Essie - Chills & Thrills (Too Taboo Summer Neons Collection 2014) and comparison

When I applied Chills & Thrills on my nails I had forgotten that this polish is from the neons collection. It is a very intense colour BUT I do not think it is a true neon! One could say there is even a hint of dustiness in this blue! The formula wasn't too bad (after reading all the horrible stories about the polishes in this neon collection), it was very fast drying (as neons tend to do) and I used two thick layers to get this result (and do not fiddle around or otherwise you'll get bald spots!).

Essie Chills & Thrills

There is one obvious blue that was screaming to be compared with Chills & Thrills and that is.......Essie Butler Please >of course<
And the funny thing is that C&T is dustier and a little less blue then BP (it's a bit more purple)! For comparison's sake I also included SinfulShine Most Sinful and this one was way more blue and intense and the formula was better self leveling and dried super shiny (true to it's name).

China Glaze - Heat Index (Summer 2013 Sunsational Collection)

There are those days that you are in need of a good juicy neon pink....today was one of those!
I reached for China Glaze Heat Index, of last years neon summer collection: a perfect neon pink that is a juicy jelly. The jelly makes it succulant and shiny and it makes the neon a bit less harsh. This was three coats and I had still vnl and it is not build-able to opacity I'm afraid BUT the colour was very intense.

China Glaze - Heat Index

If and when you are allergic to jellies and/or vnl, Heat Index is not for you. If you like squishy colour wash on your nails: try Heat Index, you'll love it!
A point to note is that these Sunsational jellies don't last long on the nails...the ones that I wore were heavily chipped after one day or so....perhaps I'm doing something wrong......I don't know?!

Claire's Nail Polish - Skater (12547)

Polish on holiday number 12:

I was at the counter at Claire's and bumped into this polish. It just jumped at me, it looked like a very juicy coral crelly to me in the bottle. When I slapped it on the nails it appeared to be a more orange leaning neon coral. Well, I don't mind....I like it very much this way!

It IS a crelly and it needed three coats to get to this juicy and succulent point. I used China Glaze Fast Forward top coat and that was a good decision, I had nor chips or wear for days >happy<
For such a cheap polish I was pleasantly surprised; the formula is great, the brush good and the durability is excellent.

I'm in for second's!

And this is the END of the holiday series, 

next time I'll be back with some new and fresh manies!!

Flormar - Matte M09 neon pink

Polish on holiday number 9:

What is summer without a good juicy neon...I ask you?
This Flormar was waiting to be shown for almost a full year.
The moment I put the brush on the nail I loved this one, I might even need to give it some brothers and sisters....you never know....

Flormar - Matte M09

The consistency is fabulous: it's a crelly and it glides on the nail like butter. It is self leveling and dries to a matte very quickly. Two of these easy peasy layers of goodness will do the trick just fine and the result stays on your nails for days and days!

Two words: summer perfection!

Essie - Funky Limelight (summer 2009 Neon Collection)

My white nails needed some punch, as I already declared in my previous post....
I choose Essie Funky Limelight to do the job and it does the job very, very well!
Funky Limelight is a extremely bright highlighter neon yellow, just the kind of neon yellow I am kind of obsessed about. When I was a child I found this tiny mini bottle of highlighter yellow nail polish in a even more tiny drugstore. It was watery and rubbery and lumpy stuff, but that colour....oh, I was in love! And I still am in love and on a never ending quest to find the best neon yellow polish there is :-)

The result I got with the colour blocking of Blanc and Funky Limelight was perfection.

Essie - Funky Limelight

I think the result is near perfection (saying so myself) and I came the the conclusion that I LOVE colour blocking like this.

China Glaze Sunsational Summer Neons 2013 - Highlight Of My Summer

I almost forgot about Highlight Of My Summer, even though it initially was my first pick out of the collection.
HOMS is a very fresh, minty green colour with a lot of white in the base and some yellow to make it not too minty. Colour wise it is very lovely, I do not have anything similar in my stash. Consistency wise it was a hot mess......when I was little I used to paint my nails with Tipp-Ex (used for blocking out type errors). This white stuff had a terrible consistency, dried instantly, clotted always and HOMS does excactly the same things :-(
It dries so fast it does not level out, so it streaks and it clumps. I added thinner which helped a little but not enough by any means. After 3 fairly thick layers of HOMS it n e e d e d two thick layers of topcoat to smooth things out a bit.
Wear time was horribly bad as well: the next day I had bits and pieces missing from my tips...

I did a very brave (dare I say so myself?) attempt to photograph this monster (the pic with the "sunset button" is the most colour accurate I could achieve):

China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer

in diffused light

in sunlight

using the "sunset button" on my camera

Conclusion: love the colour, hate the polish!!
I'll use it for dotting but never again for a full mani. >sigh<

China Glaze - Sunsational Summer Neons 2013 - Sun Of A Peach and a comparison

Next up from the China Glaze Sunsational Collection is Sun Of A Peach (SOAP), a light neon pastel peach/salmon colour. Somewhere on the web I read that neon pastels don't exist but I beg to differ...they do...just look at SOAP (and Bottoms UP; all the cremes from the Sunsational Collection as a matter of fact).
It is definately pastel, there is loads of white in the base and it is most definatly neon because it glows in the late afternoon when there is lots of ultraviolet light in the air!

The fomula of this one was a tiny bit better then Bottoms Up, but still streaky and fast drying. I did three layers this time....yet it still is not fully covered as I would like it to be.

What do you think:

China Glaze - Sun Of A Peach, Highlight Of My Summer and Bottoms Up

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Like all neons, SOAP is impossible to photograph. The colour of the last picture is somewhat accurate but not nearly neon enough....
Today I added some stripes as a accent nail. For the stripes I used Bottoms Up and Highlight Of My Summer.

Next up I did a little comparison with colours that are somewhat in the family of SOAP: China Glaze Pink Plumeria (PP; the lightest colour from the summer neons of last year) and Mimosa's Before Mani's (MBM) from the Avant Garden Collection 2013.

China Glaze - Pink Plumeria, Sun Of A Peach and Mimosa's Before Mani's

left: Mimosa's Before Mani's middle: Pink Plumeria left: Sun Of A Peach

As you can see MBM is in the same colour familie but is darker, has golden shimmer and does not have the pastelly neon qualities SOAP has. PP is neon but is more pink then peach and has some silver shimmer to it.

I looked in my stash and remembered Essie's Haute As Hello (HAH) that was described at the time to have some neon qualities....and I saw the very ancient OPI Nice Hand...Great Nails (NHGN) which looked to be it the family.

OPI - Nice Hand...Great Nails, China Glaze - Sun Of A Peach, Essie - Haute As Hello

top: Haute As Hello, bottom: Sun Of A Peach

top: Nice Hand...Great Nails, bottom: Sun Of A Peach

Essie's HAH has indeed have some neon qualities to it but much less then SOAP and it is more pinkish peach (both are cremes).
OPI NHGN has the orange going on with gold and silver shimmer (?) yet is no way a neon and is a lot darker then SOAP.

China Glaze - Sunsational Summer neons 2013 - Bottoms Up

YEAH: PrettyPolish has the China Glaze Sunsational Summer Neons in stock.....I just couldn't resist: I bought some (they ship internationally, you just have to send them an email)!
Today I will show you Bottoms Up, a soft neon pink. It is a cute pink with a lot of white and a lot of umph, like Barbie on steroits or something!
The formula was horrendous...it dries extremely fast so it does not level properly and leaves a bit of a streaky result. I have two layers here but tree would have been better I guess (I just hated the formula and couldn't get myzelf to go for a third round....). As much as I hate the formula I love the colour: I am not a pink girl by any means....but this is just fun and bright and summery and in your face and sweet and it makes you look tanned all at the same time!

Look:

China Glaze - Bottoms Up

Looks like I average pink......

The most neon I could get it.....

OK, my compact just does not pick up the neon like I see it.....but trust me it is bright and highlighter pink!
You need it :-)