Sally Girl - Purple neon

Today I have a purple neon Sally Girl. If these polishes have names I haven't been able to find them.

Basecoat: Gelous (2 coats)
Color: Sally Girl purple neon (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

This is more neon and less VNL-y in real life. Application was a little tough but mostly due to the minuscule brush and the long neck of the bottle, which made it hard to get a decent amount of polish on the brush. Dries matte.

New post tomorrow - have a great Wednesday!

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Mint Sprint

This afternoon I put on Zoya Katy, and then decided I didn't like it. I also had a hard time with the consistency - it was really thick and goopy, and I couldn't find (or was too lazy to look for) my thinner. I pulled this out instead.
Mint Sprint is a medium teal creme. It's actually pretty similar to the color I picked out for tomorrow night, so I may switch that out for something else.
Basecoat: Gelous (2 coats)
Color: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Sprint (2 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

Y'all, this was amazing. I don't know if it was the two coats of Gelous, or if all these polishes are like this, but this was a dream to apply. If I can get the hang of this brush I think I could have gotten away with one coat. This was smooth, dried fast, cleaned up really, really well - just a dream to use. I'm not a huge fan of the ginormous brush - the shape of the bottle neck makes it hard to control the amount of polish on the brush - but overall, very, very nice.

Have a great Tuesday!

Nina Ultra Pro - Grin and Berry It

Today I have Nina Ultra Pro's Grin and Berry It. I found this in a summer neon display at Sally and I earlier compared it to the Color Club Electro Candy collection and found most of them to be close but no dupe.
Grin and Berry It is a bright neon with green shimmer. It is more vibrant and opaque than its Electro Candy cousin, Ultra Violet. I had a hard time capturing the green flash in this.
I finished with this way too late to get a sun photo, so here is an indoor photo with flash, outside the lightbox.

Basecoat: Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color: Nina Ultra Pro Grin and Berry It (4 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

Application was pretty good. It is a little on the thin and runny side but not too hard to control. It is a neon and dries matte, and because it's so thin drag was a little bit of a problem. Cleanup was simple.

I was originally going to wear Zoya Katy tonight, but I got a call from friends who wanted to go out for dinner. By the time I got home I knew I wasn't going to have time for a Zoya mani to try so I switched to something else. I'll wear Katy tomorrow.

Have a great Monday!

Comparison: Orly Lunar Eclipse and OPI DS Magic

I read on the nail board that DS Magic might be a dupe for Lunar Eclipse. When I wore Lunar Eclipse I thought there was no way - I'd seen photos of DS Magic and they weren't close. Then I took my own photos, and realized, yeah, they could be dupes.

As with my Lunar Eclipse mani, I had trouble capturing the purple flash in both bottles. I can tell in the bottle that Lunar Eclipse seems to have a tiny bit more purple flash.


This is three coats of color with two coats of basecoat. They are pretty close, right? I have Lunar Eclipse on my index and ring fingers, and DS Magic on my middle and pinky fingers. Lunar Eclipse is a teeny tiny bit darker blue and has more purple flash, but otherwise they are dead dupes.

For polishes this unique this is as close as you will ever get to a dead dupe. You definitely don't need both of these unless you're collecting all the Orly Cosmic FX or DS polishes.

Claire's - itty bitty teeny tiny neon coral

Today (actually yesterday) I have a Claire's mini. It is from the same set as my skittles mani's green - the Claire's "Poolside" knockoff set.
This is not an exact dupe of Flip Flop Fantasy - this color has a very subtle pink shimmer that is not evident at all in the bottle.
Here it is in the sun.
Basecoat: Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color: Claire's neon coral mini (4 coats)
Topcoat: David topcoat (1 coat)

Application was pretty good. It was a little bit on the thick side but not too bad. It is a little bit sheer but the VNL isn't too bad.

New post tomorrow - have a great weekend!

Orly - Lunar Eclipse

Today my husband slept through his alarm, so I worked at home and let him have the shower first. So, I changed my polish. It's still summer, but today it's rainy and not anywhere close to as hot as it's been, so I pulled out Orly Lunar Eclipse.
Lunar Eclipse is a blue jelly base (I think) with purple and blue sparkle. If this wasn't enough, it also reflects pink at certain angles.
Basecoat: Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color: Orly Lunar Eclipse (3 coats)
Topcoat: Out the Door (1 coat)

This photo actually was closer to what this polish looks like in real life than it looked on my camera's screen. It's still not really close. This flashed much more purple in my lightbox and I just could not get it on camera. I think a sun picture would be better, but of course, there's no sun today.

Application was decent. This is a little runnier than you would expect, and I have that weird thing going on where there's not as much polish at my tips even though I used long strokes. Cleanup was a biatch, so be careful with your application.

I have read that Lunar Eclipse is almost a dupe for OPI DS Magic. Magic is on my wish list, so I don't have it to compare, but when I get it I will. From the photos I've seen, Magic doesn't have the purple flash, but again, neither does Lunar Eclipse in my photos, so who knows.

New post Friday - have a great rest of the week!

Skittles

Today I decided to wear skittles. I've never worn skittles for longer than a comparison, but I'm planing to wear this one until Friday. I was originally going to do funky French tips but I have so much trouble using those stupid tip guides. I thought I might have magically gotten better since I've really gotten into polish, but nope.
I'm not going to have time to change polish at all this week, and I couldn't think of anything I wanted to wear all week long, and hey, five untrieds done, right there.

This is two coats of Fiberglass Network, 3 coats of color, and one coat of Out the Door. From thumb to pinky, I am wearing:

Sally Girl neon pink
China Glaze Happy Go Lucky
Claire's itty bitty teeny tiny neon green mini
Savina Marine Life
Sinful Dream On

These all dried matte except for Happy Go Lucky. Happy Go Lucky and Marine Life were pretty much two-coaters, but I did three anyway. Marine Life is a gorgeous, vibrant teal, but it stained in the short time I had it on for my "do I need a white basecoat" mini-swatch. Dream On is a beautiful neon purple.

The Claire's mini.... the set I bought this in is a direct copy of the China Glaze Poolside collection. Right down to the shimmery blue. Their version of Flip Flop Fantasy has shimmer too, but otherwise they're identical. I own Kiwi Cool-Ada, and I did a mini-swatch of it for this mani and decided not to use it because it would have needed a white base. This mini isn't quite opaque either, but it's much more opaque than Kiwi Cool-Ada.

I didn't really have any application problems with any of these. Cleanup was relatively easy, also.

No new posts until Friday, so have a great week!