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 ;)

Vampy gradient

I saw this gradient on Pinterest a couple weeks ago and absolutely fell in love with it.  I loved the dark vampy look of the black tips against the blood red.  The pin originated from http://www.lovevarnish.com/2012/06/vampy-gradient.html so credit goes to her for this awesomesauce mani.

This is 2 coats of Sally Hansen Right Said Red sponged with a combination of Sally Hansen Wine Not and Wet N Wild Black Creme.  Then I added just a teeny bit of sponging on the black tips with Orly Androgynie. 

This is a mani I can sink my teeth into.  I'd stake my life on it.

Hope you have a great day!

Pink checkerboard

After a failed manicure earlier in the week I wanted something simple and fast.  So I did a quick mani yesterday morning with Zoya Lolly, a lovely pink matte color.   I chose the matte polish because I wanted to do my nails in the morning before work and matte polish dries fast.  The first coat drags a tiny, bit but everything should level out by coat #2.

As I was showing my boyfriend the color he mentioned it would be cool if you could do a french tip fauxnad (of course he didn't know that there WAS such a thing!)  So at his suggestion, I added a checkerboard fauxnad tip using white konad special polish and plate M56.  It took me a couple tries to get the tips straight and even then the stamp didn't transfer perfectly.  But I think it looks cool.

Extreme Matte Flakey Goodness

Guys...I might have gone overboard on pictures with this one. It's just so....pretty...and sparkly...!!

You know how I feel about doing nail art after nail art after nail art. I just don't like it -- I like to have something plain(ish) between manis. So this was my solution to "plain mani" -- three coats of a flakey polish over a dark green! Most people would just pick a light pink if they were going for "plain"....

Anyway, I started with two coats of Finger Paints Scenery Greenery. It's a pretty dark forest green, but man my bottle has gotten thick :( I hate it when you open a bottle of polish after not using it for a while only to find that it's practically chunkified. I topped that with two coats of Finger Paints Twisted which...OMG. I guess I never got the full effect of this polish because I've only ever used it over light colors. But over this dark green?! Wow!

 

Then I just had to see what it looked like mattified because I LOVE the look of matte flakies. And yes....I may have put on a matte top coat and taken pictures of it in my car on my lunch break....

What do you guys think of my mattified flakey mani? Love it or hate it? I happen to LOVE the way this came out!

Who's ready for the weekend? I AM I AM! Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...

I-Don't-Know-What-This-Stamp-Even-Is Konad Gradient Nails

Hi ladies! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend. They go way too fast, don't they? :(

I wanted to try and see if I could do a more successful gradient, so this weekend I sat down and tried the Sammy technique and what do you know -- it actually worked!! I do have to say though, that I tried to do it with 3 colors at first and couldn't get it to look like an even, gradual gradient. So if anyone has any tips on that besides the usual just sponging two colors, one on top of the next method, let me know.

The two colors in the gradient are Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud and Essie Knockout Pout. I thought I got pictures of the plain gradient, but alas, I didn't. And I didn't realize until I'd already stamped and taken pictures of the final mani. Shucks.

I topped the gradient with a coat of Fairy Dust (my bottle is about as thick as Elmer's glue these days...) and stamped over with Sinful black polish and plate RA-112. I don't even KNOW what this pattern is supposed to be, so I don't know what to call these nails! Anyone have any ideas for what the pattern actually IS? Haha. Oh well, they turned out pretty well I think. Maybe I'm getting back into the groove of things!

Think I'm going to head over to Ulta today to pick up some CG On Safari polishes, so look out for some manis with those! Have a lovely day :)