Neon Week Nail Art: Neon Galaxy

Today's neon look almost hurts my eyes it is so bright! I think that is a good thing, it being Neon Week and all. If you missed previous Neon Week posts you can find them here: Neon Mist (Day 1), Monochrome Arrows (Day 2), and Neon Rainbow Flowers (Day 3). Today, I have something I don't think I have seen all that often if at all: neon galaxy nails! I have done galaxy nails before, one was quite popular and another for the #hepicksmypolish challenge, but both were more conventional types. I have seen a ton of pastel galaxies which I have been wanting to try, but then I thought, why not make it neon? So this kind of looks like a radioactive galaxy and all I can think about is that song Strange Clouds, but I think it is pretty cool. This was the most difficult to photograph so far. The neon is a little out of control here!

Neon Week Nail Art: Neon Rainbow Flowers

Neon Week is going by very quickly! If you missed day one or two you can see them here: Neon Mist (Day 1) and Monochrome Arrows (Day 2). Day 2 also had a tutorial, so be sure to check that out. For today's look I was inspired by the way that Oh My Gosh Polish did her Rainbow Abstract Dab and I wanted to re-create the underlying color. She is amazing and she posts YouTube videos daily and sometimes more than once daily! She seems like such a sweet lady too. Definitely go check her out. She used a dry brush technique which is one that I love! I ended up with a dry brushed rainbow as a base and then I stamped over it! I used China Glaze White On White to make the neons pop. Then I started with Color Club Warhol at the base of my nail and feathered it out far enough to create an orange blend between it and Orly Glowstick. Then I feathered Glowstick out enough to create a green with it and Color Club Chelsea Girl, and finally feathered that out and blended it with Color Club Mrs. Robinson. All of the Color Clubs are from the old Poptastic Collection. I then stamped with plate D14 from the Born Pretty Store and used Wet N Wild Black Creme.

Neon Week Nail Art (and TUTORIAL): Monochrome Arrows

Day 2 of Neon Week! If you missed day one, you can see my Neon Mist post here. So, today I have one of those designs that started as one thing in my head, but evolved into something else when I actually sat down to do it. I think it was a good thing in this case. I started with a base color of Orly Ablaze which is a bright sparkly orange and part of their summer Baked Collection. After that I painted a thick stripe down the middle of Color Club Warhol from their old Poptastic Collection. I think they re-launched the Poptastic Collection recently. Lastly, I used a striping brush to paint a boarder line on either side of the pink stripe and then I decided to add some chevrons (arrows). I used China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy for the stripes and chevrons and topped it all off with Glisten & Glow's topcoat HK Girl. I am really excited, because I actually did a little pictorial tutorial for you! I added it at the end of my post.

Neon Week Nail Art: Neon Mist

I am happy to start day one of NEON WEEK! I wanted to create something kind of like Shark Week on Discovery Channel for my blog and I decided on neon nail designs for summer! Who knows, maybe it will one day be as popular as Shark Week. Today is the first day, so be sure to bookmark my blog, follow on social media, and come back every day for a new design! For today's nail art design, I am calling it Neon Mist. I wasn't sure what else to call it. It reminds me of neon clouds or the Indian color festival Holi. I used several polishes: Blue- Color Club Chelsea Girl, Green- China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener, Yellow- Orly Glowstick, Purple/Pink- Color Club Mrs. Robinson, Orange/Yellow- China Glaze Sun Worshiper, and China Glaze Fairy Dust. I also used a white base color (China Glaze White On White. After the white base dries, I blobed on all of the colors on each nail and lightly placed a plastic bag over the nail while all the colors are still wet. I use my finger to lightly spread the colors under the plastic if needed. Remove the plastic and you are left with a bright design on your nails! I finished it with Fairy Dust and top coat. 

Neon Week Starts Tomorrow!

A new design every day of the week Monday, July 28th through Sunday, August 3rd. Check back every day so you don't miss a single design!

Born Pretty Store Review: Nail Stamp Plate QA 90

Press Sample

I have another Born Pretty Store review for you today! The Born Pretty Store has tons of nail stamping plates. One of which I bought myself and shared in my Turquoise Stamping post. I decided to try QA90, which has this interesting spike design along with some other interesting elements. I really liked the look of that spike design, but I ended up using the filigree look for today's mani. I used a base color of Sephora Formula X in Zing and stamped with Sally Hansen White On. In the last photo I used Mentality Pop as a base and Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme for stamping.

Swatch and Review of Mentality: Pop, Legislate, and Fervor

I have another indie brand to share today! Do you all love indies as much as I do? I feel like I have been promoting indies a lot lately, but that is because I love the idea of supporting a small business. I feel like I can relate more to them. Don't get me wrong, I love my mainstream brands, but indies are pretty amazing too. Today I have Mentality Nail Polish in Pop, Legislate, and Fervor. I had never tried the brand before, but when they recently had an amazing sale, I had to pick up a few. 

Swatch and Review of KB Shimmer: Laugh Myself Lily

I have a great swatch and review for you today of KB Shimmer Laugh Myself Lily. Oh my goodness guys. I can't tell you how excited I was to receive my first KB Shimmer polishes in a gift exchange. Seriously, I have been loving every KB Shimmer polish I've seen in other swatches all over social media. I received three! I literally fell in love with them as soon as I saw them. I may have shrieked a little when opening the package. Laugh Myself Lily was released in the spring of this year. For those of you who don't know, KB Shimmer is a larger indie brand that specializes in glitter packed polishes with great coverage and unique shades. 

Swatch and Review of Pure Ice: Laven-Dare

Happy Friday! I hope you had a great week. I am carrying the trend from my last post and sharing with you another soft shade. Today I have swatches and review of Pure Ice Laven-Dare. I have no idea if this is a new color or not. Wal-Mart is the only place to buy this and the displays at mine are terrible! I'm lucky if the polishes are in the right section. Laven-Dare looks like a slightly dusty lavender. In some lights it seemed to pull a little blue, but it definitely looks lavender in these photos. I used two easy coats for full opacity. 

The Perfect, Creamy, Soft Pink: Zoya Dot

Hello! Today I have a very lovely soft, baby pink to share with you! I have swatches and a review of Zoya Dot. Zoya Dot is part of their Spring Awaken Collection and is available for purchase on their website. For the photos below, I applied three coats. Two coats are probably sufficient, but I wanted to be sure I had full coverage and no visible nail line. 

Swatch and Review of Sinful Colors: Peppered Amazon and Let's Meet

Today I have two Sinful Colors polishes that I have swatched and reviewed for you. I have Peppered Amazon and Let's Meet. I think Peppered Amazon is a new summer color, but I don't think that Let's Meet is new. They are both bright, summery colors that stood out to me in the store and looked unlike anything else I had. Let's Meet (yellow) is up first.

Nail Art: Chevrons with Street Art and Nail Studs

I have a fun and different (for me) combination to share today! I'm finding that I don't actually own that many glitter polishes, but when I saw the unique Maybelline Color Show Street Art collection, this blue and black glitter combo caught my eye. It is called Nighttime Noise. I wanted to showcase it in this mani. I started with a white base, I used Pure Ice Superstar here and on my pointer and pinky fingers added triangle shaped studs from the Born Pretty Store (use my code: HANDX31 for 10% off). I then used Nail Vinyls and painted Sinful Colors Black on Black on my thumb, middle, and ring fingers. 

Swatch and Review of Pop Beauty: Loud Lime

Is summer all about neons for you? I go through phases of obsessing over neon colors and today I have a gorgeous one for you! I have Pop Beauty Loud Lime to share today! I have never tried this brand but have heard really great things from other bloggers. Loud Lime is just that, a bright lighter green shade. It definitely looks neon indoors and out. I started with a white base for these photos but on my other hand didn't use a white base and I didn't notice a difference at all.

Nail Art: Turquoise Stamping

I have been eyeing stamping plate QA88 from the Born Pretty Store for a little while now, so I decided to order it! It was only $2.99 plus 10% off (code: HANDX31) and free shipping! It is a great plate that has a ton of different types of designs you can use to stamp on your nails! I used a base of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and stamped with Julep Celia.

Nail Art: Pacific Blue Glitter Gradient

So, I wan't sure if I wanted to share this look with you today. I wouldn't call this a successful manicure. I had a difficult time getting the gradient to look right for some reason, probably because I was creating this look for a purpose. Sally Hansen recently changed the formula on a well loved polish called Pacific Blue, but are still marketing the new color/formula as Pacific Blue. From what I gather, it seems similar to Blueberry Blast, which I reviewed a little while ago. I didn't buy the new formula because it seemed so similar. The problem is the new formula takes several coats more and is a much darker shade with shimmer. Regardless, getting rid of a cult classic color just seems wrong to me. I collaborated with a large group of other nail polish fanatics to create this awesome collage! Can you pick mine out?

June Mani Favorites!

Just a quick post today. Before the month of June is too far gone, I wanted to share with you my monthly favorite nails! I don't think I have done this type of post before, but I usually post my monthly mani favorites to instagram. I thought, why not share them here as well?

Swatch and Review of Deborah Lippmann: Swagga Like Us

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! I'm glad it was sunny and beautiful where I live! I have a simple swatch to share with you today, one that I have actually had but forgot to share from quite a while ago. Remember this look? I loved the base color so much I had to take separate pictures before I added my nail art. This is Deborah Lippmann Swagga Like Us. My husband bought this for me for Christmas, and it is literally one of my favorite polishes. You know how I love glowy polishes, and this one definitely glows! It is a duochrome that shifts from gold to green. 

Nail Art: Fourth of July Designs

Patriotic nails galore! I have been seeing a ton of patriotic nails for the Fourth of July and I am going to add mine in as well. I did one yesterday that I loved, but wasn't overtly patriotic. These today are meant for Independence Day. I used the same red, white and blue for all of these designs. I used Ruffian: Ruffian Red for the red which is exclusively sold at Birchbox. I actually have the classic colors set (along with some others), but it doesn't appear to be available at the moment. For the blue, I used Sinful Colors Into the Blue, which is amazing! It really is a perfect navy blue. It has a weird scent, but the coverage and gorgeous color help me get over the scent. For the white, I have actually been liking my China Glaze White On White. I know in the past I have said I don't like it, but something about it has changed my mind. It is a little thinner than other whites I have, maybe in the warm weather, it has thickened slightly and now I love it. I love how I have a range of drugstore to high end brands here! 

Nail Art: Patriotic Roses

I have an exciting mani to share today! Patriotic Roses! I recently went to a meet up with other nail polish lovers in my area and we talked about doing "Portland/Fourth of July" themed nails. Since Portland is the Rose City I combined that with the fourth of July colors and created this. I used my nail vinyls for the first time, which was really exciting! I used so many polishes here:

1. Essie- Aruba Blue

2. Sinful Colors- Snow Me White

3. Essie- First Timer

4. Color Club- Wild Cactus

5. OPI-Quarter of a Cent-Cherry

6. Ruffian- Ruffian Red

7. Nika K- Red

8. Essie- Head Mistress

Phew, seriously that was a ton of polish! I also used a red acrylic, because I realized part way through that all of my reds are very similar in tone. Oh well, here is the final look: