31 Day Challenge: Day 10

Welcome back!

Today's Prompt: Gradient

We are a third of the way done! ...basically. I think of the last day as being so different, and so I just count the thirds as the 10th and 20th, and the half being the 15th!

White: Essie Blanc

Light Pink: Essie Groove is in the Heart

Dark Pink: Essie Coacha' bella

Purple: Essie All Access Pass

I chose three polishes for this today, all of them being from the Neons 2015 collection. I used a latex free cosmetic sponge for the gradient, as always. My only tricks for gradients can probably be found anywhere, but my first "trick" is using a white base coat. I always use white, no matter what color gradient I'm putting down. I feel like the colors show up perfectly true, then, and they blend better. My other trick is to put down a top coat before sponging on, and letting it dry. I use a fast drying top coat, and let it dry for about 10 minutes, and then I will sponge on my colors. When applying, I move from side to side, dabbing up and down, as well as moving up and down on my nail to blend a little better as needed.

Check back tomorrow for more nail art! <3

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge Roundup

Welcome back!

Today I just wanted to post a roundup of my nail art from the weekly nail art challenge!

My favorite of all of them was the gradient for sure. I really liked this challenge, because I was forced to do some nail art that I wouldn't typically do. I don't do watermarble very often, and I have never done a fishtail before. I also liked how it was all neon, so I was forced to use colors that I don't usually, which of course also gave me the excuse to buy the entire China Glaze Electric Nights collection... :)

Week 1: Half Moon

Week 2: Tribal

Week 3: Fishtail

Week 4: Gradient

Week 5: Watermarble

Thanks for reading <3

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Week 5, May 29

Welcome back!

Theme: Neon

Prompt: Watermarble

I finally completed this challenge!! I'm so happy with myself for sticking with it and finishing another challenge!!

White: White on White

Pink: Glow With the Flow

Yellow: Daisy Know My Name?

Orange: Home Sweet House Music

I'm terrible at watermarble. I really only had one nail that I liked, and that's my middle finger. I'm proud of myself for trying again, though! This was my 5th attempt at it. It does get better every time, do there's the positive!

I used Glisten & Glow CTRL-ALT-DEL latex barrier again instead of tape!!

Thanks for reading <3

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Week 4, May 22

Welcome back!

Theme: Neon
Prompt: Gradient

Today I have my gradient nails that I did for this week! This week, I again used all China Glaze, and the colors were all from the Electric Nights collection.

Green: Treble Maker
Blue: DJ Blue My Mind
Purple: Plur-ple
White: White on White

I started by painting my nails a white base. Then I put down CTRL-ALT-DEL latex barrier by Glisten & Glow around my nail to avoid getting polish on my nail when doing the gradient.

I next painted the colors in order on a latex free sponge, and then sponged it on to my nail. I repeated this process until it was opaque and dark enough and blended well. It was usually perfect in just two coats.

Once I was done with that, I just peeled it off, and cleaned up everything else that was left over!

Thanks for reading <3

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Week 3, May 15

Welcome back!

Theme: Neon

Prompt: Fishtail

I've never done a fishtail, so this was actually my second attempt at this, because it looked awul the first time! I really like the outcome though once I got the hang of it and figured out what to do better.

I used all China Glaze polishes for this and all but the white were from the new Electric Nights collection!

White: White on White

Yellow: Daisy Know My Name?

Orange: Home Sweet House Music

Blue: DJ Blue My Mind

I have several tips that I learned while doing this that really helped while trying to do it, especially when doing it with neons.

1. Start with a white base. It's a pain to have to do more than one coat, so this avoids that problem.

2. Add a white stripe first. This keeps the colors true, avoids bleeding, and avoids additional coats, too. Especially when doing a color that is lighter than the one it's going on top of. If it's darker, I didn't do it, like for the blue. But when I did the yellow and orange I did. It avoided having lines underneath one line from the other colors.

3. Don't make your lines too thin. Thin lines means a lot of lines. It not only looks better, but it's less work, too!

Thanks for reading <3

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Week 2, May 8th

Welcome back!

Theme: Neon

Prompt: Tribal

These are the nails that I did the other night for the weekly nail art challenge!! I used all China Glaze polishes.

White: White on White

Pink: Glow With the Flow

Purple: Violet-Vibes

Blue: UV Meant to Be

Green: Treble Maker

I used striping tape and dotting tools for all of the designs. It was so much fun!

Thanks for reading <3

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Week 1

Welcome back!

I've decided to do the Weekly Nail Art Challenge on Instagram this month! There are only 5 prompts, one for each Friday of the month, so I still get to do whatever I want the rest of the time!

This month's theme: Neons

This week's prompt: half moon

Since I'm not super huge into neons, I wanted to do this challenge to make me expand my polish use. I want to find a wearable ways to wear neon!

This week, I did my half moons by putting the neon underneath, and then putting white on top. That way the whole nail isn't too bright, but it makes a cool pop of color up by the cuticle!

Green: China Glaze Treble Maker

White: China Glaze White on White

Thanks for reading <3

OPI "Go Neon or Go Nude" Summer 2014

Welcome back!

I've been holding on to these pictures for a while now, and finally finished editing them! They take a long time, and I hate doing that part (by editing, I mean all of the words and watermarking).

This isn't necessarily a review, but really just my thoughts and how I felt about it, more for my own record! Enjoy!

This line included six neon colors. It was promoted with a new white base coat called "Put A Coat On" to help make the neons pop.

For all polishes, I did no white base coat on the pointer and middle finger, OPI "Put A Coat On" base coat on my ring and pinky fingers, and OPI Alpine Snow as the base on my thumb. I label all fingers in the picture accordingly.

Juice Bar Hopping
Color Family: Orange
No Base: 4 coats
Put A Coat On (2 coats): 3 coats
Alpine Snow (2 coats): 2 coats
This polish was definitely brighter on the nails with a white base coat. I felt like on the nails without a base, it was kind of dull. I liked it alright (for an orange) on the white, but would not wear it off the white base.

Life Gave Me Lemons

Color Family: Yellow
No Base: 3 coats
Put A Coat On (2 coats): 1 coat
Alpine Snow (2 coats): 1 coat
I was a little surprised to see how green this polish turned out to be. By the name, I expected it to be much more yellow than it was. It definitely looked better on top of the white base. While I only used one coat on nails with a base, I maybe should have done two. Most people though would probably be just fine with one coat, but mine tend to be thinner than most peoples' coats.

Push & Pur-Pull

Color Family: Purple
No Base: 2 coats
Put A Coat On (2 coats): 2 coats
Alpine Snow (2 coats): 2 coats
This polish was sort of water to me. Without having a base, and basing this just on the formula of the polish itself, I would almost call this a jelly polish. It is watery, thin and looked "squishy" when it was dried on the nail. Off of the base, it was very dark, and not vibrant enough for a neon. On the base, I absolutely loved it. Putting the white dow is definitely worth the extra work here.

Hotter Than You Pink

Color Family: Pink
No Base: 3 coats
Put A Coat On (1 coat): 3 coats
Alpine Snow (1 coat): 3 coats
This polish, although it was pink, it definitely had a bluish tint/shimmer to it. The blue tones were much more noticeable on the nails without the base coat, to me. I was very happy with the formula and the color. It was very vibrant and I liked that about it. I do like this one much better on the white base as well.

Down to the Core-al

Color Family: Coral/Pink
No Base: 3 coats
Put A Coat On (2 coats): 2 coats
Alpine Snow (2 coats): 2 coats
I loved this color. I thought it was so pretty. It is a very typical coral, though, maybe a little more neon. To some people, this would probably be just a repeat, but not to me. It was very good for those summer months.

You Are So Outta Lime!

Color Family: Green
No Base: 2 coats
Put A Coat On (2 coats): 2 coats
Alpine Snow (2 coats): 2 coats
I liked the way this color looked on my hands. I'm iffy on neons. I like how they look, but sometimes I hate how they stand out. They can be too bold and blinding. Thankfully, this was a bright polish, but it didn't hurt your eyes to look at it.

Overall, I was happy with this collection and these polishes. I did not like the white base coat that they sold with them, though. I felt like the Alpine Snow performed just as well, if not better every time.  I thought Put A  Coat On was too watery. I honestly felt a little cheated out of $9.00.

Thanks for reading <3

Essie Neons 2014 Review

Hey guys! I know that I'm way behind, but I've been trying out all of these polishes over the summer, and wanted to note how I felt about them since I already tried them and made the notes about them!

This collection has six polishes. They are all supposed to be neons, hence the name. It was titled "Too Taboo." They were advertised to be paired with Essie's Blanc as a base coat. I tried all of these polishes with and without a white base coat to do a comparison.

First up, Vices Versa. This is a bright, lime green polish. I did one coat of Blanc on the ring and pinky fingernails. On the white base, I used 3 coats, and without a base, I used 4 coats. The first coat was super sheer, but the second coat definitely made it look better. The white base for this one I would call unnecessary, but it does sort of boost the appearance and vibrancy. I did like this color, it reminded me of green candy.

Too Taboo is a dark, but vibrant pink. I used two coats of white on the same nails, and two coats of color on top of that. On the nail without a base, I used two coats as well. The nails with a white base were brighter, but the ones without were pretty bright as well. Adding it up, I need 4 coats of polish, versus 2 coats. I don't think the tiny bit of extra brightness is worth all of the extra work. The color was beautiful, and the formula was good. This was definitely bright, but I wouldn't normally classify this as a "neon."

Sittin' Pretty was a light purple, almost a neon version of a lilac. I used two coats of Blanc on select nails, and no base on the others. I needed 3 coats on the white, and 3 coats off the white. On the nails with the base, I liked the way it looked better, but I don't know if it was necessarily more vibrant, or brighter. For the extra work, again, I would probably call this unnecessary for the white base.

I'm Addicted was a light, neon blue. I would call this a true neon color. On the nails with a base, I used two coats of Blanc, and three coats of the polish. Without a base, I used three coats of polish. I could definitely tell a difference in the look on the nails with a base and without it. The ones with the base were much more vibrant. It was a very thin and sheer color. I thought it was pretty, though. The finish was semi-matte, but I top coated it.

Chills & Thrills was a dark purple-blue shade. It was very watery and thin for me. I used two coats of Blanc with two coats of color on top, and on the nails without a base, I used three coats. I would not classify this color as a neon. It was too dark, and I didn't feel that it was vibrant enough. After I finally got enough coats on, it looked smooth, but before that, it was horrible.

Finally, we have Serial Shopper. This polish required two coats of Blanc plus two coats of polish, or three coats of polish. The shade on the white was brighter, but I felt that it was more orange with the white base. I feel like this polish is the same color as Resort Fling by them, but a watery version. In some lighting, it was more orangey, and in some lighting it was more pink. Overall, this was probably my least favorite color of the collection.

Overall, I thought that this collection was not the best formulations I've ever used. The colors were pretty, and I liked most of them, but I felt like I had to work with them. These polishes can still be purchased on their website, or you may be able to find them at Walgreens still, as I still see them in mine over with the rest of the polishes.

Thanks for reading <3

*I am not sponsored in any way. All polishes were purchased with my own money. All opinions are truthful and my own.