Poptastic Leopard

Well 2 out of the 3 polish I used are from the Color Club Poptastic Collection.

Color Club Almost Famous, & Poptastic. The purple is China Glaze That's Shore Bright.

 I first did each nail as a gradient, and then freehanded leopard spots on top alternating what colors I used.

I used a dotting tool to make the leopard spots and then a Sinful Colors black striper polish for the outlines.

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Color Club - Poptastic Collection

I know this is an old collection, but I just recently added it to my stash. I found it at a Burke's Outlet for $8.99, so I figured it was about time to own it.

 

Almost Famous

Pictured is 3 coats. Bright medium yellow creme.

Wham! Pow!

Neon orange. Pictured is 2 coats.

Poptastic

A beautiful neon pink. Pictured is 2 coats. 

 Warhol

Pictured is 2 coats. A deeper pink, more of a hot pink than a neon pink.

 

Pucci-licious

Pictured is 2 coats. A bright purple that is incredibly hard to photograph.

 

Twiggie

Pictured is 2 coats. Similar to ChG Highlight of My Summer, but that one is still my favorite.

Chelsea Girl

Pictured is 3 coats. Vibrant blue, that also was hard to photograph.

 

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Another Gradient

Apparently I've been on a gradient kick lately. Here is one I did with a few of my China Glaze jelly neons.

I started with theBalm's Mellow Yellow, then China Glaze Shell-O, & You Drive Me Coconuts. I used a slightly dampened triangle makeup sponge..

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Mosaics

I wanted to experiment with a random pattern of striping tape to get a mosaic look. I felt like these colors made for a unique combination.

I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White (let it dry THOROUGHLY) then masked off the geometric shapes with striping tape. I then filled in each section with polish and removed the tape before it had a chance to dry much. 

The polishes I used were: 

• China Glaze Lemon Fizz
• Orly Ancient Jade
• Sinful Colors Rainstorm
• China Glaze Passion For Petals
• China Glaze Sea Spray

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Dazzle Dry - Frozen Lemonade, Fast Track Cherry, & Grape Lollipop

Dazzle Dry was kind enough to send me some polishes to review, and I was intrigued by not only their color selection, but also their claims to dry fast & be chip free for up to 4 weeks.

Each polish can be purchased for $9 each, and the Trinity Kit can be purchased for $28.50.

They are fast-drying, nitrocellulose-free, "5-free," hypoallergenic. Made in the U.S.A, and sold in Asia, Australia, and most recently, the United Kingdom.

"Dries in 5 minutes or less, has a gel-like, rock-hard finish, and is even safe for pregnant and nursing moms! And, unlike many conventional nail polishes, also free of  nitrocellulose. That's why they guarantee their polish is NON-yellowing and completely safe on your nails."

First up is their "Trinity Kit" which has the Nail Prep (which nourishes, strengthens your nails and promotes adhesion), Base Coat & Top Coat.

Their base coat dries to a matte finish and the top coat is quite THICK. Thicker than the bottom dregs of a Seche Vite bottle. It does dry within 5 minutes like they claim, and has a very glossy gel like shine.

"

*The polish colors themselves are each very thick and gloopy. I worried they would never dry, but that wasn't the case. They just applied differently compared to other polish brands in my stash.

Frozen Lemonade - creamy yellow.

For each swatch I used the Trinity Kit to prep, base coat, 2 coats of polish, then top coat.

2 coats was all that was needed to get complete coverage. No streaks or uneven patches. Very impressive for a yellow!

Fast Track Cherry - standard red creme. Very glossy finish. Even coverage with just 2 coats.

Grape Lollipop - neon purple creme finish. This one was the only one that was a bit patchy and uneven. Pictured is 2 coats, but even after a third, it still seemed darker in some areas. :(

I wanted to do a wear test and my sister volunteered to be the guinea pig. She can wear one color of polish a lot longer than I can. Here she is after I applied Grape Lollipop to her nails and followed to exact instructions contained in the Trinity Kit packaging.

Within 13 hours she already had a few corners chipping. This picture was taken after 4 days (with her cell phone, so excuse the color inaccuracy and fuzziness) you can see it had some pretty funky chipping and wear after that amount of time. She doesn't do anything extreme with her hands either. She has a toddler and works as a nurse like me, so I felt she provided a pretty neutral wear test. I'm not sure how one could manage to get 4 weeks chip free with this polish, but I feel it wears about the same as any polish in my stash. Usually after a few days, I have chips show up no matter the brand.

*These products were provided for review*

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Disappearing Ink Surprise Nail Art

I feel like I've seen this on another blog before, so I'm not claiming this idea is original to myself. The idea of stamping with a UV changing polish over a base polish of similar color.

I used Ruby Wing Crowd Surf over Color Club Power Play, these are exact dupes indoors. 

 Indoors this combination looks like just a simple solid color manicure.

Once outdoors and in the sunlight, the design comes to life! I stamped with a zebra pattern (and first it wasn't opaque enough of a stamp to show on it's own, so I later freehanded over it to "darken" the stripes.) Once the design is stamped or freehanded, make sure you use a topcoat so it smooths the lines nicely.

I think this is a really cool idea for the summer time!

I tried this same concept again with Color Club Get Your Lem-on and Ruby Wing Electric Firefly. I used the skull and crossbones stencil from this set available for $3.89 on Born Pretty.

 

The stencil didn't pull off perfectly cleanly, you can see little flecks of red stuck on my nail. My index nail didn't take the pattern very well at all and it really blobbed up and garbled the design.

I also added a thin freehand line of Electric Firefly for a french tip.

 *The stencil was provided for review by Born Pretty*

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Ruby Wing - Festival Paint Collection - Electric Firefly & Crowd Surf

These are a few of the color changing Ruby Wing polishes from this summer's collection "Festival Paint."

Electric Firefly

(Can be found here for $10)

Turns from neon yellow with green shimmer (exact dupe for Color Club Get Your Lem-on) to an orange shimmer in the sunlight.

The neon is so bright it'll make your eyes bleed. This is 2 coats over a white polish base.

In direct sunlight, the polish transitions to orange. 

The shimmer is still the same, but it looks less obviously green.

Crowd Surf

(Can be found here for $10)

Changes from neon pink/purple to a deep magenta in sunlight. 

Note that it also dries to a semi-matte/rubbery finish.

Indoors, bright pinkish purple. This is just 2 coats.

In direct sunlight, the color transition is quick.

Here I shielded my index nail from the sun while the other nails darkened. 

Then took a quite shot to compare them side by side.

 

 

 *These products were sent for review as part of the Color Society Bloggers Network*

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Geometric Squares

I've been feeling a little down and like a nail blogger failure because I haven't had much of my own nail art inspiration. I feel like I'm in a creative block. :( So the only nail art I've been doing is inspired by other bloggers.

Today it was this look from Whitney at Dressed Up Nails.

I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz, For Audrey, & Zoya Dea. 

All of the details were done with a skinny nail art brush.

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Disney Dumbo French Tips

Disney's Dumbo! Who can say they didn't love that cute baby elephant? I want to get back into doing more cartoon manicures, so I'm easing back in. These are inspired by his little neck ruffle collar. Then I perched his little hat on my thumb.

Here is the step by step of how to do the ruffle nails. I used China Glaze Recycle, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red, and Sinful Colors striper in black. The yellow is acrylic paint.

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