Neon Rainbow Zig-Zags Using American Apparel Neons

Ever since I found proper pinking shears the other day in a craft store, they've been sitting on my desk, begging to contribute their zig-zaggy goodness.  I was in the mood for something bright so I five American Apparel Neon polishes and one China Glaze and went to work.

To start, I added two coats of L.A. Girl Delicate.  I wanted a white base so I wouldn't have to do a million coats of the neon.  Once that and the coat of the Seche Vite were dry I cut a thin zig-zag strips of blue painters tape.  I added three strips at a time, making sure each strip was the same height and spaced the same across my nails.  I then added three of the colours.  If you look at my thumb close up, I placed tape where the orange, green and purple are first and applied the red, yellow and blue.  I added another coat of Seche Vite and did the same for the rest of my fingers.  Once they were all super dry, I covered the stripes already in place and added the other colours.  A final coat of Seche Vite and I'm done!

 

The Verdict: I'm really happy with how this came out.  It's eyeball-bleedlingly bright and I even don't mind the white showing through, it reminds me of some erasers I had as a kid.  Personality, you know?  It's also crying out for a Pinterest-friendly infographic as it's not hard to do.... yay Rainbows!

Rainbow Scratch-Off Art Nails!

I might be a little behind the times but I've just gotten in to Tumblr in a huge way.  Pinterest was getting a bit same-y so I've been trawling the tumbles for nail ideas.  Sooo many I really should start writing them down.  Anyway, I saw this amazing spin on laser nails where instead of stripes of colour under the black, it was a smooth gradient.  Since I can do gradients now, I had to give it a shot.  My tumblr is polishallthenails.tumblr.com/, by the way.  End shameless plug!

I wanted super bright colours for my gradient so after applying two coats of L.A. Delicate - any white will do - I painted squares of China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, Sun-Kissed, Sky High-Top and Pool Party on my makeup sponge and went to town.  Turns out it's no more difficult to do a four-way gradient than it is to do one that goes top to bottom.  You just paint the pattern on the sponge and just make sure you line it up properly on the nail.  Once it was completely dry and I'd waited another five minutes, I cracked out the striping tape and created my zig-zags.  The tape isn't the best application I've ever done but it kinda adds to the whole scratch-off art theme. 

The Verdict:  I kinda love how this came out.  I'm sad my thumb didn't come out so well but the rest were colourful enough I'm ok with it.  Also please ignore the overly photoshopped cuticles, my hands don't handle winter especially well.  I never touch my nails themselves, if that helps :)

Brace Yourselves, This is a Bright One!

Hot damn am I glad that Valentine's Day is over and I can finally stop staring at the collection of pink and red polishes on my desk that I never used.  Sure, it's nice to have all the holidays be inspiration for manis but it gets a bit old after a while.  Now it's all over and done with for, what, a month til Easter, I just had to have a go at a fantastic neon mani I originally found on Pinterest: Sparrow Nails' combination of China Glaze Purple Panic and Turned Up Turquoise Neon.  It's too blindingly bright for me not to!

To start, I painted all but my ring finger in Purple Panic, leaving it to be Turned Up Turquoise.  Two coats is enough with these frosty neons, which is nice.  I added a coat of Seche Vite to each finger because I'm impatient and it makes the taping easier.  I then used my striping tape, painter's masking tape, pinking shears and dotting tools to make the various patterns.  Once they were all done, I finished off with another coat of Seche Vite and a coat of Essie Matte About You.  I've been looking for it for months and months, always missing it but TBBS in Toronto FINALLY had it in stock.  So everything will be matte now because it's the best matte top coat I've ever used.  I've tried Joe Fresh, Nails Inc, American Apparel, all of them can't even a bit compare to how good Matte About You is.  It's just such a matte finish!  Totes worth it.

The Verdict:  I love how abusively bright this is.  It was a pain in the bum to photograph, as you can imagine, but it was worth the effort.  I'm also going to go on again about how good Matte About You is.  Cos it's really good.  Yay neons!

Rainbow Bar Glitter Zig Zags on Neon Orange

I have something of a love-hate relationship with bar glitter.  Sure, you can create some amazing patterns with it but oh man, when it sticks up and catches on things?  Kiiinda annoying.  That's the best thing about hand-placing it - minimises the chance of sticky-uppy bits.  What better a companion to a rainbow than neon orange too, no matter how hard it is to photograph.  Imagine neon orange duct tape when you look at the following pictures, because it actually exactly matches it in person.

I know you're likely to think I'm a little on the crazy side with this mani but in my defense it's so sparkly I could die.  To start, I applied three coats of Urban Outfitters Tiny Shorts, the most vibrant neon orange I own.  Application is always good with the Urban Outfitter polishes and this one is good too.  Sure, two coat would be preferable but neons are tricky so I'll let it off.  Once done, I lined up my eight different colours of glitter and went to work with my toothpick.  I found the best way to create these zig-zags is to start in the middle at the cuticle and work out from either side.  SO SPARKLY.  SERIOUSLY, SO SPARKLY.

The Verdict: I think you know by now that I love this and only wish I'd had the time to do all five fingers.  Confession time: I only ever do the one hand in hand-placed glitter.  The other hand I made similar - for example, here I used the same base colour and just used a finger to pick up the glitter and press into wet polish.  Trust me, if someone notices and asks after your nails, just hold out the fancy hand they are guaranteed not to tell.  I mean, I do all my fingers and toes every single time I post!  Yeah!

Review: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Party Grenade with Rainbow Neon Gradient!

Since I started my new job, I have the money to buy alllll the indie polishes my little heart could desire. It's not a good idea for me to then go to Llarowe because I ordered the most enormous package of polishes you could imagine.  Such a good parcel day when that got here.  Anyway, my goal with this delivery is to try to find new ways to show you indie polishes.  It's too easy to just slap on a base colour  with the indie polish on top.  I must find a way for that to take a lon time!

Femme Fatale Party Grenade is so packed full of square, diamond, hex, matte, shiny, holo and misc glitter I can't even find words to describe how amazing it is.  It even applies well - this is just one coat on each finger.  You get a better result if you fish around a bit but you don't need to, and it doesn't get too thick if you do. 

   I wanted a crazy base colour to go with this amazing polish so I figured it was time to a proper rainbow gradient.  Starting with two base coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, I went to work with 12 different neon polishes.  Using both sides of three little pieces of makeup sponge, I sponged three colours on each nail, keeping one polish in common on each side of the nail to keep the rainbow smooth.  So if I used a, b and c on one nail, I'd use c, d and e on the next, etc. I used China Glaze, American Apparel and Urban Outfitters polishes but there's just too many to list here.  If you want to know one in particular, just let me know in the comments.   

The Verdict: I'll definitely be doing more of these horizontal gradients, as they look so cool.  It's almost like having a duochrome polish frozen in time - looking from the sides makes the polish look completely different.  Party Grenade is so amazing too - I love all the difference shapes of glitter.  Especially when there's so much glitter in the bottle and it looks like this!

V-Shaped Rainbow Gradient Nails!

Hey, hi, sorry, not dead, just went to Cuba again.  I took my mum who's visiting from Australia and it completely blew her mind.  So much sun, so warm.  Let's get on to the nails though, cos that's really why you're here.  So I've been into Tumblr lately and I've been seeing a lot of sponged gradients with a V shape taped over the top.  I was feeling bold at the time, so let's take a look, shall we?

To start with, I applied two coats of my favourite white creme polish, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I wanted a nice neon gradient to go over the white so I grabbed American Apparel Neon Violet, Urban Outfitters Ringo and Urban Outfitters Baby Boy.  These seemed like bright neons but gradiented together turned them a much bolder colour than I expected.  I did the usual trick, painted stripes of the polish on a makeup sponge and stamped back and forth slightly to get the colours as even as I could.  I dabbed a little of the pink on my tips as it's hard to get some of the colours thick enough, with some polishes consistency.  Once done, I applied a coat of Seche Vite then laid my tape on.  I found it easiest to use two pieces to make sure I got my lines were I wanted them.  A find coat of Seche Vite and I'm done. 

The Verdict:  It's a really bold look this one, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.  I do wish I'd cleaned up the white before I put the colours on but oh well.  Just be careful with your acetone and you won't get the white peeking through like I have here.  It's different, that's for sure!

Review: Floss Gloss Fastlane with Sparkly Glitter Triangle Half-moons

I've had this little pot of blue glitter for quite a while now and I have to say it's up there with my favourites.  It was the glitter I used in this glitter mani, the first of mine that truly got sort-of internet famous.  I don't get to use a lot because it's the only glitter I have in that particular size.  When I want to test out a new polish that's a good complement to said glitter, you best I'm going to bust it out.  Turns out it goes super awesomely with Floss Gloss Fastlane. 

Fastlane is this fabulous neon coral colour creme with a semi-matte finish.  My bottle didn't have the best consistency but it was fine after I added a little polish thinner to it.  You need three or more coast with this one, if you don't want to see your nail line.  Once the base colour was dry, I went to work with my awesome blue glitter.  I found it easiest to start with a piece in the middle at the base of my nail then built out the row to where my nail curves upwards, then just the triangles row by row.  BAM, super bright triangle half-moons.

I was curious at this point, what would happen if I put a matte top coat over all this? I tell you, there are few things in my life as nerve-wracking as putting anything over the top of my glitter mosaics.  Turned out ok.  The texture in the glitter was interesting but not sparkly enough so I put more Seche Vite on.  Not really that interesting, after all that :)

The Verdict:  Love the colour on this polish, love the glitter, ok on the matte over the top.  I love a good neon so that's good.  I even managed to get the colour accurate in the pictures, no small feat with this kind of colour.  Yay sparkly trianges!

Triangle Graffiti Nails!

I'm really bad at asking people for suggestions for how I should do my nails, then completely disregarding the excellent suggestions and doing something I saw on Tumblr.  I saw this awesome stupendous creation a few days ago and just had to do it.  Triangles!

I wasn't quite in the mood to make the base colours too complication for this one so I thought I'd just sponge on some random colours.  To start, I did the usual two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  Once that was dry I cut myself a small piece of makeup sponge and just splotched on Urban Outfitters Hottub, Rango and Blue Velvet.  Once it and the coat of Seche Vite was dry, I cut a long strip of striping tape and went to work.  I found it was easiest to lay the horizontal stripes first, then each of the diagonal lines.  I did all the taping at once and when done, applied a thick coat of the very excellent almost-holo A England Bridal Veil.  I didn't want flat black and I love this polish as it's a one-coater and has great texture.  One more coat of Seche Vite and I was done.

The Verdict:  This actually came out better than I expected.  I wasn't careful with how I sponged on my base colours - I just kept putting it on til the colours looked blended without going brown.  And my triangles came out really even, and that never happens.  So yay, neon triangles!

Sunset Gradient Nails with Gold Holo Circle Glitter!

Of course my obsession with my new circle glitter is going to continue.  Especially when faced with a whole day at Canada's Wonderland, I'm going to need something sparkly to look at while I'm waiting for the rides.  By the way, if you ever get the chance, go to Wonderland and go on either Leviathan or Behemoth because they are so amazing I don't even have words.  So high, so fast, so smooth, it's totally amazing.  Oh, and since I've been asked three times in two days, I'm now on Instagram on top of everything else.  You can find me @polishallthenails   Back to nails!

Even though I should have been sleeping, I wanted to a bright neon gradient to go with my circle glitter.  To start, I applied two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls then went to town with a makeup sponge and three stripes of Urban Outfitters Hottub, Tiny Shorts and Ringo.  Three coats seemed to do the trick.  Once done, I applied my gold circle glitter using my usual technique - one column down the middle then building out either side.  With these bigger pieces of glitter, make sure your top coat is laid on reasonably thick.  This will let you sink the glitter into it and will stop it catching.  Make sure you two coats of Seche Vite - remembering to go to the edges and to wrap your tips - and you should get a good amount of wear. 

The Verdict: Of course I love this.  It has the neon colours, holo and circles that pleases me.  It's so bright it actually looks good in the shade - the colours almost seem to glow.  My kingdom for a blacklight. Sparkly!

I've Got Neon, Holo, Zig-zags, Half Moons and Studs in the One Mani, Yay!

I was contacted a little while ago from Iona from StickyNails Nail Stencils about trying a new product she was working on.  I like to try new things so I gave her custom nail decals/stencils a shot and look!  Her package included a few different patterns of nail stickers but I'm always partial to a good chevron or zig zag so after pulling out the brightest colour combination I could find - Claire's Neon Orange and Pretty & Polished Boombox - I went to work. 

Iona's stencil stickers come on a white sheet of pseudo-plastic, with the designs pre-cut out, ready to lift off.  After applying three coats of Claire's Neon Orange polish with a coat of Seche Vite and waiting for it to dry completely, I peeled off one of the larger chevron stencils and laid it on my thumb.  She warns that these are strong stickers and she's not wrong because the first time you use one, you probably haven't waited long enough, and the base colour is going to come with you when you take it off.  I found that if you press the sticker against your palm first, it's much less ferocious.  The good thing about it being sticky is that you can press it down fully, and get right to the edges.  And your zig zags come out perfectly spaced!  I even used the in-between pieces on another manicure so win there.  Anyway, on my other three fingers I did a small freehand triangle half-moon and surround it with teeny studs from the Essence Nail Art kits I found at Shoppers.  Neon zig-zag stud win!

The Verdict:  I really like the stencils Iona has come up with.  I was able to re-use the same sticker 3-4 times, no issue, and you still get nice, even spacing and clean lines.  Also super digging Boombox as a holo blue, it's absolutely gorgeous and applies really well.

You can find StickyNails Nail Stencils on Etsy, $8-10 a set.  Worth it!

These products were sent to me for my honest review.