NOTW - Awesome Weekend Nails

I LOVE THE WEEKEND BECAUSE I DO CRAZY THINGS WITH MY NAILS THAT SOME PEOPLE THINK ARE TACKY BUT I GET THE MOST COMPLIMENTS ON FROM STRANGERS!!!!!

Neon Explosion

Awesome Town

The Supplies

This totally reminds me of a graphic print tee or a pair of bicycle shorts I would have worn as a little kid. LOVE!

1 - Sally Hansen White On: My go to opaque white to create a base that helps the neons glow.

2 - Studio M Grape Escape: Definitely stood out more in real life and this is the first purple neon that I have found that isn't just a dark pink (much less blue than the pictures).

3 - CG Kiwi Cool-ada: Supah amazing bright green, I will probably use this for one of my Spartan manicures at the start of the football season.

4 - CG Sunshine Pop: As you might remember from a previous post, I only planned on using this color in a neon/rainbow/orgy of color mani, so I did! Recently I broke down and bought a true neon, highlighter yellow polish (it's a lot more awesome than I expected), but it really highlighted (pun intended) how dirty Sunshine Pop looks, it's more noticeable in "The Supplies" pic.

5 - CG Pool Party: Just makes me happy! Be careful using Seche Vite with this color, because it can make it look more coral than bright pink.

6 - CG Orange Knockout: You sure are.

7 - Konad Special Polish Black: Whenever I use my stamping plates, the Konad Special Polishes really do work the best. You can use a regular polish, but try to use polishes with a really thick formula.

8-  Bundle Monster Plate BM 208/ Konad Double-ended Stamper: Yay I finally used a different stamping plate. The nice thing about this plate is that it has the option I used (geometric boxes) and basically the inverse (jagged outlines). The stamper is what transfers the image from the plate to your nail.

Splatter Attack

Ok I'm not even close to a nail artist and this didn't come out quite how I envisioned, but it's the best I could do....get off my back, GEEZ! The way that I chose the colors was these were my favorite crayons to use as a kid (I guess my weekend themes were all childhood related). The only favorite crayon color that is missing is Cerulean, unfortunately I don't think I have a polish this color and also my nails aren't big enough for a 4th splatter color.

My basic technique was to paint my nails white, plop a blob of color on to a corner of my nail, use a small dotting tool to drag out the little splatter arms, and finally put a little dot at the end of each arm.

White - Sally Hansen White On:  Duh.

Pink - CG Purple Panic (corresponding crayon - Magenta)

Green - CG Turned Up Turquoise (corresponding crayon - Jungle Green)

Purple - Essie Sexy Divide: In real life this shows up as a gorgeous purple, you can barely tell what color it is from the pic. (corresponding crayon - Royal Purple)

NOTW - Rage, Pink Forever, Blue Me Away!

Orly - Rage

Rage - (with Suzi and the Lifeguard, Jewelry Heist) Unimpressed. Rose gold is huge right now and even though I don't wear a ton of jewelry I am soooo close to giving into this trend. Well I guess technically with this polish I did give in. Basically every aspect of Rage fell short of my expectations. The rose part of rose gold was too subtle, application got more frustrating as it became progressively more goopy, the finish was streaky, and the glitter/sparkle/metallic effect was grainy. Clearly it sounds like I hate it, but now that I'm looking at it I guess I'm only moderately disappointed. Here's the thing, I could look past the application issues if this was more rosey and was distinctly different than any other gold metallic polish I own, but it's not. Honestly, if you want a rose gold polish, you could probably do better with something else, and if you're looking for any gold polish option, you can definitely do better.

Sinful Colors - Pink Fovever

Pink Forever - I was contemplating doing another ombre manicure with pinks this time, but I realized I only have really pale pinks or dark pinks, and nothing seems to go together. Let me give you some background on me, when I decide to do an ombre my OCD comes out in full force; the polishes I use have to be the same tone and finish (only creams, only shimmer, etc.). ANYWAY! I realized I don't have any medium pink cream polishes, well this had to be remedied immediately. I found this polish at Target and it certainly fit the bill and as an added bonus, didn't break the budget (ahahhaha budget, nail polish, me, ahahahah). There is nothing ground breaking about this polish, but for $2 it's a great bubble gum pink cream. No complaints about application, easily opaque in two coats. It is possibly a bit runny, as it dripped off the wand part of the brush, but that may have been due to operator error.

Sally Hansen - Blue Me Away!

Blue Me Away! - Cute name, but false. The main reason I wasn't blown away is because the color was a lot darker on my nails than it looked in the bottle (the pic is actually a lot lighter than real life). The polish was very opaque so I'm wondering if you were really careful and only applied one coat, if that would keep the polish lighter like the bottle. On my accent nails are Blue Me Away! and Pacific Blue, yeah that lighter color is the same polish as the rest of the mani. I used Konad plate M57 (I think I need to expand my Konad collection, I have a whole mess of Bundle Monster plates, but the quality just does not compare) and stamped the flowers individually, alternating colors. I liked the mani because it worked with my outfit that day, but I'm not sure this color will make it into the favorites, or even likes, rotation.

Nails Of The Weeks

I would love to be motivated to post nails of the day (NOTD), but there is no way that's gonna happen. I think I can manage to post my nails on a weekly basis.....maybe. So I started this little photo project on facebook, but by posting here everyone can share in my ridiculous nail polish obsession. So I'm catching up/picking up where I left off on FB. ENJOY!!!!!!

Sally Hansen - Coral Reef

Coral Reef - I saw a couple of people wearing this online and I was in love. It's bordering on a neon, but not quite. I want to say the color is somewhere between CG-Shocking Pink (see below) and CG-Flip Flop Fantasy. The name says it all, definitely a coral. A great spring/summer polish that is really pretty and flattering. 

Spoiled by Wet n Wild - Deeper Dive

Deeper Dive - I wasn't sure if I was going to like this as a full mani, but I did! The reason I liked it is the same reason I like CG-Ruby Pumps. Its glittery, but not chunky, as if the glitter is trapped in jelly. I think in real life this polish is a bit more green than the picture.

Essie - Play Date

Play Date - A slight variation on my purple obsession, this purple is much more pink toned than other ones I own. The color actually photographed fairly true to life, as opposed to showing up super blue (FINALLY!), but the pinkyness is less subtle in the pic. I have to admit I was in a fight with Essie for a while, but the last few polishes I've tried have begun to change my mind.

China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise with Techno

Turned Up Turquoise - LOVE! Supposedly this is a neon, but I'm not so sure, it certainly is bright though.  I don't think I would call it a neon because it has a shimmer and isn't a matte cream like all the other neons I have. I think this is what I wanted CG-Aquadelic to be, but was pale and very muted. In some lights this looks green, but it's really pretty regardless of trending green or turquoise. On my accent nail is CG-Techno, which has really awesome giant holo glitters.

Essie - Fiji with OPI - Extravagance

Fiji - Super gorgeous pale pink. It's a better version of CG-Go Go Pink, mostly because Fiji is much more opaque. You know how in the summer wearing white makes your skin look amazing and tan, well that's how I felt my skin looked with this color, like my nails and skin were glowing. My accent nail was stamped with OPI DS-Extravagence using Konad plate M-57. This was the first time I used a non-special polish to stamp, it didn't work out great. I think it's partly because I couldn't be patient enough to wait til Fiji was dry so I could press as firmly as I needed.

OPI - Opulence

Opulence - This was another Designer Series polish I found, but I wasn't as blown away with this one. You can see there is a little bit of a scattered holo, but not tons. Maybe I just didn't see it because it's never sunny. Yay Michigan! I'm still on the fence about this color. Sometimes it's a dusty rose or nice bronze, but most of the time it's this in between meh color. 

Layla - Ultra Violet

Ultra Violet - I remember a time when I thought OPI DS and CG-Fairly Dust would be the closest I would ever get to owning a holographic polish.......AND THEN I FOUND LAYLA HOLOGRAM EFFECT POLISHES!!!!!! I am so excited to finally have some true holos of my own. I got them at Ulta, but they are kind of expensive and smaller than a usual polish so I only bought 3 (silver, black, purple).  Although if anyone wanted to get me Ocean Rush or Retro Pink for my birthday I wouldn't hate it. These polishes are really special when the light hits them, as you can see there is this awesome rainbow effect. I would suggest reading Scrangie's post about application, I followed her tips and I didn't have any problems.  This polish chips like crazy and super quickly because you're not supposed to use a base coat or top coat. Next time I use this polish I will use the Gelous top coat suggested by Scrangie, as it doesn't seem to disturb the holo effect (wish I had gone to Sally's and gotten Gelous before I tried this out for the first time).

China Glaze - Shocking Pink and Orange Knockout with Studio M - Grape Escape

Shocking Pink -  So I've gone neon crazy and I just can't help it. This is a bright 80's hot pink cream and I can't stop looking at my hands, there is just too much awesome happening. This color really seems to glow. My accent nail is CG-Orange Knockout (also a neon, think traffic cone orange) with Studio M-Grape Escape stamped using Konad plate M-57. Not sure if you can tell but I dotted some of the leopard spots with a mix of CG-Purple Panic with Shocking Pink.