Summer Neon Comparisons

Hello to all! How's everyone's weekend going? I haven't done anything but clean and polish. I'm almost to the point where I'm ready to do something on the weekend ha. Next weekend is a concert somewhere in a field (from my understanding) by Frank Foster- his new album release concert.  He's this guy that my husband graduated high school with (mind you he had only 10 people in his graduating class). You can check him out on Facebook here. It's not really my kind of music, but he's very talented and a good friend of Allen's, so we enjoy watching him become famous. Pretty cool.

Anyways, since this summer has been all about neons I wanted to compare a few for you all. I seem to have collected quite a few yellow neon colors that I have been staring at on my shelves and thought I would try them side by side to compare.

                             

So I chose to compare China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard, Milani Totally 80's, Nina Ultra Pro Solar Flare, and Orly Glowstick. These are shown as they are on my nails from left to right.

First up is China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard. First of all, I loved this collection, as did most people I found. I loved all of the colors I have from this collection. This is def a neon in my eyes but doesn't have that complete semi-matte finish neons usually have, but rather an almost shimmer finish to it and only required 2 coats with no undie- like most other neons.

Milani Totally 80's is one that I bought but haven't tried until now. It did require some white undies and was very sheer and needed like 5 coats for an opaque look. This is actually a more green than yellow color. This was the only color that has a creme finish to it.

Nina Ultra Pro Solar Flare. I've yet to find this brand anywhere but Sally's. They did have a summer neon collection come out, but not much is said about this brand. I think it's just as good as any of the other brands found at Sallys (China Glaze, Orly, etc.) This was the only color I bought from this neon collection. I had it on my toes early summer and got a lot of compliments and it is a very bright, very much a neon. All the qualities- requires white undies, very sheer, so bright it hurts, semi-matte finish. 

Orly Glowstick and Solar Flare look exactly the same when side by side. Same qualities and a few dollars more in price. I love Orly but sometimes the application can be a little frustrating. The brush is long and thin and seems to make it harder to apply this neon since semi-mattes and mattes have a tendancy to dry quickly. I also used a white undie along with about 5 coats for an opaque look- even witht the white underneath. I still found the latter two polishes a bit streaky looking and wasn't quite pleased with the outcome.

So, there you are. 4 yellow neons from this summer. Just for review purposes I used Orly Bonder as basecoat and Seche Vite on top. I like all these colors and loved the neon polishes that were released this summer, but I'm ready for some fall colors, as I've already shown you with my previous review of Zoya. So, did anyone else like these colors or have any others they would add to this (other neon yellows)? Tell me what your favorite summer color was?

Well, as always I like to leave you with lil something. I was playingn around on YouTube this morning and found the "Yes Dance 2" from Rob Hoffman. I don't think it's as funny or original as the first, but nevertheless, it was a good laugh.

Never really seen a hot straight guy in a tutu...gotta watch!

Fergie Gone Neon

Happy Monday to all! Hope everyone had a good weekend. School has started for most people. Addie starts 4th grade on Wednesday.  Her school is so small that she just moves next door. There's one teacher/class per grade. So, as you move up you just make a "U" around the school..ha. Kinda cute, I guess.

Well, I am working on another little quiz, but I'm going to make it harder...that was way to easy, but I was just seeing how it would work. It was a test run. I will try to have one in a couple of weeks.

So, I am still working on getting better at nail art or just stamping...that's not really nail art, I guess, but it's something I'm still having to work on. So, I thought I'd bring a little example that I conjured up ha. I did some tweaking on my cuticles (they got a little dry between swatches and I guess I didn't really notice until I started editing my pics...srry!)

I used Wet 'N Wild from Fergie's new line Glowstick. It is an almost neon green shimmer that applies easily with 2 coats. I say "almost neon" because neons have been so popular this year that to me true neons hurt your eyes when you see them such as Orly Glowstick, which I also have, but just haven't swatched. One of those that I saw it once and had to have kinda polish (hence the name...) This is still a pretty color and looks nice as a shimmer.

I used Orly Bonder as a base.. 2 coats of Glowstick. I used Color Club Revvvolution,which is my fav gray holo, as my stamping polish and one of my new stamps from Cheeky Monkey CH16. Then finished off with...yup, thick coat of Seche Vite. Have you tried any of the Fergie Line yet? If so, what's your favorite color? What do you think of them?

 I wanted to show you a vid of Fergie but wouldn't upload, so I am bringing you some Dave Chapelle...almost the same, right? Does the name Tyrone Biggums ring a bell to anyone?? Well, watch below if you want a good laugh:

Essie Action In Action

Well, hope everyone is having an awesome weekend! I'm just chilling at home watching "The Hunger Games" and having a nice drink with the hubby:) doesn't happen very often! Yet, I still can't resist the tempatation to blog! Here's why:
So, I had my little quiz last night and one of my winners asked for Essie Action.  I told her that I had the polish, but had tried to wear it once and it was so difficult and streaky that I gave up and almost threw it away. It has been sitting on my shelf until she now. So, I did a little googling reviews of Action...turns out it is a difficult polish but very pretty. So, I had to give it another try and some attention. This is what I got:

3 coats, no topcoat, direct sunlight

I have to say this has been the most difficult Essie polish I've ever "worked with". The brush didn't want to work with me, but I messed with it and it started to cooperate. Then the polish itself...well, I had to add a steel ball to the mixture and it seemed to help the streakiness. First, I have to say that in the bottle this color looks like a pastel, but there's nothing light about Action. This collection Poppi Razzi Summer 2012 for Essie brings 4 "neons" that have a semi-matte finish, which you can clearly see above. I didn't buy any of the other colors in this collections, but from what I read about the other colors, only one besides Action, is the only other polish that presents itself like a true neon.

Well, I started off with Orly Bonder, hoping this would help the polish stick to my nails. This is a very thin polish and is streaky and dries quickly. So, this is a tricky polish and needs precision and patience. It took 3 coats to get the polish a more opaque look. This is with no top coat, simply b/c I just loved the satin look this polish naturally gives! (again, I can't make my pictures bigger...what up Google??)

Next, I added a thin coat of Seche Vite (unlike my usual thick coat of goopy Seche).  The gloss added to the neon just make it sparkle...well, see for yourself:

Here it is with topcoat in the shade:

So, as with all neons, I wanted to try a white "undie" color, Circus Reverso, to see if it was any brighter. I didn't find that that it is, but I only applied 2 coats of Action instead of 3. But, here we are with no topcoat:

And in the shade, white undie, 2 coats, no topcoat:

Lastly with Seche Vite:

And in the shade:

So, my conclusion is that is a difficult polish, but if you have the patience and right tools, this can be a beautiful manicure! I love neons and this definitely is one of my favorites for the summer. I'm glad that Iris asked for this polish, because I don't know that I would have given it a second thought! Hope you found this helpful! Let me know what you think. And if you own this polish, how did it work out for you?

Dollish Polish Random Dancing

Good Wednesday to all! So, we're halfway done with this week, yesterday was the first day of summer and we are already breaking records with this awful heat! It was 100 degrees today in northern Louisiana. I got in my car after I got off work and I had to roll my window down and hang my head out just to be able to breathe!!

Well, I have been shopping for the past couple of weeks for some new polish and finally decided on the indie brand K.B. Shimmer, who just opened their shop back up for a while. I also got some soap samples that I'm super excited to try!

Today, I thought I'd post on some old swatches from another indie brand- Dollish Polish. I have been trying to catch her again when she has some polishes in stock, but I always seem to just miss her:( But a while back- when she was still on Etsy I got a couple of polishes, one of which I am showing today, Random Dancing.

 If I had painted all my fingernails with this wonderful glitter I would have used to whole bottle! It's got so many different glitters in it, but it took me a LOT of layers to cover my full nail. I didn't use any color as a base so this ended up being VERY thick, but looked awesome once I applied like 10 coats! For my other nails I used 2 coats of Color Club Warhol, which is actually a bright, almost neon pink, but appears bright red in these pictures. No matter what kind of light I used it came out red, but with all the different glitter colors it matched. I would apply a few coats of Random Dancing then kind of push it around with my fingers since the base of this polish has a jelly-like consistency that I very much like. I made it easy to put the glitter where I wanted it on my nail. And I finished it off with Seche Vite, of course:)

Sadly, a couple of weeks ago my step-son, who likes to get a couple of my polishes and carry them around...he happened to get this polish and had it in his mouth and the ate the "Dollish Polish" sticker right off the polish, so now it looks like it has no name or brand:( BUT, I did manage to take these pictures before it was "destroyed"...