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!

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!

Review: A Bunch of Zoya Pixie Dusts

I got paid yesterday so of course I'm going to go buy more polish.  It's the good pay, where I don't have to pay rent, so I kind splurged a bit, picking up the other half of the Zoya Fall Pixie Dust Collection, a Deborah Lippmann, a couple of Nails Inc and a few cheap drug store polishes.  Shh I'm an adult.  I've seen some lovely manis with rainbow stripes and texture polishes so of course I'm going to try out my new Zoyas.  

I'm not very good at freehanding things but it turns out vertical stripes are pretty easy to do.  I started out with the usual base coat (still liking OPI Nail Envy), placed a blob of each of Arabella, Dhara, Solange, Chita, Sunshine and Carter on a piece of paper and went to work with a small brush.  I eyeballed the width of each stripe although I found it easiest to start at each edge and work my way inwards. This is three coats of each polish.  Two would have been fine but I wanted to make the edges as sharp as I could.

I of course then put top coat on.  Which I now regret because it looks better without it.

 The Verdict: I'm not sure why I keep buying texture polishes.  They're still kinda hard to incorporate into regular manis and I'm still not not 100% used to the rough texture.   They're sure pretty in a rainbow though!  What do you think, leave the texture nature or add a top coat?

Nails on Fire! Yeah! Ow!

OW MY NAILS ARE ON FIRE THEY'RE SO FIERY OW HOT.  Also though glitter placements are great and we should all do them all the time.  Even though Pointy and Thumbie have been in the wars lately, it's still awesome to have glitter.  It is also hard to type blog when there is a purring kitty in the way, right Rocket?

So I actually have a tutorial for this, believe it or not.  This whole glitter placement thing is pretty straightforward so it is just a time lapse but iPhones make pretty good cameras and you'll get the idea.  Start with two coats of a polish - in this case I'm using A-England Bridal Veil - then apply the usual stripe of top coat.  Lay down your centre column of glitter then build out each side.  You can cut pieces of glitter in half for the area around the cuticles, and trim off any pieces that overhang the edge of your nails.  Two coats of Seche Vite and you're done.  Only takes ~5 mins a nail.

The Verdict:  These look appropriately firey, the placement is even, it's sparkly, what more could you want?  I don't even have lobster hands this time!  Win for everyone!

31DC2014 Day 2: Orange! I didn't say banana hahahaha joke is funny, LAUGH HAHAHA

Ok woo day 2!  Orange!  Obviously that means oranges on orange.  In glitter.  I mean, duh, what else am I going to do?  Oh, and orange you glad I didn't say banana?!!?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

So China Glaze Japanese Koi is amazing in that is the most neoniest neon orange and that's amazing.  It's a little tricky to apply but that tends to happen with such bright neons.  If you're careful and let your coats dry, you'll get good coverage in three coats.  I then applied my usual top coat and went to work with my orange matte glitter, then added in my green holo glitter for the "leaves".  Woo!  Oranges!

The Verdict:  Orange orange oranges!  HAHAHAHA KNOCK KNOCK GET IT HAHAHAHAHA.  I love neons, the end.

Flashy Fiery Mermaid Scales!

Ok so I've been trying something a little different lately.  The acrylic tips I've been applying let me get the length I've aspired to without having to actually get my nails there naturally.  I'm ok with this.  Some of us just get to have super long nails with no traumatic breaks and some don't.  Since I now have the tools, I thought I'd give a different nail shape a go and it turns out slightly rounded claws are awesome and give me all kinds of room and inspiration to try different things.  Thus, fiery mermaid scale nails!

So I'm still using the gel combination from the Nailene Ultra Quick Gel set.  It's shiny and good at making a gel coat that hides the join between my natural nail and the tip.  I was running low on tips so I bought a pack of false nails.  Turns out, you can use these to create long nails like this if you apply them like tips!  I might make a post just on that but it's just a lot of filing mostly.  Once done I liberally applied my usual top coat to the whole nail and quickly applied the circle glitter, starting from the bottom.  Now, this was not meant to be long lasting or durable, just sparkly.  And that was certainly achieved.  Woo sparklies!

The Verdict:  I've never had this long, pointy nails before and I'm surprised at how much I like them.  They elongate my fingers and give me new options for glitter placements.  I also love how sparkly these turned out.  I don't mind their impracticality.  Cos sparklies.

Glitter is from The Sparkly Shop.  This specific set will be up on Friday.  The newsletter will have more info :)