Interrobang?!

Hello there! My most recent manicure was inspired by this nail wheel featured on the one of the many nail art tumblrs out there, which are probably my biggest sources for inspiration when I'm not sure what I want to do with my nails. I liked the neon yellow nail with the black arrow on it, and I started thinking about doing a manicure with arrows and symbols. Then I saw an interrobang tattoo on Contrariwise, and I knew I had to incorporate that somehow, so it turned into a punctuation/symbol mani. The interrobang (‽) is a non-standard punctuation mark that combines an exclamation point and a question mark, and, language nerd that I am, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for quirky punctuation marks. Here's the finished result (I used Icing Grande Margarita over Wet 'n' Wild White Creme, and the black is acrylic paint):

outdoors, sunlight

I was really happy with the way all of the nails turned out, and though the interrobang is definitely my favorite, that comma is pretty dang cute, too. I have to say, this has definitely rekindled my desire to do a newspaper mani...I'm curious to see what it would look like if you did it multiple times between layers of a really clear jelly or a top coat. Perhaps that will happen soon? 

P.S. I'm moving back to university Friday, so wish me luck! I have yet to start packing (whoops), so I'll need it. I'm super excited because my roommate from last year and I have an on-campus apartment, which means I can cook, which means yummy food. Yay. :)

GT No. 9

Guess what? I'm typing this on my new MacBook Pro! I've had a PC laptop forever, so it's really nice to be able to go Mac. I'm loving it so far, though there are a few things to get used to. I'm taking advantage of a 30-day free trial of Aperture at the moment (next I'm trying Photoshop), and it's much quicker and has more features than PicasaWeb, which is what I was using. I haven't decided if it's worth the money, though - although since I got a free $100 Mac App Store gift card with my laptop since I bought it for college, I wouldn't really be paying for it. ;) Today I'd like to show you one of the nail polishes I got in Greece, GT Nail Lacquer No. 9. Although I wish it had a proper name instead of a number, I somehow feel like "No. 9" (which is what it says on the bottle) is a bit classier than just "9." Anyway, here it is with four coats. Sorry for the bits of glitter on my ring finger...I promise I could not see those until I'd changed my polish and uploaded the photos. :/

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

GT No. 9 is quite the finicky color. Not only is it a diva like most purples and refuses to photograph completely accurately, it likes to change color. No, it's not a mood polish...it just looks completely different in different lights. In some lights, it looks like the perfect bright kelly green. In some lights, it looks like a medium neon green. In some lights, it looks like a dupe (or at least a close cousin) to OPI Jade is the New Black. In all lights, however, it looks fantastic, and I wish I could've captured that better with my camera. Also, it's an opaque (well, only my camera sees the VNL, anyway) jelly, which pretty much means I'm guaranteed to fall head over heels for it. 

However, I do have one small complaint. No. 9, why must you bubble? I love you. You are gorgeous. You are one of my new favorite greens. Why?! I solved the bumpiness problem by buffing the bubbles out before I applied the final coat and top coat, but since it's a jelly, you can still see the bubbles if you look closely enough. Sad, I know. Also, my index finger got sheet marks even though I waited for each coat to dry completely and entirely before adding the next (what can I say - I had a lot of time on my hands). Also sad. But, despite the formula problems, this is still an awesome opaque green jelly from Greece, and I love it pretty much unconditionally. It's not often that I completely overlook such problems, so if you're ever in Greece...this one's worth it.

P.S. I haven't tallied up the giveaway entries yet because I've been college shopping and drooling over my Mac (and recreating all my iTunes playlists, which will take a while), but hopefully I'll get them done this weekend.

Repost: China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise

China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise is not only my first China Glaze polish, but one of the earlier polishes I showed on my blog, as well as my first neon. Though it well deserves all of those "firsts," it definitely deserves a better blog post than I gave it the last time around. I'm not linking to the first one, but you can find it at your own peril - I really had no clue what I was doing back then. I used three coats.

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

Probably because it's a neon, I couldn't get my camera to accurately capture the color of Turned Up Turquoise - it's more of a greenish teal in real life. However, it truly is a gorgeous color, and I love the finish. I only have two neon shimmers for some reason, but I definitely need to get more. After wearing Turned Up Turquoise for a little while, I added a coat of Nubar 2010 and Essie Matte About You. Funnily enough, this actually made the color of Turned Up Turquoise show up a tiny bit more accurately in the photos.

 outdoors, cloudy

outdoors, cloudy

I would definitely do this combination again . . . I love cool colors with warm-colored glitter or flakie top coats. What do you think?

Neon Splatter

Hello, there! Today's post is about the first splatter mani I ever tried. I'd wanted to try one for a while, because although the method is nearly as messy as water marbling, it's also a lot easier. I'm not going to do a tutorial because there are a lot of good ones out there, and I'm sure you can find one that will work for you. I used a base of Icing...um...neon-yellow-that-I-can't-remember-the-name-of-and-I-didn't-put-it-on-my-spreadsheet (I'll edit to add the name when I get home) over Wet n Wild White Creme, then added the splatter in Icing Electric Feeling and China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada.

 outdoors, sunlight

 outdoors, shade

indoors, artificial light

I was very happy with the way this turned out. It's a good thing I did the green before the blue, because Kiwi Cool-ada is a bit thinner than Electric Feeling, which, as you can see, made it splatter in a less defined pattern on some nails. I should note that Electric Feeling is a neon blue, and is much brighter than the pictures show - I think the vibrance of the yellow jumped out at the camera so much that it sort of overpowered the blue.

Have you tried a splatter mani yet? Personally, I can't wait to do it again. As soon as I get a neon orange polish, I'll be doing a warm-colored version of this with yellow, orange, and pink.

TBN Hot Pink Flouro

TBN (Totally Beautiful Nails) Hot Pink Flouro is one of several Australian polishes I received in a giveaway. This one sat in my untried box for quite a while because even though it looked like a great pink, I always had something else to try. I swatched it the other day as part of my marathon session, and here are the results. Like any true neon, Hot Pink Flouro dries matte. Unfortunately, like most neons, Hot Pink Flouro does not photograph accurately. It's pinker and less salmony than my pictures show, as well as more neon. Here are two coats, without top coat and then with Rush top coat.

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

Isn't it lovely? It's more of a satin finish than a matte, which I actually prefer, at least for cremes. I feel like completely matte cremes make my hands look really greasy and gross. The color makes me think of flip-flops and the beach...summer pedi, anyone? I like that even thoughh I pretty much hate summer - hot, humid, sweaty, UGH - this color makes me wish it was summer. Good job, TBN.

Nina Ultra Pro Grin and Berry It

Grin and Berry It is from Nina Ultra Pro's Pearly Brights collection. All the polishes in the collection are neon shimmers, which really intrigued me - I wondered if the polish would still have a neon finish or if it would be one of those “neons” that's not really a neon. Fortunately, Grin and Berry It lived up to my expectations and had excellent coverage for a neon! This is three coats with NO white base:

 indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, shade

outdoors, sun

Agh, what a pain to photograph. Purples are hard to photograph. Neons are hard to photograph. So guess what you get when you try to photograph a purple neon? Yeah. The indoors picture is too red, while both the outdoor pictures make Grin and Berry It appear way paler and less neon than it is in real life.

But if only you can see it in real life...it's so gorgeous! You can see a few brushstrokes when the polish is wet, but it dries to a satin, brushstroke-less finish. The base color is absolutely electric, and the blue shimmer adds an unexpected duochrome flash. Duochrome neons? Sign me up! I didn't even have to use a white base with this, and still got amazing coverage and color. Grin and Berry It is the only polish I bought from the Pearly Brights collection, but I think I'm going to get some more if they're still there when I next visit Sally's.

Note: I have read that the Pearly Brights collection is similar to Color Club Electro Candy, but I don't have any Color Club polishes so I can't compare.

China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada

I've been thinking about starting a nail polish blog for a while now. I've loved nail polish ever since I was little, probably because I just love color. However, it's become more and more of an obsession--now, you will never, ever catch me out in public without my nails painted!

Today, I'll show you a color I bought recently from the China Glaze Poolside collection: Kiwi Cool-ada. Now, I absolutely love green, but I had no experience with green neons prior to this, so I didn't really know what to expect. Fortunately, I absolutely love this color. I don't think it's really kiwi, but I like the name anyway...so, pictures!

The first is inside under artificial light; the second is outside in sunlight.

 The first picture is fairly accurate. While it does look brighter than the picture shows, Kiwi Cool-ada doesn't really appear to be truly neon indoors. Outside, however, it absolutely pops--definitely a neon! Again, it looks brighter in real life than in the picture. Unfortunately, wear has not been the greatest. I painted my nails with four coats last night, and three are already two tiny chips in the right middle finger. It would probably improve with topcoat, but I didn't want to change the finish. Despite this, Kiwi Cool-ada is a beautiful color, and a great summer color.