Neon and Glitter Excitement

Okay, okay....I know I said earlier this week that I would next post about my nail polish collection's big moving adventure. However, I got too excited when opening up all the little bottles of color and joy - that I just HAD to paint my nails. I didn't have any tools, I didn't have my usual set-up or cameras ready - so I was thrilled to at least get these painted and now to get them here on the blog. Hence, the title: Neon and Glitter Excitement.

Amongst my already twice mentioned excitement - the perfectionist in me needs to make a few disclaimers. Usually, I have my little photo studio set up and use my DSLR's for most of my blog photos, but all of these photos were taken with my cell phone in various rooms of the house. Also, I didn't have my usual selection of top coats - the ones I used didn't play real well (for example, I got weird looking reflections on the polish surface). I really try to show the best that all these polishes can look, so I cringe just a little bit seeing these photos, please forgive me. Hopefully, for today, you can overlook these things and enjoy these colorful nails, maybe even as much as I enjoyed wearing them!!

Just look at that stunning glitter topper!! It is obviously the central idea that led to the colors I used. It being the beginning of September, the usual last bit of Summer weather is sticking around - Hot, Humid & Hazy. So, my nails went to the beach for the last hurrah of the season, LOL!

I used a piece of old sponge I found in a bunch of junk to sponge on the topper (rather than apply it with the brush directly - for that you'll see how it looks in the swatch photos at the end of the post). This gave me a nice dense layering of the glitters. So pretty!

Oh, look at me...trying to be all fancy as if I had pretty hands like a model....hah! But, I include this picture anyway because it gives you a feel for how pretty this all was "in real life". Did you know that this is my first successful wearing of a neon polish? Yay, me! I loved it. So bright and cheerful, I couldn't not smile when catching a glimpse of these in the corner of my eye.

Polishes used (L to R):

Virtuous Polish - Diligence
China Glaze - Rare & Radient
KBShimmer - Sand In My Stocking
Jessie's Girl - Mermaid's Lagoon

Neither of these swatch photos came out very well. The two polishes on either end look more realistic on my nails than in this collage. Mostly though, I wanted to focus on all of the types of glitter in Sand In My Stocking. KBShimmer is one of the best at creating polishes that can conjure a feeling as well as their visual inspiration. Specifically, this glitter topper was made as one of their collaborations with bloggers; here with Jen, aka, The PolishAholic. The following is from their online description:

Being a California girl, Jen sees Frosty being built from sand, not snow, so this glitter topper is her twist on a beach born “Sand-Man”. The sand inspired base of this polish is made up of small glitters in gold, white, tan, brown, and grey.  From there we added gold circle “sand dollars”, gold holographic “starfish” stars, orange circle carrot noses, and a dash of water in the form of aqua colored circle glitters.  

This polish was the perfect imagery for a 90 degree sweltering day, I thought! Sand In My Stocking was part of their Fall/Winter 2013 collection - but, at the time of this post, it is still in stock...just in case your nails want to go to the beach too.

So, what did you think? Are these too flashy for you? Or, just right? You know me, I like to try everything.

OK - back to unpacking.....10 boxes down, 130 more to go....

Till next time,
Kimett