Salon Perfect Neon POP Skittles Mani

Hi, you guys! :)

One of the quandaries I have with neon colors is deciding which color to wear when I love them all so much. If only I had more hands... But since I don't, and I want my cake and eat it too, wearing them in a skittles mani is the perfect fun solution. The Salon Perfect Neon POP Collection contains 12 bold shades, and I combined four of my favorites for the mani below.

Left to right: Tickled Pink, Loopy Lime, Traffic Cone, Fired Up Fuchsia

Tickled Pink (index finger) is a neon barbie pink with a creme finish. The formula is a little on the runny side, though nothing too bad. It's also a little streaky, but is mostly even by three coats.

Loopy Lime (middle finger) is a neon lime green with shimmers. This color is stunning, so bold and vibrant on the nails. It's easy to apply, and isn't too streaky by neon polish standard. It's opaque at two coats though I did three for the swatches.

Traffic Cone (ring finger) is an aptly named neon show-stopping orange with a creme finish. This is the brightest orange I've ever put on my nails, and I love it! I used three coats for the swatches.

Fired Up Fuchsia (pinky) is a bright magenta pink with fine shimmers. It's another really stunning color from the collection. The formula's pretty good and easy to apply. I used three coats for the swatches.

I tried a few of the other colors from this collection too, and all of them are super bright. Though there is a white base that you can use with the colors, the intensity and brightness of the shades shines through even without it, so it's not really necessary. The formulas can be a little streaky, pretty on par with neons. In general, the cremes are more uneven, while the shimmers apply more evenly and easily across the nails.

What do you think of this collection and of neons in general? Will you be picking any up to add to your collection? And do you wear neons only in the summer or all year-round?

You can find the Neon POP shades exclusively at Walmart stores for a retail price of $3.98 for each 0.5 fl oz bottle.

** This post contains product(s) provided for honest consideration.

Zoya Lola

Hi, you guys! Hope your week is going well. Mine could be better, but at least the merciful weekend is almost here. :)

Today, I've got one of my favorite polishes—like ever(!)—to show you. Zoya Lola is a bright hot fuchsia pink with strong blue shimmers that dries to a slightly matte finish due to its neon pigments.

The formula on this is amazing, spreading out smoothly across the nails, almost like it were applying itself. Taking into consideration the fact that this is a neon (which are notoriously tricky to apply), and you'll understand my never-ending amazement at this great formula. I always wear this at two coats, which is what I have in the swatches, but you'll still see some visible nail lines at that. I like that soft, slightly squishy look, but you can add one more coat for total coverage if you prefer.

I know some people are a little weary of wearing neons, but this one actually isn't too loud. It's bright enough to be noticed, but not so loud as to be obnoxious. I always get tons of compliments when wearing it.

I don't think I will ever tire of looking at this beauty. It's a fantastic color—intense, vivid, and happy. It's my pedicure color of choice for the summer; I think I've been wearing it more than half of the time so far. If Zoya ever discontinues this shade, I'd be sad panda, which reminds me that I must get a few backup bottles, just in case. :)

Priti NYC Australia Summer 2014 Collection

Ah ha, so I haven't been imagining it! This summer has indeed been hotter than usual. On average, we've been running about five degrees warmer every day for the month of July. Yikes! And the trend's continuing so far for August. You can be sure I am counting down the days to fall. :P

In the meantime, I'm taking full advantage by wearing tons of brights and neons, which is one of my favorite nail polish trends. And today, I've got one such collection I've really been enjoying to show you. Priti NYC's Australia Summer Collection is comprised of four intense, bright colors, perfect for this sweltering weather. :)

China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle

Hi hi, happy weekend! :)

Sometimes I'll put a color on my nails and just go like "why did I not get this sooner?!" and China Glaze's Too Yacht To Handle definitely falls into this category. It's a bright, stunning medium turquoise with a creme finish. 

The formula is fluid and easy to control, making application easy. It builds up coverage nicely, and I used three coats for opacity. It has some neon pigment so it dries semi-matte; you can add a top coat if you want a glossy shine. It's always a little hard to get green/blue colors exactly correctly. I think in person, this is a shade or two more green, especially under artificial light.

Ah... there's a wonderful satisfaction to finally picking up a lemming and having it turn out just as beautiful as you imagined. This color has been on my wishlist since it was released last summer and I saw all the stunning pictures popping up. But I must have gotten distracted (easy thing to happen), because I didn't get around to procuring it until last month. Thankfully, Amazon is nicely stocked with non-current polish collections so I did not permanently miss out on this beauty. :)

OPI Neons Collection - Summer 2014

Hi, you guys! Hope you're in the midst of a great week! :) I had a long holiday weekend, which went by way too fast as usual, and I made the mistake of doing too much. So I came out of it really exhausted and just spent yesterday in a daze trying to recover and mentally get back to work. :P

Today, I've got the new Neons by OPI Collection to share with you. This set of six bright shades are the first full-size neons that OPI is adding to its permanent collection. (About time, yep!) If you guys know me, you know I love neons, so you can imagine my sheer excitement here. Just a quick note: a white base was released with this collection, but all the swatches below are without it (more on that below). But enough jibber jabber... here are the colors! :D

China Glaze Pink Voltage

Hi, you guys! Hope it's a pleasant week for you! :)

Now that summer's here, it's time to break out my favorite neons and brights from storage and add them to the rotation. (Although if I were honest, I would admit that I don't have to break out anything because I wear neons all-year round. :P) A favorite of mine year after year is China Glaze Pink Voltage.

It's hard to believe, but it really is as bright and intense of a pink as it shows in the pictures! Sometimes I have trouble capturing shades this bright, but I managed to do all right this time. This color is gorgeous, both in pictures and in person. It's just the perfect shade of pink, not too cool or warm to my eyes, with a hint of shimmer that adds an interesting pearly glow to its neon satin finish.

I don't have too much trouble with application. It goes on pigmented, and dries faster than usual (something I've seen in quite a few neons), so you can't go over the same area too many times or it will get streaky. I did two coats for the swatches, which is good enough for me, but there are still one or two uneven spots if you look really closely, so a third coat wouldn't hurt.

Though this is one of my favorite colors, I do wish it lasted a little longer on the nails. Because of its neon formula, it starts chipping quite soon. If I wear this without top coat, chips usually start appearing after a day. With top coat, it will last an extra day before the chips start to set in. But even with its short nail-duration, I still love this color. No one does neons like China Glaze, and one of my favorite things about this is that you don't have to do a white base coat first. I can never get the edges of a coat of neon color on top of a white base coat to line up, so I'm really thankful that there are neon polishes out there that "pop" even without that requirement. :)

Do you wear neons in the summer time? Is there a particular shade that's your favorite? I'd love to know. :)

Salon Perfect Bang

Hi, you guys! Hope your weekend is fantastic so far! :)

Today, I've got the other polish I wanted to share with you from the Salon Perfect Neon Collision Collection. Bang is a mix of small matte glitters in bright yellow, pink, and orange all in a sheer orange base.

The formula for this is a tad better than for Zapped, though it's still tricky to apply. I did three coats for the swatches, and they still look a little clumpy at that. The orange color does a better job of masking any imperfections though, since it's a bit closer to skin color than Zapped. The Salon Perfect brushes are narrow, so I think some of the application problems come from that. It's just much harder to get even glitter distribution with a narrow brush than a wider one.

After having tried a few colors from the Neon Collision Collection, I think the colors are bright and fun for summer. And they are unique, at least to what's on the market from the rest of the main stream polish brands. I think using a similar base color before applying the glitters will help a lot in masking any of its unevenness.

You can find Bang exclusively at Walmart stores for a retail price of $3.98 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains product(s) provided for honest consideration.

Salon Perfect Zapped

Hi, you guys! How's this week treating you? Mine is good, but busy. At work, we're preparing for an office move next week. Currently everyone has their own offices, but we'll be moving into a different building which only has "team rooms". Yep, I'm pretty sad that I'll be losing my own space at work. We had the open house of the new building this week, and next week we'll be taking training on how to work in a team room lol. I laugh without mirth. (>_<)

Salon Perfect recently announced their new Neon Collision Collection, which combines the trends neon and matte glitters into six bright shades. I want to share with you two of the colors from the collection. Today I've got Zapped, a mix of small matte glitters in bright yellow and blue all in a sheer green-tinted base.

The sheerness of the green base means that the color you see on the nails comes predominantly from the glitters, so it's mostly yellow on the nails while the bottle appears more green. I found application to be quite tricky. The glitters aren't very dense and tend to clump onto themselves, so it was hard to get even coverage. The first coat goes on sparse and patchy, which sets the tone for the rest of the coats to follow. Since the glitters tend to clump together, each additional coat adds more glitter to the areas that already have glitter and doesn't fill in in areas that were bald to begin with. I did three coats for the swatches, and there's still some glitterless patches remaining.

You can find Zapped exclusively at Walmart stores for a retail price of $3.98 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains product(s) provided for honest consideration.

Viva La Diva #112

Every once in a while, I get bored of the pedestrian reds, pinks, and oranges, and I crave something more objectionable and attention-grabbing. When I saw Viva La Diva's 112 in Stockholm, I knew I had to have it. It is exactly the sort of loud, obnoxious color perfect for days when I want to stand out and be annoying. :D

112 is a yellow-toned bright green neon with fine shimmers in a metallic finish. Like most neons, it dries slightly matte, which can be changed by applying a top coat. The formula is thin and easily controllable, and most of the brush strokes disappear once the polish is dry. I can't stare at this color for too long before bright spots appear in my field of vision. It's like wearing green highlighter or kryptonite on my nails! :-)

Viva la Diva is a Swedish brand, and can be found in the Swedish Åhléns department store, as well as online at Vivaladiva.se.

Zoya Bijou

It has been quite a while since I have featured any Zoya polishes on here, so I will make up for it this week with some Zoya polishes that are perfect for the summer. :-)

Today I have for you Bijou, a bright, almost neon pink with tons of silver and blue sparkles in a squishy, jelly-like finish.

This is such a bright pink in person. The pink base leans slight blue, which combined with the cool-toned silver and blue micro-glitters, just make my hands look super tan when I wear it. Brights and neons are so popular right now for the summer time, so Bijou is quite on-trend.

Because of its jelly-like texture, Bijou is more on the sheer side. What you see is three coats, and some nail line is still visible, which is how I prefer to wear this color. You can play around with the sheerness vs. brightness of this color to suit your personal preferences, with each coat adding more brightness and less sheerness.

You can find Bijou on Zoya.com for $8 for 0.5oz. If you are new to Zoya, you can get your first two bottles of Zoya for $8 total and free shipping! Info is HERE.

Don't forget to enter my current giveaway for a chance to win three Barielle polishes, plus their speed dry top coat, nail protein base coat, and nail strengthener cream! Just two days left to enter! <3