Neon Jeans, Neon Nails

What? You don't have a bright neon yellow pair of jeans? I DO.

Last year Dave and I went to a Thrift Shop Party - a party where all the attendees were to show up wearing their most ridiculous thrift shop finds. At my local Salvation Army I happened to have found a pair of neon yellow H&M jeans that still had their original tags on them. Check out my thrift shop outfit from the party last year:

.  you want my neon argyle  .
.  but you can't have it  .

Yesterday was Halloween, as you know, and I had tentative plans with Dave to head out to a Halloween party. But just my luck, I woke up with a stomach ache that lingered for most of the day and even though dressing up and attending a costume party is on my Fall To-Do List, we ended up skipping this particular party. Had we gone, I would have dressed up in all neon, head-to-toe.  (You can see my neon costume from Halloween 2011 here.)  In addition to my neon yellow jeans, I have a fabulous neon pink shirt that I was planning on wearing.

Why am I telling you about what I didn't end up wearing last night? Because I painted my nails yesterday afternoon, just in case we did go to the party. So there's some serious neon on my nails right now. THAT'S WHERE YOU COME IN. Because you're here for nails, right?

.  bam  .

Have you ever seen Orly's Glowstick polish?? I've been enthralled by the idea of owning it for a couple of years now. I thought that my inexpensive Claire's brand of neon yellow nail polish was sufficing, but now that I've tried Glowstick, the Claire's neon might as well go into the garbage.  Glowstick is sooo much more pigmented, and I almost didn't even need a second coat to be opaque over a white base.  But I gave it one anyway :)

First I applied a base coat and a single coat of a white polish to all of my nails. The white base is a must when you are using neons - it makes the colors pop like whoa! For my left hand, I used Glowstick on my pointer, middle and pinky nails. On my thumb I used two coats of Orly's Truly Tangerine, and on my ring finger I used two coats of Love & Beauty's neon green.

Sidebar:  Don't mind my wonky middle finger nail in the above pics. When I file my nails squarely, the corners always weaken first and snap off at an angle like that. It's especially dreadful when it happens the day before my weekly nail polish post. Womp womp.

On my right hand, I switched things up a bit and used the Truly Tangerine on my pinky, middle and pointer; Glowstick on my ring finger; and neon green on my thumb. Truly Tangerine is seriously bright, isn't it? It's like traffic-cone bright.

And OH yeah - here are my neon nails posing with their neon jeans! 

Damn ladies!! Looking fresh 'n poppin!

I'm not ruling out the possibility of something Halloween-related happening this weekend, so there's still potential for the entire neon outfit to come together somewhere, somehow. Whatever happens, my neon nails will be ready.

Did you dress up and get buckwild last night? Tweet me your costume pics @akaBailey!

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{Linking up with Friday's Fab Favorites, The Nail Files,  Halloween Link-Up, and What I'm Loving Fridays} 

Pacific Blue with a Pop of Neon

This week my nail polish has once again been inspired by a fashion blogger's outfit. Thank god for these creative girls or else I might be out of a hobby.

Ally from Gumboot Glam pinned a picture of herself wearing this remarkably colorful outfit - a neon yellow blazer over a cobalt blue top. It was such an outstanding color combo - each color made the other appear brighter. Knowing that I had two colors in my nail polish stash that would coincide perfectly with this look, I pinned Ally's outfit to my Nail Polish board. {Lot of hyperlinks in that last paragraph. I hope you clicked them all.}

Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue is such a gorgeous, pigmented color. Sometimes you can even get away with just one coat of it! I used two coats here.

This neon yellow polish from Claire's is called Sunshine - truly a lackluster and thoughtless name for such an exciting color, if you ask me. My only problem with it is that it's verrrrry sheer - I lost count of how many coats I had to use over my white base. It also seems to dry matte, which is strange. My below pictures all have a top coat on them, so that gives the nails some extra shine.

If you check out my Nail Polish board on Pinterest you'll get a look at some of the other outfits that are inspiring me, so you can scope out which ones may end up here on aka Bailey in the near future!

Have you seen a cool outfit that you think would make a fabulous manicure? Tweet it to me (@akaBailey) or leave it in a comment below!

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{Linking up with the Nail Files and Friday's Five}

Neon Glitter Leopard Nails

Ah yes, the rare neon glitter leopard. Commonly found in the mountains of Vancouver, but occasionally spotted in the hills of Western Massachusetts.

Alright this is a super old nail polish look that I literally wore over a year ago, but I have been so busy with both work and enjoying time with my niece and nephew here in Pittsfield, MA that I haven't had time to do a fresh mani this week. I hated the idea of a Friday going by without a nail polish blog, so I yanked these beauts from ye olde archive. #HopeYewDontMiiiind.

.  please excuse the condition of my old cuticles  .
.  i took up "giving a shit" as a hobby since these pics were taken  .

For my step-by-step leopard print nails tutorial, you can click here ~> Pink Leopard Print Accent Nail

What is your favorite color combo for leopard print nails?

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{Linking up with The Nail Files and Friday's Five}

Mint & Neon Nails

I follow a lot of fashion blogs - not exactly because I'm a fashionista (I'm not) but because it stimulates my creativity to see people (specifically people who know what they're doing) put together awesome outfits. Colors, patterns, textures - they can be a bit of a puzzle. So when a fashion-savvy blogger manages to fit the pieces together perfectly, in a way that I definitely wouldn't have thought of, I often start thinking about how those same ideas could be translated into a paper collage or a nail polish look or (if the correct pieces happen to be in my closet) even an outfit for myself!

There is a new blogger who has recently been added to my list of to-reads and she is a tiny little 13-year-old fashion blogger named Sloane. She is way cooler than I am, for sure. And DEFINITELY cooler than I was at 13. She's like a pint-size, pre-pubescent, female Hugh Hefner. Minus the whores. Seriously she looks like she's living the high life. Her blog is called Sailing the Sea of Style if you fancy a gander at it.

A few weeks back, Sloane posted a picture of an outfit that used mint and neon greenish-yellow together, and I loved the way it looked. More so the color combo than the outfit itself but that's ok since, as I mentioned, there are all sorts of good reasons to enjoy a fashion blog, beyond just getting outfit ideas.

Here's Sloane's outfit:

.  pic from sailingtheseaofstyle  .
.  i want to totally mug her for that clutch, btw  .

Here's how I used the outfit as inspiration for a mint and neon mani:

I really like the way the neon pops against the mint. It's a color combination that probably never would have occurred to me, and it will almost certainly turn up again on my nails in the future!

The colors I used were Sunshine from Claire's (don't judge) and Mint from Forever21's Love & Beauty line. The mint was almost opaque after just one coat, but I added another coat for good measure. AND would you like to know a secret? There is one coat of white polish beneath those 2 coats of neon on my ring finger. That's why the color payoff is so vibrant! #Tricks. #TellYaMothah.

What do you think of this color combination? If you try it out yourself, tweet me a pic at @akaBailey!

Here are a few other ways that I've gotten unusual inspiration for manis in the past:

• Emerald and Mint Nails
• Random Nail Inspiration: Demoiselle Jewelry Designs
• Anti-Valentine's Day Nails
• Much Ado About Valentine's Day Cupcake Nail Polish
• One Picture Inspiring All Sorts of Creative Projects!

By the way, my "Sweet and Salty Banana Chips MEGA FAIL" blog is one of five blogs spotlighted today over on FACE It Catalog and Coffee Beans and Bobby Pins.  Head over to either of the girls' websites to check it out and see who else is featured!

{Linking to What She Wears Linkup}

Sally Hansen Coral Reef + Neon Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day! I bought a new nail polish recently - a Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Extreme Wear polish in the color Coral Reef. It was so bright and cheerful and eye-catching in its bottle that I thought it would be a great color for spring... or now... or whenever I wanted to wear it, really.

Incidentally, it's the same exact color as a sweatshirt I got recently while thrifting in Vancouver:

SO. Guess that color is trending... with me.

This past weekend I tried it out for the first time and ended up taking it two steps further to ultimately create 3 different nail polish options. #thisgirlisonfiahhhh (#ihatethatsonnnngggg) As it turns out you can even wear this today for Valentine's Day!

Starting off with the first option of just rocking Coral Reef, as is. This was a bit streaky after the first coat, but was pretty much good to go after the second coat was applied.

1 coat   vs   2 coats

This polish looks insanely different in different lights. Indoors, it can look either ultra peachy, ultra corally or ultra hooker chic. Like, crazy neon orange looking. Outdoors it looks much pinker and looks more like a neon pink. Look at the color differences below:

.  inside  .

.  outside  .

That shit cray.

So for the second option, I added white hearts to just a couple of nails using a dotting tool:

I was doing this solely for the ensuing 3rd step of adding more colors on top of the white hearts. Nail polish tip:  Just like with any painting project, you'll get a more vibrant color payoff if you begin with a white base. It will really make your top layer's color pop! So I was painting these white hearts as mere base hearts for my upcoming neon hearts, but I really liked the way the white hearts looked, too! I almost stopped there... but I really wanted to see how neon hearts would look, so I kept going...

... to my third nail polish option: Adding neon hearts! After the white hearts had sufficiently dried I used a few different neon polishes to add hearts right on top of where I'd laid down the white hearts earlier. I happen to have a nice selection of bright neon-ish colors:

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Flashy Fuschia

Neon Green by Love & Beauty

Sunshine by Claire's Cosmetics

(And that's Coral Reef on the far right)

.  artsy progress pics  .

And there you go! Which one do you like best?

Happy Valentine's Day biddies! I'd love to see what you end up rocking on your nails today. 

♡ Tweet me a pic @akaBailey! ♡