are mine!

First up is Get Your Lem-on.  It is a slight sheer neon yellow base with amazing blue micro shimmer.  I had to use three coats over my natural nail.  Over white I'm sure I could have got away with one or two thin coats.  This one smells like lemons (obviously) but more like lemon scented cleaner and not so much the fruit.  The color is definitely better than the scent.

Here we have Yum Gum which is my ultimate favorite of the whole collection.  Not just the minis, but ALL of them.  I love how shocking of a neon pink it is, but I just wish it were as bright in photos as it is in real life.  You would freak over how blinding it is.  I actually don't own a pink neon in this shade.  It is a creme that was a little thick but very easy to apply and was self-leveling.  I only needed two coats.  The smell of this would be like heaven for a kid.  It smells like straight up Bubble Yum!  I love Bubble Yum!

I know I had no say over this one coming in the package, but I'm still disappointed in myself for even owning it.  If you come her often you may have seen me post about how I own several, and way too many, of this color.  I don't even really like this color, but what are ya gonna do?  It was out of my control.  It is called Gimme a Grape Big Kiss and it's SUPPOSED to smell like grape, but I have yet to experience that.  It still smells like nail polish.  Even the swatch on the nail wheel does.  So anyway, this is a neon fuschia creme and I used three coats.  The formula was a little thicker than I would have liked but not unmanageable.

Lastly is the collections name sake, Wicked Sweet.  I love this one a lot too.  It is the same color as an LA Colors mini polish I had once and I used it all up.  I never really tried to look for another one, but I'm glad I happened to find this one.  I don't want to say it again so I'll just say the color is the blue twin of Get Your Lem-on, blue shimmer and all.  The formula on this one was much better than the LA Colors polish and I only needed two coats.  This one also has another heavenly smell, in my opinion, because it's like candy.  It smells like blue raspberry!  mmm!

So eventhough this is a Summer collection from last year, it's still one of the best I think.  What do you all think?
D