Purple Friday: Salon Perfect A Royal Affair

We prevailed last week over Oregon State and even though I'm out of town this week, I'm still rooting on my team from afar! And not only that, this week ESPN Gameday is in Salt Lake City for the UW-Utah showdown! It would be a lot of fun to travel down there, so I hope the Dawg fans who do have a great time. This week will be a tough challenge for the Dawgs; frankly, the back half of our schedule is pretty brutal at this point, with at least four good teams that will be chomping at the bit to take us down. I just want the Dawgs to keep their heads down and grind out one game at a time! Hopefully we take the same magic that we had in Oregon down to SLC and come back with the win!

This week I chose Salon Perfect A Royal Affair for my purple polish. I'll be honest, I picked this polish partly for selfish reasons-- I'm traveling with it and wanted a polish that I wouldn't cry over if it got lost or broke in transit. No offense to A Royal Affair, but I believe it's a perennial polish and even though I hate to lose a polish in any circumstances, I would really hate to lose a special indie. So there you go! A Royal Affair is a neon grape purple. This was my first experience with Salon Perfect, and alas, perfect was a misnomer in this case. The formula of this polish was pretty finicky and my first coat was a nightmare; very sheer and pooled all around the edges. Luckily, three coats gave me pretty good coverage; it's definitely not completely even and there are some thin spots but it looks mostly good.

The formula of A Royal Affair leaves a lot to be desired sadly, but the color is very pretty. It's not neon as the color in the bottle seems to suggest, but it's still a lovely color. I'd be curious to see how it looks over white (though not this week) to see if that would make it pop more. I certainly wish the formula was better; hopefully my next experience with the Salon Perfect brand is better!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Utes!

Pipedream Polish VIP Pass

And look, another new to me brand! Pipedream Polish became super popular awhile ago because they created a gorgeous set of neon cremes that watermarbled perfectly (according to those in the know, anyway) and it set off a real flurry within the nail polish community. The collection, A Night in Vegas, pretty much sold out like hot cakes every time it was restocked... and then it was discontinued. I managed to snag a set before it disappeared forever, but of course never really got around to playing with them until now! VIP Pass is a neon purple that has a super subtle (so subtle I didn't actually notice it until I photographed it) blue shimmer to it.

I used three coats here. I probably could have gotten away with two, but with my large nail beds I need a third coat to make sure I didn't have any thin spots. The formula was a dream; super smooth and buttery. It practically painted itself on my nails! It dries quickly but not so much so as to impact the application and has a matte finish.

Photographing this was a bitch because my camera and lighting made it appear pink! And definitely not neon, ugh.

Phone shot:

Slightly more color accurate but doesn't capture the deepness (or purpleness or brightness) of this shade, which is a damn shame. 

I freaking love VIP Pass! The color is gorgeous and bright (maybe not a true neon but still sizzling hot) and the formula was just utter perfection. As with many polishes, I'm wondering why I waited so long to wear it, but glad I finally did because it did not disappoint! My major was frustration was not being able to capture the true color of this polish, but that's more to do with me than with the actual polish, which was amazing.

Different Dimension Totally 2.0

I actually saw Totally 2.0 recently over on Imperfectly Painted and knowing that it was lurking somewhere in my stash, I knew I had to pull this out and wear it before the summer was over. Totally 2.0 was a polish from last summer's 80's Baby -- All Grown Up collection, which was a revamp of neon shades that had been previously released. Totally 2.0 is supposed to be the yellow of the group, but I would describe it was a "lime-green lemon" (taken from one of my kids' books) because it's a yellow with a strong green tone... or a green with a strong yellow tone? Either way, it's neon yellow/green with a golden shimmer to it.

Totally 2.0 had a formula similar to Psyche, but slightly better-- it's a touch thick but easy enough to control and apply. I used three coats and was happy; you might be able to get away with two careful coats. Totally 2.0 dries down to a matte finish, so you need a top coat to really bring out the shimmer.

Totally 2.0 does not disappoint! Yes, the formula is not perfect, but I love the color so much (gimme all the shimmer!) that it makes up for the slight formula issues. I also really like the funky yellow green color going on here; it's just awesome! This might be my favorite neon of the year, even though this was released in 2015, hah!

Pahlish Melon Baller

Tuesday after Labor Day is always a bit of let down, especially because I took Friday. But both my kids are sick now so I'm secretly looking forward to word so I can get a little down time from mom duty. I guess I'm taking this whole "it's still summer" thing seriously because I've got an eye searing polish to share with you today-- Pahlish Melon Baller! I actually picked this up during Pahlish's Black Friday sale last year (same old song, too many polishes not enough time) but given the brightness of the color I decided to save it for the summer. Melon Baller was actually released last summer, but proved to be so popular that she released it again! I picked it up because neons and flakies?! Sign me up! 

Melon Baller is described as a "neon melon jelly with a mix of silver and violet flakes." Perfect! I wore this awhile ago and don't quite remember every single little detail but I don't recall having issues. This went on smoothly and built up nicely; there's a hint of visible nail line but I don't think it was a big deal in real life. The only minor issue was the flakies did want to migrate toward the free edge but it wasn't too terrible. I am pretty sure I used three coats here! 

Melon Baller was way more neon than I remember, haha! But definitely a great color for summer. The flakies add some nice dimension; you don't see many flakie neons out there! This is my third Pahlish polish and I'm still impressed with brand! 

Hope everyone's week has started off well! 

Different Dimension Psyche

Summer isn't over yet! We are having some gorgeous, perfect summer weather right now and I have a lot of summer polishes yet to be worn. Of course, I got way off my blogging game this summer and so there's no way I will be able to cram them all in before fall gets here, but I'll try! I recently realized I hadn't worn any neons this summer, and I think that might actually be a crime! Neons and summer are match made in heaven! So on that note, today's eye searingly bright polish is Different Dimension Psyche, which was part of last summer's Back to the 70's collection. Psyche is a neon yellow with a subtle shimmer.

Psyche wasn't terrible to work with, but it's also not perfect. Being a neon yellow it already has two strikes against it so I knew I would have to be careful. I used three coats and probably could have used a fourth if I was being a perfectionist, but the truth is I'm lazy so if it works in three coats... well, there we are. Dries down to a matte finish, so you need a top coat to bring out the shimmer. You can see it's a bit streaky and there is a little visible nail line; it's really not terrible in person but it does exist. The formula is a little thick side, but again, not unworkable.

You can see that Psyche is bright, but doesn't look totally neon-- but that's typical with neons as they tend really shine in shady situations: 

Whoa, look at how it glows! It's practically radioactive! 

Even though the formula of Psyche wasn't perfect I still like the color a lot! There's something about neon yellow that just screams summer to me; I have to wear at least one during the hot weather months! I received a lot of compliments on this, even with my imperfect application, so you know it's an awesome color. I did have some issues with this peeling off, but I think my base/top coats might not be working my body chemistry any more (this isn't the first time I've experienced this issue recently) so I don't think it's the polish. Anyway, despite that, I consider this polish a winner and I kind of want to wear it for the rest of our summer, which is saying a lot!

HPB Present Neons and Neutrals: Polka Dots and Gradient

Hey all, taking a quick break from my Star Wars polishes to do the monthly HPB link-up! This month's theme is Neons and Neutrals-- a perennial favorite (for me at least)! I'm not sure what it is, but I love neons popping against a neutral background. It's just one of my favorite nail art themes and I wanted to try and squeeze a manicure in before it was over, even if it's not related to Star Wars!

I used a new to me brand for my neons: Pipedream Polish! The A Night In Vegas collection was a huge hit in the nail world (the words 'break the internet' come to mind) and was highly sought after.... And then it was disconntinued! I did manage to get my hands on a set, which have been sitting around for some months now. I figured now would be the perfect time to break them out! For my neutral I used Essie Cocktails and Coconuts, which is from the 2014 Resort Collection. Then I picked out Light of Day (a neon yellow), High Roller (neon green), and Happy Hour (neon turquoise) for my neons!

First I did a gradient on my ring finger-- this was a little bit difficult because both High Roller and Happy Hour acted fairly sheer when I was trying to sponge them on, but I got it eventually! Maybe not my greatest result, but I still think it looks pretty good! At that point, I was going to try and sponge a gradient over some vinyls on my other nails, but that ended up being a huge fail, so I moved to Plan B: polka dots! While it wasn't my go to, I think it works well and I wanted to have a couple different things going on!

And of course I needed to matte my manicure, because I'm obsessed right now:

My clean up skills are still not the best, even with liquid latex; sorry! Hope you enjoyed this manicure! And take a minute to peruse some of the other bloggers' work!

An InLinkz Link-up

Savina Beach Ball

Ok, I have to sneak in one last bright before summer is officially over, even though it's currently raining in Seattle right now. Today I have Savina Beach Ball, which is a bright neon coral creme. This was another polish I picked up at Nordstrom Rack this summer. To me, this is one of my favorite colors for summer-- coral AND neon. You can never go wrong! It works with everything. Unfortunately, Beach Ball didn't have the best formula. It was a little streaky to apply and even at three coats I wasn't entirely happy with my polish job. Certainly, I think from a distance it wasn't really noticeable, but it still annoyed me. I used three coats here and it does try down to a satiny finish due to the neon pigment. My pictures make it it look extremely bright-- and it is bright in real life, though I think the flash here definitely takes it to an extreme; it's not quite so blinding in real life.

Artificial light (flash):

And with that we bring the summer season to an end! (Booooooooo!) I definitely tend to pull out the brights in the cold winter months but now I'm definitely craving some more autumnal colors as weather has turned towards the cooler side. Are you enjoying fall or is it still summer where you are?

HBP Presents Neon Stripes!

Hey all! Something new and different with this post! One of the nail polish related Facebook groups I'm a part of, Hobby Polish Bloggers, has a monthly themed link-up and August's theme is neon! As I was pondering my next manicure during the work day (yeah, it was so, and I think about what I'm going to paint my nails) I decided I wanted to try and participate this go 'round!

I decided to go for something simple and decided to use my two Savina neon polishes, Sunset  and Beach Ball. I had picked up some striping tape awhile ago and thought "hey, why not use that?". I was already wearing Beach Ball as a base, so I put down three pieces of striping tape on each nail and then layered Sunset on top of it. The idea was to kind of create a beach towel look. The only teeny tiny problem is that these colors are pretty similar to each other and are so bright that the stripes are a little difficult to distinguish. 

Artificial light (flash):

Hope you enjoyed this manicure and that your retinas aren't too scorched from all the neon! This was my first time using actual striping tape for a mani. It was definitely a little more intense than I expected, but soooooo much easier than trying to free hand or use scotch/painter's tape. This isn't perfect but it's a start!

An InLinkz Link-up

Savina Sunset

Ok, since yesterday's post was kind of a bummer, let's do something fun today!! I have a new-to-me brand to share with you. The polish I have today is Savina Sunset. Savina is a brand I haven't really heard of or seen much of before. The bottles look a little like the China Glaze bottles (although there are really only so many polish bottle shapes) so I'm not sure if they are related. I picked up Sunset at Nordstrom Rack on a whim. It's neon, so why not, right?! Sunset is a neon red orange and it sure is pretty (and neon).

Sunset had a good formula. Nicely pigmented and thin without being watery and sheer; it applied decently and without too many issues. There was a little bit of streaking, though it wasn't enough to really bother me. I am pretty sure I only used two coats, and maybe should have used a third, but... I didn't feel like! Haha. There's also a hint of visible nail line, but it wasn't really noticeable in real life.

Artificial light (flash):

Whew, I hope you had your shades on! Sunset is bright! This is a perfect summer color and while the formula wasn't 100% perfect, it was decent enough and I am sucker for neons. They are an essential part of summer! I wore this on vacation and it was perfect for lying by the pool and soaking up the sunshine. So I think I can say I'm a fan of Savina and of this polish. I'll definitely be picking up a few more on future trips to the Rack.

Illamasqua Nurture

 Let's kick off the week with a Matte Monday post! Remember when I went on an Illamasqua kick? I haven't forgotten about them! Today I have another polish from the Rubber Brights collection to share with you, Nurture. Nuture is described as a "candy apple green" with a rubber finish, which is not quite a flat matte-- there is a slight shine to it, but not the high gloss you would get from a creme. I find "candy apple green" to be a slightly amusing descriptor-- Nuture IS reminiscent of those green apple Jolly Ranchers. Traditionally not one of my favorite candies, but this is still a fun color!

Nuture had a decent formula. Mattes tend to be thick, and it was a bit on the thicker side, though not unworkable in any way. All this hot weather hasn't helped either! I did find Nuture to just the teensiest bit streaky and I ultimately used three coats to make sure I had completely even coverage. And really, that's not a probably, though these polishes do tend to get thicker as you use them, which can sometimes be frustrating. This wasn't terrible, but next time I might try to use two more careful coats to avoid a third one! The drying time is pretty typical of these mattes-- quickly, but not too quickly (which is a very important distinction when applying nail polish, hah).

Artificial light (flash):

Bright is right! My photos make this seem almost neon-- Nuture is definitely borderline neon, though not what I would call a true neon green. I don't wear a lot of greens, so this is a little outside my wheelhouse, but I did like wearing this! I love brights for summer, no matter the color.

Hope you all have a good Monday! I can't believe we are already halfway through August!

Triple Play Thursday: Nail Nation 3000 Holos

This is embarrassing. While going through some files on my computer, I stumbled across these swatches from Nail Nation 3000. And they are from... August 2013, before my kids were born. Um, wow, that's really shameful! Especially since these are really pretty polishes! If I recall correctly, there was a lot of buzz when these were originally released because at the time, I don't think there were a lot of neon holo polishes out there. So it's a shame I never got around to posting these until now! But enjoy some awesome holo goodness as we get ready to head into the weekend! I picked up three polishes from this collection, Awesome Sauce, Glam Bot, and Wow-a-Doodle.

Unfortunately I don't have any notes on these, but I don't recall having any issues and I'm pretty sure these all went on smoothly and in two coats. They are all pretty holographic, although in my photos Wow-a-Doodle looks the most holographic. I'd actually have to pull out my bottles to compare to see if this is true or if it's just a trick of the camera. These are all perfect summer colors-- I know holos are traditional for summer, but I never stop loving them. You can't go wrong!

Awesome Sauce is a neon orange holographic:

Glam Bot is a barbie pink neon holo:

Wow-a-Doodle is a bright blue holo:

I'll be honest-- I find the Nail Nation 3000 restocks to be a bit confusing, so you just need to trawl her website and facebook page. She does make some gorgeous holos, though! And, if you happen to look at these swatches and wish you could get your hands on these particular polishes-- you can!! Some of the polishes from this collection have been reformulated and released, and you can pick them up now! Awesome Sauce is not currently available, but Glam Bot and Wow-a-Doodle are! I know I plan on picking up a couple of the polishes I missed the first time around.

Born Pretty Store Review: 2mm Mixed Rhombus Nail Studs

*samples sent for honest review*

I have something fun to share with you today! I was recently contacted by the Born Pretty Store to review some items, and if you've never heard of the Born Pretty Store, well... get to the website asap! They have a ton of stuff, but most importantly to this blog, a whole section dedicated to nail polish and nail art. They are based in Singapore, so shipping can take awhile, but the prices are super reasonable and they have a ton of stuff! As soon as I got the email, I knew I wanted to review some nail studs because I have never used them before and wanted to give it go! I chose these 2mm Mixed Rhombus studs which are a mix of shapes and neon and pastel colors. I figured there would be a lot of things I could with them and it was a nice mix of shapes and colors. Win win!

When they arrived, they looked like this:

Just in a little jar, all mixed together. And they are small! Empirically, I know 2mm is not large, but I was surprised at how tiny they were! That may sound silly, but it's true. To actually use them, I dumped out a small amount onto a paper towel in my work area and then turned them so they were right side up. They were a bit tricky to move around because they were so small, but using the edge of my nail or a toothpick worked well. If you have a pair of fine tweezers/forceps, those would work too! I tried to use a pair of tweezers I also got from the store (review to come later) but they were a bit too large for these studs. In the end, using a toothpick with a dot of top coat (not quick drying) worked the best to place them on my nail.

Here's the final look I ended up with! I used Julep Janet as my base color. I then went for a mix of colors-- I was inspired by those enamel necklaces that are popular right now and want to do something reminiscent of that. That's the design on my ring finger. By the end of that, I was having so much fun that I decided to add the circle studs on my middle finger. I love it!

There was a definitely learning curve to using these, but I was able to catch on pretty quickly and once I did, I didn't have any issues! I am looking forward to playing around with these more and creating some different designs-- it's a lot of fun!

If you're interested in trying out some nail art products or need some supplies, I have a coupon code (CRK31) you can use to receive a 10% discount! There is a ton of stuff on the Born Pretty site, so be prepared to fall down a rabbit hole. I believe you need an account to use the code-- once you login there should be a place to enter it! Happy shopping!

*samples sent for my honest review*

Julep Madison

Here's the last of my add-on polishes from my January Maven box! Tonight I have Julep Madison for you. Madison is described as an "electric neon hot pink creme" and it's definitely bright. This comes off as very red-pink to me.

Madison has a jelly-like formula similar to that of Bethany, and is very easy to apply. Here I have used two coats. Like the other polishes, this dries quickly and dries down to the same satin/matte finish. There is a little visible nail due to the jelly nature of the polish, but it didn't bother me.

Artificial light - flash:

Artificial light:

Natural light - shade:

I love this color! (Of course!) I love the brightness and the formula was great.

Julep Bethany

Tonight I have the other polish from my Maven box, Bethany. Julep describes Bethany as an "electric neon orange pink creme." My first inclination is to call this a red-orange, maybe with a hint of pink. But my color definitely picked up the dominant color, orange. In person I would say that it's not as orange as my pictures would make it out to be, but it's still a bright, bold color.

Bethany had a nice formula, almost sort of jelly-like in consistency and wasn't too thick or too thin. Flowed easily onto the nail and I didn't have any difficulty applying it. Here I have used three coats and you can see just a hint of visible nail line, which is also visible in person-- but it didn't bother me all that much.

Artificial light - flash:

Artificial light:

Natural light - shade:

Bethany is a great pop of color in these grey winter months. At first I didn't think that this polish was all that neon, but it's definitely bright and neon when you get it into natural light.