Before & After: Neon delight

Hello!!

This month's theme in my Nail Challenge Collaborative is 'Neons'! This is fun and summery and that's awesome...except I don't own many neons because they look pretty darn bad on me (most of them). However, I have a few, and I'm gonna try my best to rock them out for you. :)

For this manicure, I started with a semi-neon red crelly that I got a while back, Julep Jackie (trust me, she's bright):

Julep Jackie

Next...well, truth be told, next I did a bunch of stuff that was really, really fail. I'll show it to you another time either as an example of a manicure that fell flat, or as a future Fix My FAIL contest (haven't decided yet--have to sit with it and see how I feel about it after a few days).

In the process of that fail, I noticed one thing that I really liked, and that was the way that China Glaze Sun Kissed, an extremely neon yellow-green neon, looked against Jackie, so I used the Saran-wrap method to lay a base of that. I knew I wanted to put dots of China Glaze Sun Worshipper, a neon orange, on top. But it needed something in the middle.

Then my eyes hit on it--the nail foil that Born Pretty Store (I am not an affiliate) sent me for review; bright, neon-ish colors that would go perfectly with the red/yellow/orange deal I had going on:

I decided to apply bits and pieces of the foil over the Saran-wrapped base, and under the dots. The directions on the Born Pretty Store website say to wait until your final layer of polish is almost dry, but still tacky, and press the foil onto it. My last layer of polish is always topcoat, and when I'm doing nail art, I have to have a well-dried base, so I decided that I would apply topcoat to where I wanted to foil to stick, give it a few seconds to dry, and then press the foil onto it. This worked like a charm! I actually applied my topcoat with the same Saran-wrap I used for the Sun Kissed, put little dots where I wanted the foil to go, waited a few seconds, and pressed the foil on. I covered a larger area on my ring finger to act as an accent nail.

Of course, you can always use nail foil adhesive to apply the foils, but I like the topcoat method better, and here's why. When you use the nail foil adhesive, you can't apply topcoat over your foil--it creates some chemical reaction which cracks and shrinks your foil. But with this method, you can use topcoat and not only is your foil fine, it makes it shine like the blazes and extends the life of the manicure. I can see how this method might not work if you want a perfectly applied piece of foil intact over your whole nail; however, if you like a more random look, you can still cover your entire nail, you just may have to go back over bare spots. In my opinion, totally worth it, but let's see if you agree. :)

I added my dots of Sun Worshiper, and here here is the final look:

I'll be honest, if it weren't for the challenge, I probably wouldn't have stuck on the dots--I love the look of the base sooo much without it I felt like it was a shame to hide any of it. However, the challenge is to showcase neons, and I wanted to make sure the neon feel came through (even on camera, which seems to be freaked out by neons, lol). I do still like it with the dots, don't get me wrong. They add pop and it all works well.

That first picture shows the layered effect best, but it still doesn't do full justice to the technique. For example, I went back on the three non-accented nails and put little bits of the purple from the very bottom edge of the foil, and while you can see them in the picture, in real life, there is depth between the two colors, and it's a really beautiful form of nail art.

If you're interested in trying these foils out for yourself you can find them by clicking here. They are $2.99 for what looked to me to be about 5 feet of foil (that's more than I'll ever use of one color, I suspect!), and they have a variety of colors. I'm definitely going to be getting more colors to play with, now that I know how to use them in a way that I can put topcoat over them (and of course if you want me to do a tutorial on that, let me know). And don't forget you can use my coupon code on anything and everything you buy, and get 10% off--I don't make anything from your purchase, however, Born Pretty Store will sponsor a giveaway for my followers if it is used by 10 people:

Thanks for reading, and please check out the other neon offerings linked below!

Peace, loves, and polish. :)
M.