Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to everyone who celebrates it! I have been rocking this mani all week, I originally designed it for the US Men's World Cup soccer team on Tuesday and have kept it on because well... it's kinda rad.

 I started with a white base on all the nails because I wasn't sure which way I was going... for the blue I used Zoya Ling which isn't  a perfect American blue but I like that it's lighter in color. The red is Coca-Cola Red from OPI and the white is the amazing Finger Paints Paper Mache. I added some chevron stripes using vinyls as templates then pulled out the rhinestones! I went a bit overboard on my index finger but that was the first one I did so I didn't know any better :)  I like the way the 3 silver stars look on my ring finger. On my right hand I have everything opposite, so I have 3 blue nails and 2 chevron striped. I love doing this when wearing a skittle mani, makes it more interesting to opposite the pattern. I have a few more for you that I'll keep posting over the weekend... it is after all, a holiday weekend full of slacking :)

Neon Skittles: Glowstick and Warhol

I have a totally simple but one of my favorite quick manis I've done recently: Orly Glowstick and Color Club Warhol. Each color was 2 coats but I did white under Glowstick (major eye searing yellow neon) and I should have put white under Warhol (super bright neon pink). Warhol didn't want to show super neon but against Glowstick, hardly anything shows neon :)
 I wanted to change it up so I did skittles on one hand then on the opposite hand, I did the reverse pattern.. make sense? I lined the pictures up so you could see the alternating pattern (hey look, there's the elusive right hand!!). I found that Warhol chipped quicker than Glowstick and I think it's because it had no underwear (like a white polish) down first.... next time, undies for both and a top coat of course because I'm not a fan of semi matte neons- the brighter the better!!

Color Club: Electro Candy Skittles

My sister in law was awesome enough to let me swatch the heck out of her hands this past weekend!

Here's a Color Club Retro Candy skittle mani.  There's 6 colors in the collection so I added an "accent" green french tip to the ring finger.

 This collection came out in summer of 2009.
They're all shimmery fun neons!

Colors:
thumb- electro candy - super bright neon pink with teal shimmer
index-pure energy - powdery bright teal with hint of green shimmer
middle- ultra violet - medium purple neon with a blue/green shimmer to it 
ring-tangerine scream/what a shock! - TS has a light silver shimmer to it and WAS has a very faint blue shimmer
little- volt of light - eye searing yellow that leans towards green side with green shimmer.  This one reminds me of a highlighter marker!

We took pictures outside in partial sunlight but as usual, they're neons and hard to capture the eye searing brightness! This would be a great mani for summer except here in Nor Cal, the sun has been hiding!

OPI Purple Skittles and Mash Stamping

For my first OPI skittles mani, I chose (L-R) Rumples Wiggin', Planks Alot, Funky Dunkey, Purple With a Purpose, OPI Ink.  I stamped with Wet N Wild Metallica.

 Here's my right hand, on my left I did the pattern in the opposite direction for funsies.

(It looks like my left hand because I accidently flipped it when I was editing it... but really it's my right)

 I stamped using Metallica because I wanted it to show but not dominate the purples... it kind of worked.  I really like the stamp I chose because it makes the purples all look swirly and more fun than just a boring image.





Here's a close up of my right thumb with OPI Ink under Metallica.

I topped everything off with a coat of SV. Overall I like this look and I think I'd try it with more of my purples to get a better contrast.

What do you guys think, have you worn this look before? It's brand new to me :) Also, what do you think of the next giveaway being a bunch of different crackle polishes? or a combo of crackle and art stuff?