Neon Flowers

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! 

Nothing says the warm weather is coming like a bright neon manicure. Claire's Flashy and Milani Fresh Teal go together nicely, especially with the dried flower accent I added. Fresh Teal matches the flower perfectly. I used two coats of each polish. I love these smooth creamy neons, no white needed underneath.

Claire's nail polish retails for $5 at in store and online. Milani retails for $3-5 at various stores (a list can be found on their website) and sites. The dried flowers retail for $6.08 (for a set) at Born Pretty Store, and they offer free shipping worldwide. Use the code AHL91 to receive 5% off your Born Pretty purchase.

China Glaze Whirled Away

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! I was very excited when I saw that a mainstream brand came out with a black and white glitter. They have been extremely popular in the indie polish world. However, this particular one leaves a lot to be desired.

China Glaze Whirled Away is a clear base with black string, large hex, and white extra large hex glitter. The base is thick and the glitter is difficult to place. You do not even see only of the white glitter here because they were so hard to fish out. This is one coat and some fished out pieces over Pure Ice Super Star! and Claire's Lime Yours. If you want black and white glitter, in my opinion, you are better off going the indie route. I plan to.

Ninja Polish NVL Floam

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! I recently came across a lovely lady on PAA selling some of her polishes. Included was Floam. Needless to say, I was quite happy to be able to get it. It is my first indie polish.

Ninja Polish NVL Floam is a clear base filled with neon matte blue and yellow-green glitter. Unlike most glitter, it is matte and gives off to sparkle or shine. That's what I love about it! It is so much fun! The application is good. I was a little hesitate to wear it alone to begin with, so I layered. Two coats over Pure Ice Wild Thing. I have seen some people get Floam opaque by itself in two to three coats. I plan to wear it on its own soon.

The wear of this polish was very good, especially for a glitter. I wore it for three days with no tip wear or chips. For me, that is miraculous. It even survived me doing truck today. Which normally mangles my polish. The removal was no harder than any other glitter.

Floam was originally created by Amy of I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous. It is now sold on Ninja Polish, in their bottles. So if you are looking for this polish, there are two different bottle styles.

Floam is currently in stock (if you see it out of stock, do not worry, it will come back in) at Ninja Polish for $9.

Mattified Flakies

I hope you are having a great Thursday! I'm quite behind on getting posts up. Things have been hectic. I'm trying to prepare for a trip next week. I had planned to post about this particular manicure Tuesday, but time got away from me.

I love mattified flakies! I started with two coats of Milani Fresh Teal, a teal blue neon. Then I added one coat of Finger Paints Asylum, a clear base with glitter flakes that shift red, blue, orange, yellow, green and purple. A final coat of Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love gave the flakies a fun finish.

Milani retails for $3-5 at various stores (a list can be found on their website) and sites. 

Asylum is part of the Finger Paints Special Effects Collection. The collection has been discontinued and while bottles can be found online, the prices are generally marked up quite high sadly. Hard Candy retails for $4 at Walmart.

China Glaze Sun Worshiper

I hope you're enjoying your Thursday! Today I have an incredibly neon polish to show you today.

Looks like two completely different polishes, I know. China Glaze Sun Worshiper is an orange tinted cantaloupe neon. The neon finish was incredibly hard to capture. The second picture is the best I could do. And its after a day of work. Trust me, this polish is eye catching. My brother did a double take at my hands and exclaimed, "Damn that's bright!"

This is one coat of white and two thin coats of Sun Worshiper. Most neons really pop if layered over white. Plus they reach opacity quicker.

China Glaze retails for $5-10 a bottle at Sally Beauty Supply, Ulta, and various other stores/sites.

Speckled Green & Pink

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Its Monkey See, Monkey Do time again. Basically you take inspiration from or recreate a mani done by someone else.

I took inspiration from this post by Jen of The Exotic Lacquer. Mine are a bit different. I used Julep Cameron and Cosmetic Arts Limelight as my base colors. Both two coats each. Then I did one coat of Love & Beauty Black Knight. I love this look.

Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Julep retails for $14 at Julep and Sephora. Love & Beauty retails for $2.80 at Forever21, online and in store.

Please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge. :)

Amber Did It

Angelina's Nails & More

Beauty Bumbles

Dressed Up Digits

Fancy Phalanges

Fanning the Fumes

Geeky Owl

Gnarly Gnails

Jen's Painted Tips

Kawaiinize Your World

LeSamowen

Macabre Manicures

Maquiclub Girl

Nail Polish is my Crack

PishPosh and Polish

Polish Crazed

Polish Lover

Tales of Knit and Nails

The Clockwise Nail Polish

The Crumpet

The Manicured Monkey

The (mis)Adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Toxic Vanity

Neon Rainbow Zebra Print

Its Stamping Sunday! This week's theme is Unnatural Animals. So I broke out the neon and bright polishes for rainbow zebra print.

In order from index to pinky, I used Color Club Poptastic, Zoya Pippa, Sinful Colors Dream On, and Cosmetic Arts Limelight. All two coats each. Then I stamped a zebra print pattern on each nail using Sally Hansen Night Flight and plate BM16.

Poptastic is part of the Color Club Poptastic Collection. It retails for $4-8 various places online. Zoya retails for $8 on their website. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store.

Colorful Gradient

Its Stamping Sunday! Two themes were neck and neck for winner. So, we could do either. Stamping over a gradient or using two stamps. I went with the former. I have been wanting to try a sponge gradient for awhile.

I was inspired by this blog post on Laynie Fingers. I did one thick coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my white base. For my sponging, I used L.A. Colors Phenomena, Kleancolor Neon Green, and L.A. Colors Shock.  I love this technique! Automatic gradient. Now for the stamping. Using plate BM10 and Color Club Blue Topia, I stamped on little flowers. Since Blue Topia is a jelly, the petals are slightly faded. But I like that. Using a dotting tool and Super Star!, I dotted middles for each flower.

Yellow and Pink Polka Dots

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Its time for another nail art challenge on Polish-aholics Anonymous. We voted to revisit some of the first challenges. This week is Polka Dots. Perfect considering that they are coming back in style. I've always loved them!

I did one thick of white then two coats of Bootie Babe Electric Lemon. Neon polishes pop over white and show their true brightness. Then I used a dotting tool and Sally Girl Way Cool for the polka dots. I adore pink and yellow together, especially bright shades of both.

Bootie Babe retails for $4 on their website. In June, they will start selling their polish in bigger bottles (15mL versus their current 9mL). The caps will also be taller and easier to handle, though I had no problem with the current caps. For more info, check out their Facebook page. Sally Girl retail for $1 at Sally Beauty Supply.

Combining Neon, Purple & Glitter

Last week's Monday Nail Art Challenge on PAA was Crackle. This polish effect has definitely grown on me. When crackle first hit the polish world, I disliked the look. It wasn't until I received a free black crackle that I fell in love with the uniqueness of it.

I used Milani Fresh Teal as a base coat. Fresh Teal is a lovely neon one coat polish. Next I layered on Finger Paints Purple Crackle. It cracked nicely, as you can see. I'm a big fan of accent nails, so I just had to add some glitter to my index finger. I chose Essence Edward. I love Edward so much. Such a pretty glitter.

What do you think of crackle polishes?

Bootie Babe

I finally bought some Bootie Babe polishes during their holiday sale. If you have not seen them, they are shaped like butts. I could not resist the unique little bottle. They are so cute!

I ordered three: Hella Baloo, Electric Lemon, and Mean Tangerine. Each polish came in a little box with the name on top. I also got two stickers that match the little stickers on top of each bottle.

I alternated the polishes on my fingers. The application is great. Hella Baloo went on smooth and opaque in one coat. Given Electric Lemon and Mean Tangerine are neon, I layered them over white to get their full brightness and make them easily opaque.

I could definitely see myself purchasing more Bootie Babe polishes in the future.

The prices are still at $4 a bottle and available on their website. According to their Facebook page, Bootie Babe hopes to have new and improved bottles by April 2012. The bottles are going to be bigger (0.5oz/15mL instead of the current 0.31oz/9mL) and have taller easier to use caps. They will also have 24 colors. No information yet as to whether the current 12 will be part of that 24.

I love the idea of full size bottles. I did not find the short caps hard to work with. However, I imagine the longer ones will be easier for some. I'm looking forward to seeing what will come from Bootie Babe in the future.

Teal Toes (and Fingers) For Ovarian Cancer Awareness

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. To help raise awareness http://www.tealtoes.org/ is encouraging women to paint their toenails (and/or fingernails if they wish) teal, since it is the awareness ribbon color for this form of cancer.

I do not know anyone with ovarian cancer, but as a woman, I feel compelled to spread the word. Its easy for women to not know the symptoms. To be honest, until I found teal toes, I was unaware that there was no test for ovarian cancer, and that the symptoms often get brushed aside as other ailments.

So yesterday, I sat down and painted my toenails and fingernails teal. As a conversation starter and to give an idea of why my polish was teal, I painted my ring fingers white with a teal ribbon.

I do not really want to post my feet, but its for a good cause, so I cannot say no. The idea is called Teal Toes, after all. 

I used Sally Girl Surf's Up. It is the only teal polish I own that's not really dark. Its a very pretty shade in person. I love the little Sally Girl polishes. Sally Beauty Supply has a rather large selection of colors for them. The cute little mini bottles only cost one dollar.

I would love to see everyone's teal toes or fingers! If you want, you can post a link to them in the comment section. :)

Important information about ovarian cancer: 
Even in its early stages ovarian cancer has symptoms. Research indicates that 95 percent of women with ovarian cancer had symptoms and 90 percent of women experienced symptoms with early-stage ovarian cancer. Symptoms vary from woman to woman and many times depend on the location of the tumor and its impact on the surrounding organs. Many of the symptoms mimic other conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome.

Symptoms include: Bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).

Women who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks should see their doctor, preferably a gynecologist. Prompt medical evaluation may lead to detection at the earliest possible stage of the disease. Early stage diagnosis is associated with an improved prognosis.

Why raise awareness? 
Too many women with ovarian cancer do not get diagnosed until their cancer has spread. Their survival rate is 45%. The survival rate improves greatly - to 93 percent - if the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage before it has spread. Only 19 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at this local stage. Approximately 75 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage after the cancer has spread beyond the ovary.

For more information about Teal Toes, visit their website http://www.tealtoes.org/