Badass but Girly Nails.. FT Orly, OPI & Rhinestones

Today I am showing off some nail art that I wore a couple of weeks ago when I still had the luxury of wearing nail polish.

My thumb, ring, and pinkie finger are OPI Metallic for Life. An awesome black jellyish polish stuffed with different sizes of silver hex glitters. It has a great formula (I did just one over a black black polish) and its incredibly sparkly. Then I got all trendy on myself. First trend that I was rockin' that day was the two accent nails.. I painted them with Orly Beach Cruiser, a great neon pink that covered pretty good in two coats, better in three. The second trend is the framed nails.. but I couldn't for the life of me paint it on very well so I gave up and used black rhinestones that I got from BornPretty! (I love Born Pretty). I used a coat of Gelous and then one by one stuck them on with a dotting tool dipped in top coat to make it tacky. It seemed like it might be tedious.. but I was watching modern family, and I was in a rhythm.. so it didnt take very long at all! After a coat of Gelous, and a coat of SV, they were stuck REALLY well on there. I was rough with my hands and I didn't lose any of them before I wanted to talk off the manicure (about three days total). The regular polish was chipping before those rhinestones had any wear & tear at all.

I think the rhinestones and the neon pink give the manicure a girly look, while the rhinestones being black and the black nails make it look kind of badass. I think the silver hex glitter tie it all together being both girly AND badass. Good on you silver hexes. I like that you can be flexible.

Anyway, it makes me a little sad to look at these pretty nails when mine are in such a horrid state. I miss them Hahaha. But work is going well! Woohoo!

Summertime Nails Of the Day! Orly Beachcruiser & Joe Fresh Fluo Blue!

Hello :) I'm so sleepy! I work insane hours when I am away for work. I want to take a nap :P

ANYWAY lets talk about polish! I did this mani a couple of weeks ago and for me, it was one of those manicures that was simple.. but that I was in love with. Nothing fancy, just bright, fun, and summery. Plus at the time my nails were long and healthy which now they are not :P Haha. Stupid work. Ruining my hands and blogging time haha

Anyway, this is Joe Fresh Fluo Blue & Orly Beach Cruiser done in that new trend where the accent nails are your pointer and middle finger. I like this trend, I like it a lot! Super fun.

Let me just say that I am getting A LOT of wear out of Orly Beach Cruiser this summer thus far. I've worn it.. more times than I can count. Good thing Orly bottles are big :D I also love Fluo Blue. It is not a neon but its very vibrant :D It has an ALMOST one coat smooth and easy to work with formula. If you do thick coats, you can get away with one for sure. It goes on smooth and very even. Its bright and fresh too. 

I also thought they looked perfect together. Really complimented each other well :] They both also wore quite well. I took it off with minimal tip wear on day three, and I was volunteering at the SPCA everyday playing in the dirt with dogs. Held up really well :)

*waves longingly to old long healthy nails*
*snarls at oddly shaped weak peeling excuses-for-nubbins*

Neon Yellow Comparison Post!

This summer is all about neons.. and I love it. I can't wear them at work but I was rockin' em back home, and when I get out of the woods... trust me I will be rocking them some more. I can't get enough. Since neon yellows are all the rage right now, I combed through my neon yellow collection and picked four to compare!

From left to right we have:

American Apparel Neon Yellow

Orly Glowstick

China Glaze Sunkissed

Color Club Almost Famous.

From left to right on the nail:

Color Club Almost Famous (pinky)

China Glaze Sunkissed (ring)

Orly Glowstick (middle)

American Apparel Neon Yellow (index)

Sorry for this horrid picture. I was rushing :(

Colours: No dupes here. Even in the bottles, Almost Famous is the odd duckling here. It came out a couple of years ago so its not as "with the season" as the other neon yellows we are seeing this summer. Its more of a "banana" shade but don't underestimate it. It is still very bright. And it is still awesome. China Glaze Sunkissed is more of a neon lemon yellow. What sets it apart is the amazing golden yellow shimmer running through it. Stunner. Orly Glowstick.. a fantastic neon yellow that leans green. Looks exactly like the colour of a neon glowstick. Epic colour. American Apparel Neon Yellow is the standard neon yellow. It is the exact colour of a neon yellow highlighter. No muss, no fuss, no coconuts. So colour wise, they are all similar, but a little different in the details.. with Almost Famous sort of sticking out there like a sore thumb.

Formula and Application: Almost Famous has a standard Color Club two coat formula. My bottle is very old and has lost some of its self levelling ability but with some thinner I think it should be back in tip top shape soon. No need for white undies. China Glaze Sunkissed pops a LITTLE bit more with white undies but is definitely not needed. Its a thick formula. Need to watch for dragging. But two coats is enough. Orly glowstick needed three coats on its own, or two over white. Not too thin, not too goopy. Pretty good actually. And now for the problem child of the group... AA neon yellow. What a frustrating polish. Its thick & goopy AND sheer???? It needs about five coats on its own to get it smooth and opaque. Two to three over white is OKAY but probably not even. It also takes forever to dry. I practically poured half of my bottle of thinner into it. My bottles pretty old but from what I can remember it has always been a unique kind of hell to apply. I hold a special place in my heart for it though because it was my first neon yellow nail polish from quite a few summers ago and it is straight up original neon highlighter yellow.  Does anyone know if I just got a bad bottle? I'll gladly pick up a different one if thats the case because I do love the colour.

Anyway, back to work! Hope someone found this somewhat helpful :]

Orly Neons For Summer 2012! Swatches & Review

Haiii

I was in my local Sally Beauty and I was blinded by some awesome neons from Orly! I only picked up two, but the two colours are SOO down my alley.

Orly Beach Cruiser- A very neon blue toned pink! This is two coats over one coat of OPI Alpine Snow, and it dries to a semi-matte or satin finish. I have on topcoat in these photos. I have a lot of neon pinks and it isn't necessarily unique, but its very pretty and I go through neon pinks so quickly, that I needed another. The formula was good, not too goopy and not too thin. My camera couldn't actually capture the neon, this shade really is bright!

Up next is Glowstick, Literally it is the perfect name. At first I thought it might be a dupe for my American Apparel Neon Yellow, but its actually got a little bit more green taking it out of "yellow highlighter" territory and into the exact colour of one of those glow sticks I used to bust open with my teeth when I was a kid. Formula was really good for a neon, and a yellow. This is three coats over one coat of OPI Alpine Snow. Probably could have gotten away with two but I was rushing and had some user error. It was not goopy, or runny. I was actually really impressed. This colour is straight down my alley too, I love it and have already worn it a few times. Very happy summer colour:)

This one is in the sun!

This one is in the shade! Cool right?

Hope you like them as much as I do! Perfect for summer I can see me wearing them a lot!

Orly Dark Shadows, Mysterious Curse! Swatch & Review

Herro!

Orly just put out a new collection inspired by the Tim Burton remake movie called Dark Shadows. Dark shadows was originally a goth soap opera from way back when, and I was super stoked to hear Johnny Depp would be portraying Barnabas Collins. Im actually excited about Michelle Pfeiffer too! I think its going to be one of those melodramatic movies that some people hate... but I think it will be awesome!!

I love Johnny Depp so much ever since I was a little girl and would watch Edward Scissor Hands on repeat for hours and hours, and Benny and Joon is in my top 5 favourite movies EVER so the collector inside me NEEDED a "Johnny" polish to covet and cuddle with at night time.

Orly came up with four shades, but I pretty much had dupes for the all the others so I really couldn't justify buying all of them. (My inner hoarder will probably go back next week and pick up the rest of them).

The one I did pick was Mysterious Curse. I'm pretty sure it is purple(??), but in some lights it looks blue too(??)! Its one of those odd purple/blue - blurple shades, and I love it. Its a dark dark base, with an INTENSE visible almost all the time beautiful strong blue shimmer! Its so pretty!!!

These next two are more in the shade, and show the base colour pretty well!

Overall the formula was alright! Somewhat goopy but two coats was all I needed! I really like this polish. It doesn't scream summertime to me but it definitely screams dark shadows to me, and I like that. I'll be wearing it when I go see the movie :)

Here is the trailer for the movie if you're interested in watching it!