Tag Archives: orange

Nails of the Week: Neon Sunrise

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Happy Tuesday! I’m kind of proud of myself for getting this out somewhat timely. I promised neons for summer, and here they are! This is Color Club’s Wham! Pow! with American Apparel’s Neon Yellow.

When I planned this mani, I definitely had longer nails in mind. I’ve done a couple of gradient looks on these baby nails, and I’ve had some difficulty getting my colors evenly distributed. Also, my yellow isn’t as neon as I’d hoped for. It’s definitely more of a cool highlighter yellow. Either way, it’s bright, and so I’m happy with it. My photo here doesn’t do it justice; these are very bright, and my hands look very tan.

Wham! Pow! and other Color Club polishes are available on their website. American Apparel doesn’t sell polish anymore.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch: Formula X for Sephora’s Demolition

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Welcome back, reader! I’ve been slacking on my swatches, but I’m still working on them. Today I have a glitter topper someone once told me was “terrifying” because it looked difficult to remove. This is Demolition from Formula X for Sephora; I’m wearing one thick coat (basically two) over Marc Jacobs Beauty’s Shocking (pink), Butter London’s Tea and Toast (taupe), Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Lighthouse by the Lake (blue), a nameless vintage Maybelline (brown), and Sally Hansen’s Sun Kissed (orange).

Demolition is a clear-based glitter topper; the glitters are hexes of various sizes and pastel shades, which focuses largely on pastel pink. Application was good; the polish consistency is a little on the thick side, which is necessary to carry these chunky glitters. It dries quickly, though, and with a somewhat textured finish; top coat is definitely required for a smooth-to-the-touch finish.

I know these chunky glitters have fallen out of style, but I am still about them. I was super excited to find a polish like this from a mainstream brand as well; they had several color variations on this formula and I bought several of them. It wears pretty well despite being on the thicker side; a lot of heavy glitter toppers like these are quick to chip, but not this one. My only real complaint is that it takes quite a bit of top coat to smooth it down.

The Formula X brand was discontinued by Sephora.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Vintage Flakes

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Happy Monday! I adore today’s mani. I am so pleased with this combination that I almost can’t even put it into words. Almost. I’m wearing two coats of Digital Nails‘s Crush Leaves Not Dreams over OPI’s Don’t Talk Bach to Me.

So let me start with my base color. Don’t Talk Bach to Me is a chartreuse creme with a very fine silver shimmer throughout. Several years ago, I was on a quest to find a vintage green color, not unlike the avocado green kitchens of midcentury modern houses. After trying a few and being disappointed, I spotted this one on an endcap at the supermarket and never looked back. I cherish this shade.

Crush Leaves Not Dreams is the perfect topper for this base shade. The gold-to-orange shifting flakies complement the warm green, and the fine blue shimmer adds a bit of contrast and sparkle. It would look great over any creme, honestly, but I’m completely impressed with how it works over this one.

OPI polishes are sold in stores. Digital Nails is still on hiatus.

Swatch: Alter Ego’s Sherbet vs. Shebert, It’s All the Same to Me

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Hello, reader! I’m swatching one of my recent acquisitions for you today. This peach creme was in my VIP bag at Indie Shop Atlanta, and it’s the first thing from the show that I’ve swatched. This is Sherbet vs. Shebert, It’s All the Same to Me from Alter Ego Body Care. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Sherbet vs. Shebert, It’s All the Same to Me is a peachy orange creme. Application was great; the product consistency is very easy to work with. Colors like these tend to be a little streaky, and though that was definitely true for the first coat, the second coat built it up to a good opacity. The polish dries with a glossy finish; I used extra top coat for shine and protection.

I love this shade. It’s such a great springtime color, and it reminds me of a lip color I wore when I was younger. This was definitely an appropriate shade to find in my VIP bag in Atlanta, too, when Georgia peaches were the theme. I don’t know if everyone got the same one or not, but I hope so.

Sherbet vs. Shebert, It’s All the Same to Me is available in Alter Ego’s online shop.

This polish came in my VIP bag, which I bought myself.

Manicure Monday: Reverse Monet

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Happy Monday, reader! My look today is an experiment; I’m using a fan brush for nail art for the first time ever! I bought a cheap drugstore nail art kit just for the fan brush in it, and I’ve finally gotten around to using it. For this look, I used a faded bottle of Sinful Colors’s Dream On, Kleancolor’s Neon Orange, and Island Girl’s Aloha Paradise.

I started this look off with a good base of Dream On. Like I said, this polish faded dramatically. It was once a vibrant neon purple that became the coral you (kind of) see here. Even when I got this polish, I wasn’t a huge fan of it; it takes all of three coats to cover all the streaks and leaves behind a cheap-looking flat finish. I love Sinful Colors polishes to death but this one was never my favorite.

I originally didn’t include Aloha Paradise in this look, but ultimately, the look needed something for contrast. Dream On and Neon Orange are both on the sheer side; obviously the coverage builds, but for nail art, something with good coverage is ideal. It didn’t look like anything without the teal to liven it up. After that, I just kind of brushed the polish back and forth over the nail until I started getting dry brush strokes. It looks amazing up close like this when you can see the brushy details, but from far away, it just looks like a brown mess.

Sinful Colors and Kleancolor are sold in stores. I found Island Girl in Hawaii.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Orange and Ginger

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Happy Monday, reader! Today’s look is simple but colorful. I used Sally Hansen’s Sun Kissed and Digital Nails‘s Ultimate Ginger. Let’s get started!

Sun Kissed is a polish I’ve had for a long time; you can’t tell in this photo, but the fill line is somewhere around the French words on the bottle. It may be one of my oldest. I kept it simple here, just because I wasn’t sure how the consistency of the polish would be after so many years. It was actually still pretty easy to work with, but it was thickening and stretching like mozzarella around the neck of the bottle. This is the first time in a while I’ve had the hope that I can finish a bottle of polish.

I used Ultimate Ginger here for the orange glitters, as well as the complementary colors. I knew the orange and blue together would make a stunning combination, but I didn’t realize how colorful Ultimate Ginger really is. It’s not just orange and blue glitters in there; it’s yellow, white, and green, too. I know this is a polish based on a painting of flowers (or rather, a Doctor Who episode centered around it? Confession: I’ve never seen Doctor Who) so it should come as no surprise, but still. There’s much more to this polish than I expected.

Sally Hansen polishes are sold in stores. The original formula of Ultimate Ginger was discontinued, with a changed-up version called Penultimate Ginger taking its place. Either way, Digital Nails is unfortunately still on hiatus.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch: Emerald & Ash’s Construction Season

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Welcome back, reader! It’s another swatch! This is Emerald & Ash’s Construction Season, a throwback from their 2013 Road Trip textured polish collection. I’m wearing three coats without top coat.

Construction Season is a bright orange polish with a fine texture. Application was good; due to the textured effect, the polish is quite thick, and goes on in thick coats. I find this kind of consistency easy to work with, but I realize some people don’t. The texture is pretty smooth, and smoothness increases with additional coats. It mostly serves as a visual effect than a palpable one, so even the people who dislike textured polish may like this one.

So, when I was getting this post together, I noticed that Emerald & Ash’s website is down and the domain is expired. I know they were on hiatus for a while, but I thought they came back, and it’s sad to lose another maker. So many of them are closing up this year. It’s a terrible shame. I hope everything is going well for them.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Glitter on Clementines

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Hello, reader! Bad news, I broke a nail, and I had to cut them down short. It’s the first major break I’ve had so far this year — the last time I had them this short, it was February — and I’m pretty bummed. Luckily, the two polishes I used today look great on tiny baby nails. For this look, I used Digital Nails‘s Faraday-Glo and Kunimitsu‘s Beautiful Theory.

I can’t say no to neon orange. This is a great shade. It’s super bright even without undies, so much so that my camera struggled with the color quite a lot. Classic neons. There’s a fine blue shimmer in here, too, which was a bit hard to see. I covered it up with glitter.

Beautiful Theory is a fantastic topper. I had a hard time getting the shapes out, but on nails for ants, it’s not a bad problem to have. The iridescent glitters make the polish, though, and especially makes it pair well with bright orange. Depending on the angle, they look purple or pink. It’s really cool.

So tiny!

Digital Nails polishes are available in their etsy shop (though as of this writing they are taking a break). Beautiful Theory isn’t currently stocked, but Kunimitsu polishes are also for sale in their etsy shop.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Orange Alert

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Hello, reader! Today’s mani is a pretty simple one. I’m apparently still into negative-space manis, but really, I just wanted to do something with a textured polish that was still nail-arty, and this was just the direction it took. For this look, I used Emerald & Ash‘s Construction Season with Digital Nails‘s Spectraflair top coat.

I’ve talked before about how much I love the Road Trip collection from E&A. Unfortunately, I don’t have the complete collection, but the ones I do have have been a ton of fun to wear. The texture is unlike any other polish type; It’s a very fine grit, as opposed to chunky glitter or rough sand. It sparkles like sugar. This one happens to be Nickelodeon orange, which makes it my favorite.

I wanted a little something under the negative part of the nail, just to keep it from being completely bare, so I put a coat of Spectraflair top coat under Construction Season. You can barely tell it’s there, but I like the addition. I can’t see it at all indoors, but in the sun, you can see it’s barely-thereness.

Speaking of sunlight, here are some photos I took in direct sunlight. The orange got kind of washed out, and the color also suffers from an uncooperative camera. You can see the reflective goodness pretty well out here at least, as well as the aforementioned Spectraflair.

Construction Season has been discontinued by Emerald & Ash (though they’ve been MIA for quite some time). Digital Nails’s Spectraflair top coat and other polishes are sold in their etsy shop.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Siren’s Lucky Shamrock

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Happy Saturday, reader! Remember last week‘s Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer swatch, and how I said it was part of a duo? This is its other half, Siren’s Lucky Shamrock. It is the St. Paddy’s Day-themed glitter topper you need. I’m wearing one brushed coat of Siren’s Lucky Shamrock over Zoya’s Chantal (nude) and Neely (green) and LA Colors’s Hottie (coral) with one coat of Seche Vive top coat.

Siren’s Lucky Shamrock is a clear-based glitter topper featuring a mix of green, orange, gold, and black glitters, iridescent glitters, and orange flakies. The official description also lists shamrock glitters, but I didn’t get any, and I don’t see them in the bottle, either. Application was good; the glitters brushed on easily and the product consistency performed well. The polish dries quickly and with some glitter texture, so top coat is necessary for smoothness.

Of the two polishes, this one is the obvious holiday polish. Personally, I don’t care much for polishes that are only useful one day a year, but if you’re big into holiday looks, this is one you want. It’s basically Ireland in a bottle. It makes for a very easy St. Paddy’s manicure.

The following photos were taken in direct sunlight. The flakies get a little washed out out here, but the glitters come alive.

As of this writing, Siren’s Lucky Shamrock is still available, and even better, on sale in the BEGL shop.

I bought this polish myself.