Groove Is In The Heart Neon Nails with Stamping

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Where to begin?  You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in about 3 months and that my last post was something to the extent of “I don’t feel like writing, here are pictures”.  Well, when it rains it pours and unfortunately my father passed away from cancer along with another close family friend within a month of each other.  To top it off, these sad events happened during the holidays (I hosted Thanksgiving too)…oh yes, and I got a horrible full body rash (from stress I’m sure) that was unbearably itchy and horrendous and I would never wish it on my worst enemy!  I’m hopeful that the scarring will go away :\.

Point being, I fell off the bloggy wagon (even though I did continue to paint and photograph my nails) and so now I’m hopping back on, full speed ahead!

I’m jumping back in with a super bright manicure I did to match my dance performance costume.  I have been taking an adult hip hop class and this past weekend we had our performance – we danced to the song “Groove is in the Heart” by Deelite so I went for 60’s style bubbles with a heart on the accent finger.

I did my nails on Monday so they’d be ready for both dress rehearsals (plus group photos) and figured I’d have to do them again before the performance.  Well guess what?  I didn’t, because they lasted for the whole week.  Look at how they held up, the photo below was taken on Sunday.

Not only do I give credit to my Making Your Mani Last techniques, but I’ve also been doing a newer process which makes a big difference.  Do a layer of topcoat in between each layer of color for extra wear time!  This mani was done with cheap LA Colors and Sally Hansen polishes, so it’s not that I was using some amazing expensive magic polish.  I will give credit to Poshe Top Coat, though, because I used a super thick layer on top, so I’m sure that helped too.

The process was one layer base coat, one layer white, two layers neon colors, one layer INM Out the Door top coat, stamping with black, glitter on accent nail, dotting tools for pink and white circles, 1 layer Black Tie Optional on thumb and then a thick layer of Poshe Top Coat.

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Sunday nails that were painted at the beginning of the week, look how they held up!

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I shared my neon polishes with some of my dancing buddies 🙂

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Shout out to everyone Studio Gray for an amazing show!  I had so much fun and maybe I’ll post some action dance shots when I get them.

Polishes and Supplies Used:

  1. Sally Hansen Double Duty Base and Top Coat
  2. 1 Coat Sally Hansen Xtremewear White On
  3. 2 Coats generic LA Colors neon pink and yellow (got a mini set from Ross, no color names)
  4. 1 Coat INM Out The Door Top Coat
  5. Wet n Wild Black Creme for stamping
  6. Salon Express stamping plate for the heart and Konad M85 stamping plate for the bubbles (I have a knock off konad plate from BornPrettyStore, but they are no longer selling it, same design)
  7. LA Splash Baby Octopus for the holographic silver glitter on the accent nail
  8. 1 Coat Hard Candy Black Tie Optional on the thumb
  9. Poshe Top Coat

Holy Holo! BornPrettyStore.com Holographic Polish Effect #9 Review

Holographic-Effect-#9IMG_9804Holo BPS #9 1 CoatHolo BPS #9 2 Coats

I have rainbows on my fingers; it’s a good day.  This lovely shimmery manicure is made possible by BornPrettyStore.com’s Holographic Polish Effect #9, and it’s a big wowwy wah woo for me. (Reminder use code EAG10 for 10% discount on their site).

I did a different base color on each of my nails and then painted one and two coats of the holographic polish on top.  I can’t decide how I like it more, because both styles are equally pretty.  My thumb has a white base, pointer has gray, middle finger has black, ring finger has fuchsia and my pinky has no base, just the holo polish.

At one coat the base colors show through quite nicely; the black really makes the rainbow shimmer from the polish pop and the white really highlights the purple hue, but really every color I tried worked with this holographic polish.  At two coats it is pretty opaque and only a bit of the base is even apparent.  I didn’t try three coats, but I’m sure at three coats the bases would not show at all.

It’s a small bottle, but I’m sure it would still last and the brush was very flexible and soft, plus a good workable size.  The polish itself is not thick, went on really smooth, and dried quickly.  It also wasn’t very smelly, which is always a plus!  I completely recommend this polish because I can’t stop staring at my nails!!

Polishes Used:

  1. Seche Vite Base Coat
  2. Sally Hansen White On Thumb + Holo
  3. Sally Hansen Wet Cement Pointer + Holo
  4. Sally Hansen Black Out Middle + Holo
  5. Ulta Plum Perfect Ring Finger + Holo
  6. Only Holographic Effect #9 on Pinky
  7. Poshe Top Coat

Disclaimer: I received the holographic polish as a free promotion, however all opinions expressed are my own!

Holo Racing Stripe – Plus Seche Vite vs Orly Sec ‘n Dry

Holo Racing Stripe

I feel like I should go drive a fast car right now! The original plan for this set was to do stamping on top of the colors, but I liked the simple look so much that I stopped while I was ahead. I feel like the racing stripe on the thumb really makes this manicure pop and I can’t stop staring!

Also, I’m officially in love with holographic nail polish and now I know I’m going to want more. I picked up this LA Splash “Sparkling Torpedo” at Bed Bath and Beyond on a whim to get my order up so I could use a $5 off coupon. It was fairly solid at 2 coats, but I did a third for good measure. Well worth the $3! The coral-reddish color is 3 coats of Milani “Just Peachy”, which I found at the dollar store – totally worth it, this color is fabulous. It’s super shimmery and applied really smooth (not thick), but doesn’t dry super glossy so use a topcoat for extra shine.

My Seche Vite topcoat is almost out so on the same trip I picked up Orly’s Sec ‘n Dry to see how it compares. I used Orly on most of my fingers, but the pinky’s got the dregs of the Seche. I think the Seche drys slightly faster, is also slightly glossier, but thicker so potentially more difficult to apply. The Orly polish is toulene free (it still smelled strong) and applied smoothly. I bumped a nail probably 10-20 minutes after application and got a small smudge, so for now I will say that I think Seche probably still does a better job. I’ll keep an open mind since I have only tried the Sec ‘n Dry once.

Which fast dry topcoat do you prefer?