EDC Nails! Neon gradient with randon black stripes :)

I listen to mostly Top 40 music with a smattering of more popular EDM (electronic dance music) thrown in. Lately EDM is all I've been listening to, although now I'm on a classical music kick. My tastes varies, I can listen to most anything.

EDC Las Vegas is coming up this weekend and I have a few friends (from all over!) going. I know they're going to have a great time, and one of them asked for EDC nails and I said of course! I didn't quite know what I wanted to do, except that maybe it'd be more complicated. I haven't done "complicated" nail art in a while. A looong time. This is what I came up with.

I did neon gradient with random black stripes :) I used all China Glaze neons.

Thumb, middle finger and pinky are: Pool Party (neon pink), Towel Boy Toy (neon blue), Kiwi Cool-ada (neon green). I also put a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over the top of these nails.

Index and ring finger are (these really didn't come out in the pictures): Flip Flop Fantasy (hot neon coral), Sun Worshiper (neon orange), Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (neon highlighter yellow).

I love how these came out. For the gradients I used a cosmetic wedge sponge, painted stripes of the colors and dabbed it on. I use random placement of striping tape and just used my go to black, American Apparel Hassid over.

Only pain in the butt part was the fact that I used neons, which aren't the most opaque nail polishes to begin with. I did use a base coat of white but it only helped a little. I tried to minimize smudging (maybe one day!) but I'm happy with how the lines came out.

If you're going to EDC Las Vegas, I hope you have fun, safe time! Have a great weekend everyone!

Neon stripe tape mani

I'm a big fan of tape manis - they're such a great way to get perfect crisp geometric designs! I did a watercolour mani with neon colours a while ago (which comes with a rare tutorial), and before I took it off I created a striped pattern with striping tape, using a black creme (aka neon's BFF that keeps it from turning Barbie):

Excuse the cuticle flooding - annoyingly the new ulta3 brushes are stiff and unwieldy, and I did this before I realised that the old brush lids were compatible with the new bottles!

[Note: I am no longer involved in So Nailicious.]

Summer neon gradient with black and white glitter

One of my long-time lemmings was Lynnderella's Connect the Dots, so I was overjoyed when I found out that one of the many black and white glitters that followed in its wake was available in Australia. I layered Peita's Polish Zebration over a gradient of Darling Teenage Dream (pink) and Endota Spa Ephraim Island (soon to be renamed Paradise Point - neon yellow/green):

Teenage Dream is the first neon I've tried which is properly neon without white creme underwear - it only takes 2-3 coats as well, which is very impressive. Ephraim Island/Paradise Point is an interesting polish - one coat over white is neon yellow (the most neon yellow I've ever seen by the way - in person it sears your retinas!), but 4 coats on the bare nail is definitely neon green.

I'm so glad a similar polish has successfully killed off my HTF lemming - HTF lemmings are the worst!

China Glaze Electric Pineapple

China Glaze Electric Pineapple

I'm in utter denial that it's not summer anymore. Hence, a greenish neonish yellow. (It's just slightly greener in real life than in the photo.) Unfortunately, this polish was thin (I think we're looking at 4 or 5 coats up there), prone to cuticle drag, and then chipped in just a few days. Boo. Still, it was a nice little early fall pick-me-up.

Ulta 3 Mojito

This one comes courtesy of Labmuffin's giant parcel of joy. We didn't really give too many hints about what we liked, which as it turns out was a good thing, because she still managed to put together a package of exactly the kind of goodies I would buy for myself. Top of the list was this one - a really bright green with a slighty blue undertone, like Mint Candy Apple's more kick-ass sibling. Three coats, and it took some building up, but it was totally worth it.

Neon Hot! Essie Camera

In honour of how crazy hot it's been here in the South lately (and tons of other places), I thought I'd show you a neon. This colour captures very well the feeling I get when I walk out of my door and slam into a wall of blazing hot humidity.

Essie Camera (over OPI Alpine Snow)...

This is the only colour I picked up from the Essie Poppy Razzi (ughhhh what a name) collection. I don't wear neons on my fingers very often, but I ADORE colours like this on my toes in summer!

Do you wear neons? Tell me your favourites!

kittytokaren

THEME WEEK - My Favourite Neon

Ok, so I have a massive thing for corals. Yeah. Bright pink, fluoro barbie hues. It's a bit embarrassing, but hey, it's not the worst skeleton to have in one's closet, right?

I've somehow collected a palette of neon corals, so instead of just swatching one coral creme, I'd swatch a bunch which had "coral" in the name and try to justify why I need (yes, NEED) them all.

L to R:

Kim Nail Polish Miami Coral - This was the first of my corals, so it was obviously justified. I bought it from Cotton On while waiting in the queue, so it was a snap decision. It's a bit too pink though, and dries really slow, and smells like industrial paint.

ulta3 Sunset Coral - I bought this as a less stinky, quicker drying alternative, so obviously justified. This applies beautifully and was $2.50.

Hello Kitty Kawai Coral - I won this in a giveaway so it was basically forced upon me. You can't refuse free nail polish, especially in your favourite summer shade and from a brand you haven't tried yet. Justified.

Max Factor Diva Coral - Bought this in a sale for $0.50. Name brand polish for under $1 is always justified. Sample-sized bottles are always justified. DOUBLE WHAMMY JUSTIFIED.

Forefinger to pinky: Miami, Sunset, Kawai, Diva. For some reason, in the sun they actually all look different, and I think this could almost pass as an ombre mani. But in the shade, it's just a bit embarrassing how similar they all are.

OK, if you held a gun to my head and made me choose one, I'd probably go for ulta3 Sunset Coral (middle finger) - it's neon enough to be strictly summery, but orange enough to not be completely girly. But since that's never going to happen, they're ALL MINE. FOREVER. Yes. Ha. I win! The, uh, coral-collecting race. Yes. :\

THEME WEEK - My Favorite Neon :)

I admit, with my life being filled with glitters this past year, I haven't had time to look at neons. But I figured, with it being summer, I should give them a chance! So, this is pretty much the first neon I've almost ever tried (I'm sure) but I love it already! I went with the classic neon YELLOW. Nice, bright and obnoxious in a good way.

China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. Trust me, it's bright. And totally matches neon yellow highlighter. It's super lovely and bright and may I say, vivacious? I'm not sure if people were complimenting me when they would comment that it was REALLY bright, but I'll take it as such :P It was overcast when I took this picture but this just goes to show the true neon-ness of it.

And of course, the add on of glitter. I did one coat of Essence - Edward. I love the teal/green square glitters! The yellow and the green matched so well together, I loved looking at it.

edit: Sorry! I must have been half asleep when I wrote this post, it's China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini :)

THEME WEEK - My Favourite Neon!

As the weather gets warmer and warmer (in the Northern Hemisphere), we thought it was only fitting for the final Polish or Perish THEME WEEK to be showcase neons! Each day a PoP blogger will show you their fav retina-searing polish. Get your sunglasses out, kids!

FAVOURITE NEON WEEK

This is polish I usually reserve for my toes (in fact, it's on my tootsies right now!) but in the summer if I'm feeling frisky, I will bust this one out for a mani! In fact, it's the ONLY neon in my collection, and I'm quite attached to it! Essie Perky Purple...

Why yes, I do suck at photographing neons! I had to colour adjust a bit (*cough*somuchit'sridiculous*cough*) to try to get it to show up as it looks in real life, but trust me, it's a screamer! This may not be the only neon I own very soon, because I may be picking up one or two of the new Essie Poppy Razzi neon collection....

Do you wear neons? Just in summer or do you brave it in winter as well?

kittytokaren

Orly Fresh and Frisky (Happy Go Lucky, Fall 2011)

Some collections scream the season in which they are released. Spring sees a lot of pastels, summer brings out the neons, fall and winter sees a lot more muted shades and vampies, and holidays are often glitterbombs. Never in my life would I have looked at Orly's Happy Go Lucky collection and thought, "Hey, that reminds me of buying No. 2 pencils and a required gym uniform." 

Orly Fresh

This is green creme that has just a tad of jelly to give it the squishy finish. It is, like, a step or two below neon but stops short of it. The first layer makes it look like it'll apply somewhat thickly and unevenly but it looked perfect after only two coats.

Orly Frisky

Sky blue creme. Not as close to neon as Fresh. This one was a bit frustrating. Three coats, somewhat uneven application, and cuticle drag. 

OCC Beta (or "how not to make a polish")

Why "Beta"? Like beta carotene, like in carrots? Yes, it's carrot-colored... if carrots were made of neon and were radioactive.

OCC Beta

I love OCC nail polish. I think they do some of the most beautiful dark cremes: they apply "like buttah" and are long-lasting with a good bc/tc combo. So what on EARTH were they smoking over there when they made this polish?! Holy crap. Let's talk about the great things first: it's an awesome, amazing, gorgeous color: freakishly bright neon orange.

And that is all for the great things. Now the "meh, I can live with that" things: it was a bit hard to apply and took three coats to get even, despite that it's a pretty saturated color. Like most neons, it dries matte.

And now, the bad things. Or just one thing: IT WAS BUMPY. There were LUMPS of... something (maybe pigment?) in the nail polish. You could see the lumps on the brush... and you could definitely see it on the nail (and you can see it in the photo). And it was horrifying. I do not recall ever seeing a polish with lumps like that and I've seen many polishes. I don't even feel good about giving it away for free, it was such a turn-off of an experience.

Bumpy glitters = normal.

Bumpy cremes = not normal.

Illamasqua Elope

Illamasqua Elope, one of my favourite greens. I did four coats but three would have been absolutely fine to eliminate VNL if I hadn't been trying to do other things (like make tea) while polishing...needless to say coat four was mostly to cover up the mess that I made of coat three. Like most of these bright polishes it dries to a satin finish (it's not a proper matte, so I think it's kind of half way between a neon and a jelly in formulation) and the coats are quite liquidy, but dry fast. I love these kind of slightly squishy polishes.



Man, photographing polish with neon pigments in is such a PITA. It's impossible to capture the fact that this is simultaneously *bright*! and rich. If you imagine an emerald green amped up to the max, this is it. Kind of the green version of (blue) Nfu.Oh 497. I also award this points because I frankened a really awesome palm green from a 50:50 mix of this and rampage - I was trying to match Bunny's polish in the Big Lebowski and that franken was spot on. It's just a really fantastic polish, and always draws compliments. It was responsible for me getting a free doughnut in Krispy Kreme the last time I wore it, so a definite winner in my book.



TL/DR: this polish is responsible for doughnuts and geeky film frankens. Buy it.




Looks good under Barry M black crackle too. Anyone else thinking of teenage mutant ninja turtles?

Absolute Fuchsia

If there was ever a polish that makes me want to throw a scrunchie in my hair and dance to Debbie Gibson, this is it.



First of all, you must know that Absolute Fuchsia is NOT two things - 1) fuchsia or 2) as tame as the photo above. Absolute Fuchsia is a color-your-fingertips-with-pink-highlighters-during-study-hall pink, and it screams 1984 like nobody's business.

Not only does it shine like the sun itself, but it was a dollar store find in Pennsylvania last year and for a dollar, SIGN ME UP. I'd never heard of this brand before, have any of you tried any other colors in this brand?

Happy day, all!

Color Club Tangerine Scream & Volt of Light... I am in denial that summer is over!

A couple of polishes from Color Club's awesome ElectroCandy collection from a couple of years ago. It's an amazing collection of neons that have contrasting color shimmer. I found mine at Ross for $8.

Color Club Tangerine Scream

Take that, autumn! I defy you with three coats of neon orange with ridiculously bright shimmer!

Yeah, okay, I'll go do my homework now. Boo. Maybe one more swatch?

Color Club Volt of Light

Neon yellow with teal shimmer. This one is one of my favorite colors ever... except that this is five coats, possibly six. And is that VNL I see?! Still, it went on so thinly and smoothly that it wasn't painful at all to do all those layers, just a tad time consuming. Didn't take forever to dry either, surprisingly with all those layers! I wish I had gotten a shot of this outside rather than just in the lightbox.

OK, now I'll really go do my homework. It's my last quarter EVER with homework! After how many years of schooling? (13 K-12 + 4 college + 1 master's + 2 PhD = 20 years worth of homework... plus many summers worth of academic camps.)

Old NOTD: Illamasqua Rare

Neon yellow for the first day of June. Summer, you are so close!

Illamasqua Rare

Goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway): this is brighter in person. This is seriously the brightest polish I have ever worn: I was almost self-conscious about it. I felt like I should be directing air traffic with these things. Or spelunking and using my nails to light my way. (I kept holding my hands in dark places to see if they were actually glowing. OBVIOUSLY, they weren't... but I felt like they could.) This was one of the biggest PITA polishes I've ever applied that had one of the BEST payoffs. Four coats and a very thick topping of topcoat over the uneven mess that was this polish. But it is without a doubt the best highlighter yellow I've ever tried (I've tried around four). It's fairly pigmented for this type of yellow (even in four coats). As horrible as it was to apply... it's still worth the $14 (minus 15% off) I paid for it. To me anyway. I am so in love with this one. I just want to wave my hands around and direct pedestrians to safety.

Some miserable but beautiful yellows: Ciate Lemon Sherbert, Milani Totally 80s and Sally Hansen Expresso Yellow

I love yellows. I love buying them. I love forever being on the lookout for a great yellow. NONE of these yellows I am showing you today qualify as "great". Actually, they were all pretty miserable, application-wise. But they are so lovely!

Ciate Lemon Sherbert

Five coat misery. I was ready to throw this out the window at the fourth coat but persevered and it REALLY paid off. It's a lovely soft yellow and netted me a ton of compliments that day. Granted, I went outlet shopping that day and the saleswomen were all trying to sell me stuff but they could've complimented other things!

Milani Totally 80s over FingerPaints Papier Mache

There was no way this was going to get opaque in less than four coats so I went ahead and put a two layers of FingerPaints Papier Mache (a stark white) under it. Then I put three coats of the Milani on top of it. Still, I had yellow streaks on top of white streaks. So not sexy. The color was obviously brighter in person, as neons tend to dull when photographed. :(

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Expresso Yellow

I don't understand the name at all, besides that it rhymes. What really tweaks me is that Insta-Dri polishes are supposed to be one-or-two coaters and this one took six to become opaque AND non-streaky. Plus a LOT of topcoat to even it out. I'm actually cool with the Insta-Dri brush and generally am okay with the formula, but this was terrible. Looks fantastic and my nails are, like, hard as bone with it on... because there's like an inch of nail product on my nails right now.

Cheap thrills: Essence swatches

[Please help me with my research by completing my 15-20 minute survey! Go here for details: http://polishorperish.blogspot.com/2010/05/do-my-survey-and-enter-to-win-8.html. And after you've finished the survey, enter my giveaway for 8 polishes! Giveaway closes May 14th, 2010 @ 11:59PM EST.]

And now... polishes!

Not bad at all for 99¢ each. Not fabulous but not bad.

Essence Just in Case

Cool bronze metallic. Goopy, brushstrokey, three coats. Cheap and I'm not thrilled.

Essence Get the Fever

Bright orange creme. Three coats, went on sort of thick but ended up looking quite nice.

Essence Check Me Out

Near-neon green creme. Three coats, needed four. Except it was thick and I would've needed to wait for this to dry before putting on a fourth coat.

Essence Break Through

Color's more vibrant IRL: reddish purple creme. Wonderful polish: pretty much opaque in two coats. Now that's a great use of 99¢!

QuikPic: Color Club Chelsea Girl

I haven't done my nails in months. Months!

When I get busy with school all else goes by the wayside until I look like a defeated sasquatch. Slowly my makeup use starts to decline... and I'm no longer making sure my brows look good... Eventually, it's a good day if I brush my hair. :P (I am only partially kidding.)

Anyway, I have to admire the other girls for keeping up with their manis no matter how busy they are. I have never been in the practice of doing a daily NoTD (something that might change with my discovery of Seche Vite), in part because I typically like to take a while to do nail art, and I don't often wear a plain nail color. But after a month of bare hands and being bored... I figured something was better than nothing. And oh what a something I picked!

This is a really quick shot (with my phone's camera) of Color Club's Chelsea Girl, my first "full" Color Club polish and, I think, the first polish I want a backup of. There's something incredibly sophisticated about cremes, in my opinion, even bright (neon) blue cremes such as this. I cannot even explain how happy this color makes me...but my fingers and toes now feel divine. Perhaps it will inspire some work out of me. :P

In reality I think this color leans a bit more cerulean than is seen in the picture. But it was a quick shot without me changing any settings on my phone so I'll live with it. Application was streak free in three coats, but I did a fourth for extra measure. As with many neons it dries a bit matte but looks gorgeous with a topcoat (I chose Seche Vite) and sort of exhibits what I consider to be jelly-like qualities.

Anyway... I'm in love. Chelsea Girl and I are running away together. With a couple of fimo decals along for the ride. :)

P.S. My nails haven't been this short in forever. But I had a few really bad breaks (geocaching+logs+long nails=bloody hands) so... yeah. Rocking the short nails for a bit. Liking it though. :)

A really quick haul post...

Hey guys...

I haven't really been around in a while (though I do try to comment when I can) and aside from yesterday's "unrelated to polish" question, I don't feel I've been participating enough to call myself a blogger. I really, really can't wait til the semester is done (not simply because I would like to have time to blog again)... I feel I am well and truly sick of this year. :P

Anyway I just wanted to post a quick haul. The ladies of this blog (as well as several of our readers) have encouraged me to branch out from my usual China Glaze and so I have, as you'll see below. But there will always be room for my beloved China Glaze. :P

Pics courtesy of my Google Nexus One. (Yes, I have become "that" girl.) :s

OPI Shrek Minis

(What's With the Cattitude?; Fiercely Fiona; Rumple's Wigglin' and Who The Shrek Are You?)

Since Flinty has been awesome enough to provide you with some great swatches, (and inspire me to pick this up!) I won't have to do the honors. My only regret is that I didn't grab "Ogre The Top Blue". Still, I own no full bottles of OPI - yet. (And I'm not sure that I will if I can't buy it at a discount!) I couldn't pass up that green though. "Oh Em Gee!"

A plethora of Color Club blues. This explains why I am still on the hunt for the perfect green... all I buy is blue. :P

I happened, unknowingly, to throw in ChG's Towel Boy Toy during this haul and was surprised upon opening the package by how close these colors are in-bottle. Fellow blogger Nihrida has a great comparison of this and CC's Pure Energy, if you're interested.

 (Chelsea Girl; Emerald Depths; Sexy Siren; Pure Energy and Factory Girl)

Staples! (Well, Revvvolution is, anyway.)

I can never get over how awesome Revvvolution is in pictures. EVERYBODY who has ever posted a shot of this polish has made me want to try it.  It's more complex than gunmetal, I think. I liken it to tv static...just before the girl from The Ring crawls through my screen.

(Jackie Oh!; Revvvolution and Ultra Violet)

See you guys soon - I hope!

Upcoming: Fabuloustreet/Nfu Oh haul; some oldies but goodies (courtesy of the folks at China Glaze) and new nail art. :)

KOTD: Color Club Jackie OH! + Konad Plate M64

Hey everyone! We are officially up to 501 followers at the moment. Woohoo! Thank you to all of our readers, we wouldn't be here if not for you!

This is a Konad that I copied from Michelle at A Stroke of Color. I was feeling unoriginal on my own and I loved her Konad choice with the color, so I decided to be a copy cat. Here's how it turned out!

This is 3 coats of Jackie OH! (applied like buttah) plus Konad Plate M64 in Konad Black. I'm still trying to figure out how to align my images well.

Sunlight:



Half sun/shade:


Shade:



I'm having a pretty lame Sunday. I spent my whole weekend writing my final papers (all due next week - not this week, the following week - May 5 to be exact). I didn't get as much done as I wanted either. I have about 20 more pages to write and only about a week to do it. I can do that, right? *panics*

Thanks for reading!