Naked Neon Nails - Funky French

On Saturday I realized I've been a failure at summer manis - I haven't used ANY neons this whole summer! So I decided - TODAY'S the day. But alas... I had my heart set on a mani with a nude polish. What was I do to?

A funky french of course! With NEON tips! The best of both worlds - nudes, and neons! Plus, this way, it wouldn't be SO obnoxiously neon that people would see me coming from 50 feet away.

I started with two coats of Essie Topless and Barefoot aka the best nude polish in my whole stash (thanks Mom!). It's not quite mannequin hands, but it's just the perfect subtle skin color. I love it, but the formula on it is atrocious (in my bottle at least..). I managed to make it work and figured it wouldn't be too big of a deal if it wasn't perfect since I'd be putting something over it.

Now - to go on my hunt for the neon polishes I wanted to use. I realize not all of these are neon per se, but I thought this combination of colors was the most flattering together. The neons are (from thumb to pinky) China Glaze Pink Voltage, China Glaze Style Wars, China Glaze Electric Pineapple, Funky Fingers 220 Volts, and Funky Fingers Riot.

I did the nude base on Saturday afternoon, then applied tape to the tips for the french on Sunday. This works better for me than waiting [im]patiently for my top coat to dry enough to do it all in one sitting -- that's how I always ruin them, so I wait a day in between. Seal with a coat of Revlon Quick Dry and you're done! Probably the easiest nail art mani I've done in a while and I actually am really digging this one!

Oh, and before I go, look what managed to play out when I was taking pictures of this mani...

I swear I did not realize the matchy matchy until I was outside taking the pictures! Maybe my subconscious grabbed inspiration from what I was wearing ;)

Zoya Sooki Funky French

Hi all. I'm alive!

Today I have a funky french for you guys. Since I rarely have the time (or motivation) to do my nails these days, I've been building on plain color manis as a refresher so I don't have to remove the entire mani.

This started with two coats of Zoya Sooki (any True Blood fans here?) which is the SEXIEST red in all the land. I love it. It's just like...UNF!! Then I taped on a diagonal and used Zoya Kelly to make a funky french. I stamped with a Sally Hansen chrome pen and Konad plate m73. I usually have problems with this particular plate design but it worked pretty well with the Chrome pen.

Sorry for the short post, I hope you all are well! Until next time, see ya :)

A french affair with cocktails

I was intrigued when I saw the pic floating around Pinterest of the cocktail mani.  Presumably, the concept is that the thumb and first two fingers of your dominant hand are accented so the bling is visible when you hold your wine glass. 

So here's my take on it.  I wanted something bright and fresh for summer so I settled on pink.  The base color is Essie French Affair, which is a cool toned pink.  It went on surprisingly well considering I have so many application issues with Essie polishes.  This is two coats.  On top I layered two of my favorite glitterbombs.  First was Funky Fingers Sand & Stilettos.  S&S is a silver holographic glitter but I'm convinced it leans pink.  You can also substitute Studio M or Color Club Magic Attraction (which is the same polish).  Then on top I added OPI Teenage Dream which we all know is a pink base loaded with lots of holographic glitter.

What do you think of the "cocktail mani"?  My B/F's mom says she thinks it looks like I forgot to paint 2 of my fingernails.   Love it or leave it?

Day 6: Violet Nails

Today's 31-Day Challenge theme is violet nails!

I started with two coats of an unnames mini Funky Fingers lavender polish and topped it with the best purple topper -- Jesse's Girl Confetti! Confetti turns everything into an amazeballs magical blueish purple color! I love it.

Tomorrow starts the actual nail art of the 31 Day Challenge! Who's excited? *Raises hand* Me, me, me!!

220 Volts Gradient

After Let Them Have Polish did this gradient mani, I had a burning desire to do one too!

I used three coats of Funky Fingers 220 Volts. This is a BRIGHT neon blue.. I'm surprised these pictures look as color accurate as they do! I didn't get a swatch of this alone, sorry :(

Then I sponged on China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses. Overall I'm really liking how this looks, even if it is a little summery for September. I can never use fall colors for too many manis in a row :)

Short post for today, but there's not much else to say! What do you think?

Sinful Colors - Daddy's Girl -- ALL JAZZED UP!

Hi all

Today I want to show you a purty layering combo I did last week. I started with three coats of Sinful Daddy's Girl. It's a sparkly, squishy purple jelly polish and it's bootiful, but sooooo hard to capture on camera. This one is a little difficult to built up -- it looked opaque on my nails, but in these pictures you can see some VNL.

Then I decided to jazz it up with a really pretty purple glitter polish I got in this little 4-pack of Funky Fingers minis. Again, I wish these had names... they're so pretty! Enlarge to see sparkly goodness.

Sorry about the bit of tip-wear -- I thought I got pictures of this before I left to see Boyfriend for the weekend, but alas.... no.

It's so sparkly and shimmery! What do you all think?

-Amanda

Pink Wednesday - Sinful Colors Soul Mate with Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos

I wanted to do a Pink Wednesday post since we haven't done one in a while and I've been busy with company from out of town visiting.  So today I started with 2 coats of Sinful Colors Soul Mate, which is a medium dusky pink creme.  I thought the pigmentation was good and it covered well in one coat.  I used two to smooth everything out and because I'm anal like that.  This is a nice enough pink color, I just don't really like how medium pink colors look on me.  I just can't get over thinking they all look like Pepto Bismol.

Once the SC was dry I topped them with Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos.  This is a THICK holographic glitter in a very light pink base.  And by thick I mean THICK.  It's very similar in consistency to Milani's Rock Star Heavy Glitters.  It kinda reminds me of spreading Elmer's school paste on your fingers.

As I mentioned, its a holographic medium sized glitter in a very light pink base and it's an absolute glitter bomb.  Some people are referring to this as a silver glitter, but to me it's a light pink, so that's what I'm going with.  It looks like Rainbow Brite puked on my nails.

 I like glitter, but wow - this might even be too much for me.   This polish is OPI Teenage Dream on steroids.  It's also very similar to Studio M/Color Club Magic Attraction, but the glitter in MA is smaller and the consistency less dense.

Since the glitter dries very gritty, I used a coat of Gelous to smooth out the surface before applying SV as a top coat and its very smooth and glassy.  I'm dreading removing this one though.  Anyone have a sand blaster I can borrow?

Funky Fingers - Baby Baby Baby

Quick post for today because I am very much under the weather (first bug of the season's hit me already...boo)...but I wanted to show you this mani I did last week.

I used a base of China Glaze Electric Pineapple then topped with two coats of Funky Fingers Baby Baby Baby. I wouldn't recommend using this polish without a base color. Its REALLY thick (as you can see by the tips awkwardly not having as much glitter on them). This polish is so thick that the foil method was futile. I still had to scrub to get the glitter herpes off and still today there's little remnants left everywhere (about a week later).

It's gorgeous though. I just couldn't capture the holographic as well as I would've liked to.

Unnamed Eggplant Prettiness

GAHHH!! I hate when polishes don't have names on them. It irks me because I can't google it and see what it looks like on other people and what they think of it!!

This one came in a 4-pack of Funky Finger minis that Mama picked up while she was in Boston a couple weeks ago. The set comes with three different shades of purple and a purple microglitter.

I was anxious to try out this eggplant color. 1) because I swatched it on my wheels and loved it and; 2) because I have nothing else like this in my collection!!

This is a dark, dark, (almost black) purple cream. Application on this was wonderful -- the first coat was a little streaky and uneven, but the color was opaque after a second coat.

I chopped all my nails off. I like them shorter (they don't break as often!) and I think vampy shades like this one look so much better on me when I have nubbins.

I'm so sad that this is a mini bottle because I feel like this will be a popular color with me for fall/winter! If I remember correctly there was a purple vampy color in China Glaze's Metro collection that just came out. I haven't gotten any of those -- might have to pick some up soon!

So I ask you this, does anyone know of any dupes for this that I would have access to? If so, please leave them below in the comments!!

Epic Nail Mail Haul!

Hi everyone! I just want to share with you the awesome nail mail I've gotten in the last 2 weeks or so. I'm in heaven!!!

 China Glaze Island Escape Collection

L-to-R: 108 Degrees, Papaya Punch, Electric Pineapple, Cha Cha Cha, Blue Iguana, Senorita Bonita

 I received these for getting runner-up in StyledOn's nail art contest! Don't think summer ending will stop me from wearing these :)

Zoya

L-to-R: Erika, Neeka, Codie, Jo

I got these from Zoya's latest promotion! I've swatched them here.

Funky Fingers

L-to-R: Kingston, 220 Volts, Pop Artist, Riot

L-to-R: Sand and Stilettos, Favorite Girl, Baby Baby Baby

Unnamed Purple Minis (came in a 4-pack)

 Mama picked these up for me in Boston! There's no 5 Below close to us. I've swatched these too -- they'll go up later this week :)

Misc

OPI Pair'em Scare'em (With Zom-Body To Love [it glows in the dark!!] and Black Shatter), Sally Hansen Pumpkin Spice, Bath & Body Works Caramel Apple Hand Soap, and Bones Monster Mint Anti-Bacterial Hand Gel

From the lovely Mary at Body & Soul Beauty! I won these goodies in one of her Friday Follower Freebie giveaways. Mary is so generous! Definitely go check her blog out if you haven't already.

So many new pretties! I'm so excited to play with these and show them to you guys!!