Spun Sugar in Neons

Hello gorgeous peoples! Today I wanna show you a success!

The topcoat smudged everything. :(

To create this look, I used Sinful Colors' Black on Black and Neon Melon, Salon Perfect's Haute Melon, Fing'rs' Meet Me In The Green Room, Zoya's Robyn and Charisma, and NYC's Matte Me Crazy for a topcoat.

To get the look, I put two coats of Black on Black, then a top coat of Matte Me Crazy. I put a drop of the neon nail polish on a sheet of tin foil and let them dry a bit while stirring. Once the nail polish started getting stringy, I placed a glob next to my nail ON my finger, then stringed it from one side of my nail to the other. Back and forth back and forth and then on to the next color. I used an orange stick. pretty easy!

Simple Gradient

Just a simple gradient today. I was gonna top it with a stamp, but the Seche Vite shrunk the polish and it would've looked odd. 

Indirect Sunlight. Man I love this blue! And the green omgomgomg!

Direct Sunlight. It's blurry, but it shows off the colors accurately.

For this mani, I used three colors. Sinful Colors' Snow Me White (base), Fing'rs Meet Me In The Green Room, and Sally Hensen's Co-Bolt Blue. 

I laid out two layers of Snow Me White, then two layers of Meet Me In The Green Room. A makeup sponge with Meet Me In The Green Room and Co-Bolt Blue and viola! This was so gorgeous. I really regret using Seche Vite, it would've lasted longer.

I really am in need of a good topcoat. I have a ton of bottles of Seche, but my manis keep shrinking after only a few hours. Even after making sure the mani is dry, it shrinks :/

I have to say, I absolutely LOVE Meet Me In The Green Room. I wish it had a better formula, as it's really quite thin, runny, and streaky. I'm really jonesing for a neon that's opaque...

Hope everyone is having a good summer!

Era Chooses! -Sinful Colors Summer Peach

 A couple of you voted, and even though it was only a couple, the decision was unanimous. Y'all wanted to see what I would do if given a random color by a two-year old.

Well, here's last night's pick:

Surprisingly, the orange turned out great.

Era chose:
     Sinful Colors Summer Peach
I used:
     Hard Candy Black Tie Optional
     Sinful Colors Snow Me White (For a base, to make the neon pop)

I was VERY apprehensive about these. I do NOT like orange! But as I wore them today, they grew on me, which is shocking. My coworkers liked the simple design and the striking color.

I chose the Black Tie Optional because I just got it last night and HAD to try it. I've been looking for a black glitter for AGES and this was honestly the closest thing I've found that was under $5. And because I really couldn't think of anything to pair it with that wouldn't look terribly Halloween-ey.

Sweet Summer Lemonade, Topcoat Comparison

So I recently made my first purchase at the Born Pretty Store, and if you read the previous post, you saw that I got a round of fruit fimo decals.

At first, I was gonna do watermelon nails, but I decided to use the lemons and make lemonade nails first. I usually HATE yellow, but I really like LAC's Hysteria.

These were really fun to make!

1. Prep clean as usual, basecoat.
2. Paint with a white base (I used Sinful Colors' Snow Me White), and then add two coats of your yellow over it. I used LAC's Hysteria, which is a neon jelly, I think. It layers REALLY well. You can find it at Dollar General or online.

For the accents:

1. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle your glitter over the tip of your accent nails. (I got the glitter I used from the Dollar Tree, but honestly, I saw some that looked the same at Walmart today in the craft aisle.) Run a dry brush over it gently to knock off excess glitter. 
2. Using a quick dry topcoat, secure the slices of fimo to the nail. Press and hold into place until mostly dry.
3. Topcoat

For the "regular nails:

1. Take your white nail polish and create rings of white using a coffee stirring straw. Allow to dry
2. Apply a thin coat of Hysteria, allow to dry
3. Create larger rings of white, using a regular straw. Allow to dry.
4. Apply another thin coat of Hyteria, allow to dry
5. Using a dotting tool, pen, pin, toothpick, etc, throw on some random dots.
6. Topcoat

The night before I did these, I received an order from Sally's Beauty Supply, which had a bottle of Seche Vite in it. It's currently on sale! Plus, I have a Sally's membership, AND I had coupons. I got the bottle for about $4.50.

SO I put it up to the test. On my left hand, I used my [new] favorite, NYC's Turbo Dry Top Coat, and on my right, I used the Seche Vite.

Here's my observations:

• You can't tell the difference, once they're dried. And they dry at about the same rate. They're both very shiny, very hard, very smooth.
• Seche Vite smells like one of the cheap polishes I won't buy at the dollar store (yes, there are some that I won't buy!). I REALLY found it off-putting, and I did not like it AT ALL.
• NYC is a little thinner, but it's kinda hard to tell unless you're looking for things to compare
• So far, neither of them have chipped. In fact, most of those pictures I took about 10 minutes ago.
• There's a bit more bubbling on the hand with the NYC, but I don't know if it's because of the topcoat or because I was being hasty with letting my lower layers dry. 
• (Probably me being hasty.)

Honestly, I think LAC's Turbo Dry Topcoat is the winner. For the price I paid (50 cents), it has a much better value. Seche Vite isn't 3-Free either, second ingredient is Toulene.

Neon Water Shredding

For this design, I wasn't going for the traditional water spotting, more like shredding the nail polish. Kinda like this. And I did it in neon.

These two were my favorite. The watermarble on my ring finger turned out SO PRETTY, and I love the pink on my middle finger.

To get this look:
Paint your nails white over your basecoat.
Prep with tape.
Get your watermarbling glass of room-temp water, and drop one drop on the surface. Grab your hand sanitizing spray and spray the nail polish once or twice. Find a spot you like and dip your fingers in.
Put your favorite topcoat over and enjoy!


For this look, I used Sinful Colors' Snow Me White, Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away, Sinful Colors' Bikini, and Wet'N'Wild's Limelight. 
For topcoats, I used NYC's Turbo Dry Topcoat and NYC's Matte Me Crazy. 

I'm REALLY loving the NYC's Turbo Dry Topcoat. And I got it for $.50! SUCH the best!

Neon Skittles

So I finally broke down and did a Skittles mani, based on this pin. I decided to do neons, though, instead of the almost-but-not-quite pastels in the original pin.

I'm trying to use my thumb to hide the stupidity that was my  ring finger... ONE SPOT stayed wet, and I have no clue why.

The thumb was my favorite.

This was another late-night mani that gave me more frustration than it was worth. I stayed up watching the end of Downton Abbey season 2 though, so it was worth it.

To get the gradient, I wet a cosmetic sponge, and then put black polish on the corner, slowly moving back and forth.