Hand Painted Neon Chevrons

Hey guys! I'm sorry it's literally been forever since I've done a blog post or posted on Instagram. Here's the skinny: 1. I was on vacation with 99% no internet access and 2. My poor nails have been super peely lately (and when I say lately I mean the past 6 months to a year) and I've had about enough of it. So, on vacation I decided to give my nails a break and try out Duri Rejuvacote. I've heard a lot of awesome things about this product, but it didn't really work for me. For the record, that may be entirely due to the fact that I was camping and I got an extremely large amount of dirt under my nails, around my nails and in between the layers of peel-age and Rejuvacote. Therefore, I don't think my "review" of this product should really be taken under very much consideration. I am, however, going to try Nailtiques Formula 2 nail treatment again. It worked for my peeling nails in the past and the only reason I stopped using it is because it's literally $20 for a single 15ml bottle that gets goopy and thick halfway through. I'll let you guys know how that works for me once I can afford it. Right now I'm still using the Rejuvacote. On to nails!

Today I have a really different (to me) manicure - neon chevrons! Now, I've done chevrons in the past but I've never hand painted them. I came across a couple of paintbrushes in my vacation travels for $2 a piece and I just couldn't pass them up. They are really crappy to say the least, but they kind of got the job done. I think I need one with much shorter hairs so I can have more control over the brush and just keep the two I bought as stripers. That being said, I am really proud of how these came out. I'm not one for drawing or hand painting anything and I thought these look pretty cute. Also, (and this is very important to mention), I almost always take pictures of my dominant hand because for whatever reason those nails always look better. Therefore, drawing chevrons with my non-dominant hand was tricky - especially with that super skinny brush! Needless to say, I am very happy with these.

Light Box

Light Box

Indoors/Shade

Outdoors Shade

For this look I started off with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and painted the chevrons with China Glaze Highlight Of My Summer, Sun Of A Peach and Bottoms Up (you can see swatches of these colors here). I just love how these neons almost glow in the shade! I figured I'd try to use these China Glaze Sunsational Neons while I can before Autumn starts creeping in. I hope this post wasn't too rambling for you guys...I tend to do that ;)

Thanks for reading!
xx Maggie

China Glaze 2013 Sunsational Collection

Hey everyone! It's been so long since my last blog post and I really apologize! I've been extremely busy with work. So, I decided to make it up to you guys by posting the entire China Glaze Summer 2013 Sunsational Collection! There are 6 jellies/crellies and 6 cremes. The as you've probably heard, the formulas were pretty difficult to work with with the exception of a couple. I'll talk more about the formulas at the end of this post. Lets get started!

First is Bottoms Up, a neon bubble gum pink with a creme finish. Shown is three coats plus top coat.

Next is Heat Index, a hot pink neon jelly. This one has more reddish undertones than this picture shows. Shown is three coats plus top coat.

You Drive Me Coconuts is a blue based hot pink crelly (jelly/creme hybrid). Shown is three coats plus top coat.

Next is Neon & On & On, a pink leaning coral with a creme finish. This is three coats plus top coat.

Shell-O is one of my favorites of the collection, a corally-pink jelly. I used three coats plus top coat for this opacity.

Next is Sun Of A Peach (love that name!), a peachy, orange sherbert creme. This one is really neon! I had a hard time catching the true color. The color you see in the bottle in this picture is more accurate than the color of my nails. This is three coats plus top coat.

Highlight Of My Summer, a neon mint creme (Neon mint?? You don't hear those words used together very often!), also induced a camera freak-out. However, with some photo editing, I was able to get this photo pretty color accurate. Shown is three coats plus top coat.

Next is Keepin' It Teal, a green based teal jelly. This is three coats for this opacity, plus top coat.

Too Yacht To Handle is a green based turquoise creme. No matter how hard I tried I could not get the color of this photo right! I had swatched this polish a couple months ago and the formula was super thick, goopy and bubbly - just terrible! So I added some polish thinner right then and there and when I popped this baby out for this blog post I was delighted to find that the formula had been completely transformed! I only used two coats plus top coat for this swatch and there was not a bubble or streak to be found.

Isle See You Later is a blue jelly. This is easily the worst China Glaze polish I've ever owned. The formula was so watery and sheer that even the four coats (plus top coat) shown here left much to be desired. I've seen it layered over white to create a baby blue color but even then the person who did it said she used four coats to achieve that look. Over all it's a very disappointing polish.

That's Shore Bright is a medium purple creme. The formula on this one was also pretty fantastic on it's own without thinner or anything. This is two coats plus top coat.

Finally we have Are You Jelly?, a warm, red based purple crelly. This one reminded me a lot of China Glaze Creative Fantasy, only brighter. Shown is three coats plus top coat.

On formulas: for the most part, this collection was pretty tricky to work with. I've had these since about April or May and I've used them a lot, so I'm more or less familiar with the formulas. It helps to use a generous amount of polish on the brush and also try to not brush over the same area of your nail twice. These polishes set up pretty quickly and they don't really level out very well, so if you do more than three or four strokes per nail you'll probably have issues with balding. Also, it helps to use a super shiny top coat to smooth everything out. I used Seche Vite in all of these photos.

Formulas and Isle See You Later aside, I am in love with this collection. It's bright, fun and perfect for summer. I love all of the colors! I'd say my top picks for this collection are Shell-O, Bottoms Up, Heat Index and Too Yacht To Handle.

Thanks for reading!
xx Maggie