Take a Walk on the Wild Side! 80's Style

     I am just loving this neon trend for 2012! Neon is everywhere - clothes, nails, makeup! Bring it on! It reminds me of the totally tubular fashion of the 80's. ☺
     So, I was contemplating one night on what to do with my nails, and this was the finished product. I wanted to do a neon sponge manicure with zebra stripes on top.

     First, I painted my nails with just a plain white polish. I think I used Wet N Wild French White Creme. Then, I wanted to sponge different neon colors together on top of the white polish. Unfortunately I didn't have a sponge to use because I wasn't at my house, so I used the edge of a thick, ridged, kitchen napkin, which worked perfectly fine. I used the colors below to sponge:

(The yellow polish on the purple bottle was already dried on there in the store. It must have happened during shipping? lol)

     After sponging the three colors on top of each other over the white polish, I used a small paint brush and black acrylic paint to paint the zebra stripes. I would get a dab of black paint on the brush, then start on the outside of the nail and brush it going towards the middle of the nail. I would taper the line off near the middle off the nail and make the lines a little "squiggly" to mimic a tiger's stripes. Afterwards, I let the black paint dry and then topped my nails off with Seche Vite. If you don't let the black paint dry it can smear when painting on your top coat. 

    Overall, I was really happy with the way this manicure looked! It's got that 80's Neon Wild look to it, and it's so fun. Why does it remind me of those Lisa Frank notebooks I used to take to school? ☺

     Check out the pictures below:

     Do you love neons? Have you ever tried an animal print or sponge manicure?

Finger Paints Pop Rock Pink

     I think this is the first time I've featured a Finger Paints polish on here! Pop Rock Pink is a polish from the Finger Paints Gumdrops & Lollipops 2012 collection.
     Pop Rock Pink reminds me of juicy melons on a hot, summer day. This color is just divine. Pop Rock Pink is a coral pink jelly finish polish with glass fleck shimmer. The golden shimmer lights up in the sun, and at certain angles there is a hidden fuchsia sheen to this pop candy polish. Pop Rock Pink exudes summer happiness!
     The formula for this beauty was good; I needed three coats for opacity to my liking. The jelly finish really plays with the name of this polish; it really looks like pop rock candy!
     Check out the pictures below!

     What do you think of Pop Rock Pink? 

Milani Beach Front

     How is everyone's week going so far? I'm look forward to the weekend because my hubby is going to take me to see the Hunger Games movie! Wahoo! :)
     I've got another awesome vacation nail polish for you today...
     Milani Beach Front reminds me of a white clapboard house by the sea with an old, rickety wrap around porch and no matter how long you stay away, when you come back you always feel like you're home.
     Beach Front reminds me of sand in my toes, waves lapping at my feet, and the smell of salt air while holding hands with the one I love.
    Need I say more? I think you get the point that Beach Front makes me longingly picture beach vacations of past and to come? ;)
     Milani Beach Front is a sky blue polish with silver shimmer, and if you are looking for that perfect polish to kick of your Spring and/or Summer, this one is it!
     Let me just say something quick about Milani's polish. The formula was easy as pie to apply! It flows so smoothly and was perfectly opaque in two coats, and the brush is divine. It's not so thick like OPI's brush, where there is literally too much brush for my pinky nails, and Milani's brush lets me get easily into the small areas of my nail near the skin.  
     Milani Beach Front is one of my favorite polishes so far from 2012. Beach Front is a part of Milani's Spring 2012 collection, and you can find them at CVS for around $4.99.
     Check out the pictures below:

     So, tell me, what color polish do you like to wear while on vacation? What polish has kicked off your Spring/Summer of 2012?

 

Sinful Colors Olympia

     Did everyone have a good St. Patrick's Day? Here is one more green polish for you to look at before the day's over...

     Sinful Colors Olympia is a part of the Castaway collection I spotted at Walgreen's a couple of weeks ago:

     Also, if you'll notice, Olympia is very close to this Spring's "It" color, Essie Navigate Her. The best part is that Olympia is $1.99, whereas Navigate Her is $8. 

     Sinful Colors Olympia is an avocado green creme, which, like I said earlier, has been very popular this Spring. I haven't seen this color before in the Sinful Colors section, so it must be new. Olympia was a two-coater, and it did have somewhat of a thick formula, but it was easy to apply. 

     Olympia is a lighter green in the sun, but inside it turns into a darker guacamole green. 

What do you think? Have you worn a light green cream this Spring?

China Glaze Riveting from the "Colours from the Capitol" Hunger Games Collection!

      Is anyone eagerly anticipating the big premier of the Hunger Games movie this weekend? I am!! I read all of the books last summer and was ecstatic to find out there was a movie coming out this year. I can't wait to go see the movie this weekend with my husband! I hope the movie does the book justice, and it will be exciting to see the story on the big screen.
     Anyway, of course I had to pick up some polishes from the China Glaze "Colours from the Capitol" collection, and the first one I am going to show you is Riveting. Thanks to my mom for modeling this polish!
     Riveting is one of the most gorgeous orange polishes I have ever seen. Riveting represents District 3, The Technology District from the nation of Panem in the Hunger Games. Although this color is supposed to represent Technology, it reminds me more of Katniss Everdeen, who is the trilogy's heroine and the "Girl on Fire."
     Riveting is a fiery orange with prominent golden shimmer laced throughout its two coat formula. I've read on some nail blogs that the formula was very thin and required multiple coats to reach opacity, but I didn't have any problem with this polish. It was perfectly opaque and shimmery with just two coats. Riveting is very versatile because it is a great, bright, summer, tangerine orange, but it is also a warm, fall, pumpkin orange. I love it! The light in the pictures below catches the golden shimmer beautifully.

Look at the beautiful golden shimmer!

What do you think about Riveting? Have you read the Hunger Games, and are you excited to see the movie?

St. Patrick's Day Mani #2: Irish Tuxedo

     How is everyone's weekend so far? My weekend is off to a great start, I spent the morning with my husband before he went to work, and tonight I am going shopping with my mom.
     Today I am going to show you another St. Patrick's Day manicure called the Irish Tuxedo. I did a black and white tuxedo pedicure a few weeks ago here. I've been wanting to do a tuxedo manicure for a while now, so I decided to do a green one for SPD.
     First, I used one coat of Get A Clue and one coat of Incognito from Color Club's Alter Ego Collection. I used one coat of each color to try and get a nude color for my base, but it ended up being more pink than nude. In the end, though, I liked how the green and pink looked together.
     I then used green acrylic paint to paint the bow ties and tips, and then I used my dotting tool from Sephora to make the buttons. The acrylic paint keep peeling off of my tips, so I put a coat of Revlon Emerald City over the paint on my tips to make the manicure last longer. I then topped everything off with a coat of Poshe.

 The picture below was right after I was finished, before I cleaned the paint from my skin around the nails. 

     Overall, I really really liked this manicure. The hardest part was making a straight line for my tips. This manicure is a somewhat toned down SPD manicure, but I just love how the green looked! I'm calling this the Irish Tuxedo manicure! 

     What do you think? Have you every tried a tuxedo manicure?

St. Patrick's Day Mani #1: San Francisco Splatter!

     Who out there is ready for the weekend already?? ME!! Does anyone have any fun plans this weekend? My niece's birthday was earlier this week, so my husband and I are going to her birthday party Sunday, so I'm excited about that.
     So, if anyone has been reading the Mermaid Nails Facebook page, you will notice that I am featuring St. Patrick Day manicures from now until March 17th, which is St. Patty's Day, and if I have more that I didn't get to post before that day, I definitely will be posting them after, as well. However, I thought it would be fun to see your SPD manicures, too! So, I would love for you to post your manicure on the Mermaid Nails Facebook wall, and I will feature them all on a special SPD blog post! Can't wait to see them!
   
     Now, onto the first SPD manicure that I am going to show you...

     I've wanted to do a splatter manicure ever since I saw it on The PolishAholic's blog here. Basically, what you do, is tape off the skin surrounding your nail, and then put some nail polish onto a paper plate, dip a straw into it, and blow through the straw to get the polish to spray over your nail, so as to get the splatter effect. You then take the take off of your skin, and do the next nail. So, after wearing Sinful Colors Olympia for a day, which I will later review, I decided to "splatter" it with Sinful Colors San Francisco.
     Olympia is an avocado green cream, and San Francisco is a hunter green shimmer. I think they look lovely together:

     The shimmer in San Francisco contrasts so nicely with the cream of Olympia. 

     The biggest problem I had with doing the splatter manicure was that I couldn't get enough polish to pick up on a straw if the polish was just dabbed on the plate. I actually just had to stick the straw down into the polish bottle, blew through the straw once to get the big clumps off, and then blew the rest onto the nail. 

     I definitely would recommend using a cheaper nail polish, like Sinful Colors or Wet N Wild, because this technique wastes a lot of polish. I was surprised at how much it did waste and look at the mess I was left with when I was finished:

     However, I love the result, and I think it looks very Irish! ☺

     What will you be wearing on your nails for St. Patrick's Day? Will you be doing the splatter? 

Sinful Colors Neptune

     Boy, I need a vacation. Somewhere away from work, and laundry, and schedules, and cleaning, and sleepiness! My husband and I definitely, definitely need a weekend away together somewhere ASAP!
     So, imagine, what I thought when I walked into Walgreens and saw this beautiful, serene, and breezy display of a new Sinful Colors collection:

     Does that background photo not just make you want to pack up your things and fly away to an all-inclusive resort with crystal-clear turquoise water and around-the-clock couples massages?? *Sigh* 

     Instead, I settled for this:

     At least I can close my eyes and dream (and smell this tropical candle, of course). LOL

     But, I did bring a couple of those gorgeous polishes home with me, and Neptune was one of them.

     Neptune is a dark, denim blue with silver shimmer. I used two coats in the photos below. At first, the application was fine. When I was applying the second coat, the polish seemed to become a little "goopy." You can also see tip-wear in the photos below, and this was less than 24 hours after application. I don't know if the tip-wear is from the polish, or from the new Poshe top coat I'm trying out. 

     However, I love this color. It's very different from the colors I've been wearing lately, and it's a nice blue without being too loud. And, for $1.99, you can't really go wrong! 

     Check out the photos below! Oh, and I added a coat of China Glaze Luxe and Lush on my accent nail because I got it in the mail today, and I just couldn't resist. ☺

     What do you think? Are cool, blue waters and sand calling your name, or just the polish? ;)

Jelly Sandwich with Milani Neon Techno Red and OPI Rainbow Connection!

     I know I've talked some on here about jelly sandwiches, but I'm not sure if I've ever posted one for you guys. So, I decided to do a jelly sandwich last night to show you today! A few weeks ago I was in CVS and some Milani nail polish was on clearance for around $1, so I brought Milani Neon Techno Red home with me. I knew that Milani's Neon nail polish line had a jelly formula based on swatches I had previously seen online, and I think jellies are so fun in the summer. What a "jelly" formula is, is when the polish is sheer, but when you apply a few coats, it looks kind of like rock candy, and you can still see through it. A jelly sandwich is when you layer something in between coats of a jelly polish, like glitter. This way, the glitter is not a "top coat," but it is kind of "floating" inside the jelly polish. LOL I hope I explained that well. ☺
     Anyway, one thing I should say is that this Milani "Neon" was not neon at all. It isn't an eye-searing color by any means, just a juicy, summer, watermelon-esque color. So, it is strange that it has the word "Neon" in bold letters on the bottle.
     I painted one coat of Techo Red first, and then I used about three coats of OPI Rainbow Connection, and then one more coat of Techo Red to top it off. I was really disappointed in the fact that I had to use three coats of Rainbow Connection to get a sufficient amount of glitter on the nail. I don't know if I got a bad bottle of it, but it was very watery. I then used Konad Special Polish in White to stamp the star on my accent nail with Bundle Monster Plate BM05. Lastly, I used fast-drying top coat Poshe to seal the deal. Here is what I finished with:

     So, what do you think? Have you ever experimented with jelly sandwiches??