Nine Zero Lacquer - Smoothie Bar Collection

Hi friends!

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Today, I have a bright and fun summer collection to share with you all.  Nine Zero Lacquer has just released the Smoothie Bar Collection which gives me all the 80s retro summer vibes.  They have paired neon colors with black shredded glitters for a look that Kelly Kapowski would totally rock.  They are all very bright, basically neons.  But they don't need a white base to get that bright neon look.  Let's dig in!

KBShimmer - All The Bright Moves Collection

Hey gang!

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KBShimmer is releasing and brand new collection of neons for summer!  As far as I can remember, they have not put out a true neon collection before.  A few year ago, they had a nice selection of bleached out neons one summer but nothing like this one.  These babies are bright!  And the best part of all...you don't need a white base to get that blinding bright neon effect.  Another bonus for this collection, the names.  They perfectly punny in all the right ways.  My 80's nostalgia is in love with them.  Let's take a look!

Rainbow Nails for the #31DC2017Weekly

Hi friends!

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I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I sure did!  I was in NYC for Polish Con.  This was the second installment of The Polish Convention and it was even bigger than the first.  I will share more about the Con later.  But I had to get this week's edition of the #31DC2017Weekly up for you.  We are closing out the first set of prompts which are all about colors.  Ending on rainbow of course.  I revisited a mani I first did for the #31DC2013...a rainbow splatter mani.

Double Side Dots with Born Pretty Store Studs

Hello!

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I have a quick little manicure to share with you today!  It is Labor Day here in the states which basically means the summer is over.  Even though it will be hotter than heck here in Florida for another few months, we are still going to be calling it fall shortly.  It's already Pumpkin Everything out there!  But we don't have to let summer be gone so quickly.  Keep summer alive with neon nails!

When I saw these black and white studs arrive from Born Pretty Store, I knew that I wanted to use them with some neon colors.  The contrast of the stark black and white against a neon background is quite appealing.  I started off with a coat of white topped with two coats with China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy.  This neon peachy pink is the most difficult thing to photograph.  It is so bright and never shows up the correct color on camera.  But since is it is such a quintessential summer shade, I know most of you have seen it in person before.  I stuck the round black metal studs with white polka dots to the side of my nail in #doublesidedots style when I added a glossy top coat.  It is such a simple design but looks so cool.  Have you double side dotted yet?

What do you think of this mani?!?  I love it :)  These studs come in round, square and triangle versions.  Only $1.99 a pack from Born Pretty Store!  Shop around their store...it is easy to fill a cart up quickly.  Then use my code 'AVAW10' at check out for 10% off your entire order (not an affiliate code).

Thanks for stopping by!

 - Amy 'McPolish' McG

*polish purchased by me, nail art studs provided for review*

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Lavish Polish - Summer 2016 Collection

Hi friends!

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Today, I have a sweet little collection from Lavish Polish to share with you.  This summer collection consists of three crellies and three crelly glitters in a variety of bright, almost neon colors.  This collection is available right now, so let's get into the swatches so you can see which ones you want to make yours.

Striped Nails for the #31DC2016Weekly

Hey all!

Purchased by Me

For this weeks prompt, Stripes, I wasn't sure what to do.  I kept thinking of the same look I did last year, stripes and flowers.  But I decided to do a take on a nail art look I did a very long time ago.  Stripes of color and little details.  I started with a base of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a quick dry top coat.  For the stripes, used Nail Vinyls to block of sections and painted them in with neon color.  the neon green, neon pink and neon yellow are all acrylic paint that you can get from any crafts store.  I used these because it is so easy to fix mistakes.  All you need to do is gently scratch off the dried paint and start over.  On each nail, I did a tiny little design in one the stripes.  Leopard print, cheetah print, tiny dots and stripes all done with a tiny little paint brush.  Once it dried, I topped it all off with a glossy top coat.   What do you think!?

I like how these turned out but I wish I would have put a thicker top coat on.  The acrylic paint is a little raised and rough.  But the neon colors are bright and fun for summer.  Make sure you check out the #31DC2016Weekly tag on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to see all of the other great nail art looks for the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

 - Amy 'McPolish' McG

*products purchased by me*

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Doctor Lacquer - Exotic Collection

Hi loves!

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Tonight, I have a small little collection of pastel neon cremes from Doctor Lacquer to share with you.  At first glance, these may look similar to the Scubahola Collection but they are not glow-in-the-dark, just plain cremes.  These set of five bright pastel shades are great for both spring and summer.  I can't wait to wear some of these on my toes this summer!  The Exotic Collection is inspired by exotic fruits from around the world.  I had to look up each one of them because I had never heard of them. Let's take a look at these fun colors!

Click through for all the photos!

Lavish Polish - Summer 2015 Collection

Happy Monday!

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I hope you all had a happy and safe Independence Day this weekend!  (at least those of you that live in the States)  Mine was pretty lame as I had to work.  So, to start off this lovely week, I have a bright summer collection to share with you.  Lavish Polish has come out with a collection of five summer neons.  I preferred some of these on their own and some of these over a white base.  They are all super bright and actually water marbled quite well.  I am not a professional water marble artist like some ladies in Instragram are.  So if they worked for me...they should work for you!  I did a little water marble accent nail for all of these swatches using all five colors over a white base. Let's get into some summer neons!

Click through for all the photos!

Cirque Colors - Magic Hour holos

Hello!

Purchased by Me

It's warming up out there and starting to feel a lot more like summer!  I will miss spring but I am excited for summer colors.  And what so we wear in the summer on our nails??  Neons!  And what type of polish is the most fun to wear in the sunshine?  Holographics!  So, put those two together and you have a winning combo.  Today, I have four limited edition holographic polishes from Cirque Colors to share with you from the Magic Hour collection.  This collection is exclusive to Nordstrom's Magic Hour pop-in shops curated by Olivia Kim.  These small shops are only in a select number of Nordstrom stores.  But you can purchase any of the limited edition products online like I did.  I snagged the four holographic polishes in this collection the moment they were available online and I can't wait to share them with you!

Click through for all the holo goodness!

Morgan Taylor 2014 Summer Neon Collection

I'm really excited to share these Summer neons with you. If you aren't familiar with Morgan Taylor yet, be prepared to be blown away by these awesome pops of color!

Watt Yel-looking At?

The perfect neon yellow that is brighter than the sun! Great formula for being a neon. Dried to a satin finish. This is three coats, no undies and with top coat. Color makes me look super tan. 

Pink Flame-ingo

Pink Flame-ingo is a gorgeous bubble gum pink neon. Seen here is three coats, no undies and with top coat. I do not have a polish like this in my collection. 

Don't Worry, Be Brilliant

My favorite from the collection. It is a gorgeous neon coral that screams summer! It is not a dupe for China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy. My original FFF is a tad more pink. The formula for this color was amazing! I did not have any problems with the formula. My skin is usually not this dark but I did not want to retouch my photos. I care more about the polish color be true. Seen here is three think coats, no undies and with top coat.

Go For The Glow

This is highlighter green if I have ever seen one. It is my least favorite from the group. I don't hate it. It is a really fun color, I just didn't like the way it looked on me. It will also be a great color come Halloween time. 

This is three thin coats. No undies and with top coat. 

Don't Touch Me, I'm Radioactive

I would call this one a dusty neon? It really is a great color. But it is not as bright as the others. I love blue and have no other color like this in my collection. It's a keeper anyway. Seen here is three coats. No undies and with top coat.

It's Electric

Last but certainly not least. This is my other favorite from these neons. It is super opaque electric purple. Probably the most neon purple I have seen. Formula was fantastic and almost a one coater. Seen here is two coats, no undies and with top coat. 

Overall this collection is so awesome! I love that none of these colors need an undie. Formula was great with all of them and the wide brush makes it easy to achieve a tidy paint job. 

Morgan Taylor is 3 Free and Cruelty Free. 

I will be posting these on my Instagram as well. Make sure you are following me there! Thanks for looking!! And let me know what you think of these.

This is part of my personal collection and purchased by me. 

Pipe Dream Polish Neons

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Hello Summer!

We just had our first tropical storm of the season, so that means summer is in full swing!    Neon nail polish is the quintessential summer fashion statement.  They are so bright and so fun (especially on toes peaking out of the sand at the beach!).  Pipe Dream Polish is launching a new summer neon collection composed of seven crèmes and four jelly glitters called "A Night in Vegas".  Today, I have five of the neon crèmes to share!  I have been a HUGE fan of April's polishes.  I have a formidable army of these glittertastic babies, so I was beyond excited when she asked me to review her new collection.  I hope you will love these as much as I do!  This post is very picture heavy, so be sure to click through for all the photos and bring your sunglasses.

CLICK THROUGHT FOR ALL THE PHOTOS!

 

 

 

 

Loaded Lacquer - Hula Girl Collection

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Happy Monday!

 

Today I have another collection from one of my favorite indie brands, Load Lacquer.  Heather makes amazing glitters and now she has a few epic shimmers to add to the list of awesomeness.  There are five polishes in this mix and they are all stunners.  The name of this collection is called Hula Girl and it definitely evokes the feeling of summer and tropical vacations.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

CLICK THROUGH FOR ALL THE PHOTOS

 

 

 

 



Neon Patchwork Mani

Do you ever have nail art that just doesn't work out like you want it to? Well I do... quite frequently unfortunately. The photos that follow are the results of my nail fail.

I started out with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, a beautiful grey-toned white. It was a blank canvas just begging for some nail art so I decided to use a few of my neons in an abstract color-block mani. Since the neons were sheer my color ended up being uneven. I used striping tape for the outline, which was too thin for my heavy handed application and I colored outside the lines at times, making this quite the nail fail.

Colors used: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (white base), Essie Shake Your $$ Maker (green), Zoya Ali (pink), China Glaze Orange Knockout, Orly Royal Navy (blue) and Butter London Matte Top Coat.

What do you think, definitely a nail fail? What's your worst nail fail?

Pink and Black Stamping!

It has been a long time since I've done any stamping! I pulled out my stamping plates the other day and my favorite black for stamping (Cult Nails Nevermore) and get to work.

I stamped with Konad M-69 , a nice argyle pattern, over Pretty Serious The Pink One. I absolutely love the combo of black and pink, it feels a bit punk rocker to me. I can tell it's been awhile since I've stamped, my pattern is a little bit smeared!

That's all for today, keeping it short and sweet. :) What do you think of this combo?

Pretty Serious The Pink One

Today I have another gorgeous Pretty Serious polish to show you: The Pink One.

The Pink One is part of the Seriously Random Collection, a collection built out of polishes that were prototypes, lab mistakes, and miscommunications. While most indie polish brands just hide these sorts of polishes away somewhere in their HQ, Pretty Serious decided to release an ongoing collection of polishes called the Seriously Random Collection. So far I have both The Pink One and Martian Sea (more on Martian Sea later). The Pink One was so popular that it's been out of stock for a little while, but it's being restocked this Friday May 17th!

The Pink one is a gorgeous hot pink polish loaded with pink and blue shimmer. The bright blue shimmer makes this pink look almost radioactive and I love it. The shimmer is pretty dense giving it a beautiful almost foil-like finish, but not quite. The formula on The Pink One was excellent, smooth and easy to apply and perfectly opaque in two coats. I also got excellent wear out of this polish and didn't have any chips after 3 days.

I seriously can't tell you how much I love this polish. It's hot pink, but the shimmer gives it maturity so it doesn't look childish (some hot pinks just feel very teen neon to me, no offence intended to anyone, just how I feel in my profession). It's kind of iridescent, while being bright and beautiful.

Just look at that shimmer! Isn't it marvelous? I think I'm subconsciously transitioning from winter to summer colors as the weather gets warmer and my hands get a little tan. I can't wait to wear The Pink One as a bright summer pedicure!

Pretty Serious polishes retail for $9.95 AUD (which is about $10 USD, it varies with the exchange rate) and shipping is very reasonable, (and usually very fast) since they have a US shipping center. Pretty Serious Polishes are also available from Llarowe for $12 USD.

If you are in the United States and considering ordering, I highly suggest checking the exchange rate, the last time it was about $2 less for me to order directly from Pretty Serious in Australia than from Llarowe!

Yellow Funky French

I did something a little bit different for me today: this is a funky french with China Glaze Sun-Kissed and China Glaze Orange You Hot? from the summer 2012 neon collection. I can't believe both of these sat in my untrieds for so long. Sun-Kissed is a bright neon yellow shimmer and it practically glows its so neon! I used two coats here and still had visible nail line (but I didn't add another coat since I was going to do the french tip). I also used two coats of Orange You Hot? for the tips, and this one was nice and opaque. Orange You Hot? is a nice tangerine-hued orange shimmer.

China Glaze Sun-Kissed and Orange You Hot?

More photos after the break!

Neon Stamping Mani!

I would like to preface this by saying that my stamping today was quite awful. The polish dried so fast that the whole design didn't make it onto the nail. Even though the pattern is broken at the edges, I still think this mani turned out pretty amazingly.

I used three coats of China Glaze Orange Knockout (a neon orange that really freaked out my camera). Then stamped it with Sally Hansen Whirlwind White and MASH plate #50.

China Glaze Orange Knockout and MASH plate #50

China Glaze Orange Knockout and MASH plate #50

China Glaze Orange Knockout and MASH plate #50

What do you think? I think I'm going to have to re-do this one with a different white polish so that it looks perfect but I love the combination. It piratically glowed in real life!

I'm With The Lifeguard: put on your sunglasses!

I haven't seen a single blog post from a blogger who doesn't like the new China Glaze Neons. This collection is something spectacular. Now that I have neon polish that can be opaque in two coats I doubt I'll ever pull anything else out of my stash.

This is China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, a gorgeous neon green shimmer. The shimmer gives the neons an almost glowing quality, and man is this one bright! I'm absolutely in love with these neons. I've been wearing every one of them rather than just swatching my way through. 

Sun:

Shade:

Shade:

Another Water Marble Fail..

I love water marbling every time I see what someone else has done. It always looks so pretty, unique, and interesting. Unfortunately I am a complete and utter failure at water marbling. I think it comes down to being a perfectionist, and no matter how you try every nail will not be identical. Then there's bubbling, making messes, and clean up.. and I don't try this technique very often. My left hand was awful, so here I'm showing you my right!

Here is the one nail that I am proud of, which just so happened to be the first nail I tried... giving me false hope for the future.

I used the Essie Poppy-Razzi collection for the water marble, and Sally Hansen Rapid Dri Whirlwind white as my base color. It was much brighter in person, but neons are so hard to photograph..

Here is the water marble with the shirt I was trying to match!

Do you water marble? Or like me do you attempt water marbling but never actually wear it as a full mani?

NVL Sunny Floam Swatches

NVL Floam is one of the most popular new indie polishes I've seen, in fact, so popular that many polish makers are jumping on the matte glitter bandwagon. Although I didn't pick up floam from Nail-Venturous, I did manage to get my hands on Sunny Floam and Pinkerbell (more on that later).

Sunny Floam is very bright and pretty, it has a clear base with neon yellow and dark blue matte glitter. Most of the glitter is yellow, but with the blue it looks neon green from a distance, it's a really fascinating color.

The formula was a little less extraordinary, it was slightly clumpy but still manageable and I used 3 coats for the photos before. Overall it's a very fun color, but for some reason I'm not sure if I like how it looks on me, my skin tone doesn't happen to like anything yellow.

Indoor fluorescent lighting that brings out the neon:

Natural lighting - indirect sunlight.

Closeup! look at the glitter! It's so cool. Even though it's matte there's still a bit of a shimmer to that yellow glitter.

Sunny Floam can be purchased from Nail-Venturous Lacquers on Etsy in a 0.5 oz (15 ml) bottle for $9.00 USD. The shop is currently sold out, so sign up for an email notification or visit Nail-Venturous Lacquers on Facebook for more updates.