Orly Color Blast True Neon Pink

Bold claim, Orly.

I apologize for my busted cuticles in this picture. They look that way because my cuticles are busted right now. Thanks.

My favorite nail polish of all time is Essie's Punchy Pink. It is the most neon pink neon pink of all time. Yes, it had a ridiculously difficult formula, but it literally made my nails glow. I once had it on my toes and my dad told me my feet looked like Miami. #goals

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find another bottle. I've been searching high and low for the past three years and nada. So whenever I see a new neon pink, I snatch it up and bring it home to compare to the dregs I have remaining of Punchy Pink. This jumped out at me while I was cruising the surprisingly lovely beauty section at Kohl's. It's from Orly's new Color Blast line, which has slightly smaller than usual bottles, as you can see. The name? True Neon Pink. How does it stack up against Punchy Pink? It's pleasingly close. Not quite as bright, but better than anything else I've found to this point. The formula is pretty good for a neon, too, I'm wearing three coats with a shiny top coat, since it dries a bit satiny matte.

But I won't stop looking for the true neon pink, Punchy Pink.

Welcome to the 90s

As someone who grew up in the 90s, I occasionally get super nostalgic for the terrible unisex fashion of my early childhood. Loosely inspired by all those insane tracksuits that populated our lives at that time, for this I used a base of Revlon Colorstay 025 Seashell with random brushstrokes of Orly Neon Heat and Julep Linden. I'm really quite pleased with it, though the Orly is showing up way more magenta and less neon in this picture than it looks in real life.

I've been finding that I like to use Julep polishes as accent colors more often than a full nail color, which is somewhat puzzling. I'm considering canceling my Maven subscription just because I haven't been particularly inspired by the color choices the past few months. Are any of you Mavens? What do you think? If you're not and you'd like to become one, feel free to use my referral link.

Orly Neon Heat

Wearing loud as hell nail colors probably ranks as my favorite thing about summer. My all-time favorite, Essie Punchy Pink, having finally bitten the dust and proving GD impossible to get a hold of, I'm always looking for another neon pink to add to my collection.

Here we have Orly Neon Heat. Orly has some strong contenders in the neon department, and I am loving their redesigned bottles. When I spotted this sucker on sale at Sally Beauty Supply, I knew I had to give it a go.

This is a nearly neon magenta pink creme with great opacity that dries down to a satin finish. Application was a breeze, it was nearly opaque in one coat, though I did two for good measure. This may sound odd, but as soon as it hit the nail, I knew it wasn't going to be quite what I was looking for. The telltale problem of a true neon is that the formulas tend to be streaky mofos that are near impossible to level out and dry down to a totally matte finish. It came out much darker than I expected it to, and though I do like it for its own sake, it won't fill Punchy Pink's place in my heart.

I can't call it a failure, that's for sure. This is a really excellent summer pink. If this is the kind pink you've been looking for, look no further, it's pretty awesome. You can usually find Orly on sale at any of its typical locations, if not, just give it a week and check back. And Punchy Pink? I know you're out there, I'll find you, baby.

Essie Neons 2013: Bouncer, It's Me!

Another spring, another Essie Neon collection. Up first: Bouncer, It's Me!

I wish I could say I was impressed with something about this polish, but there really isn't anything jumping out at me about it. Is it a very nice blue? Yes, in a Fourth of July sort of way. But it does seem quite costume-y, and application was a seriously struggle. In the pictures, I'm wearing two coats of Blanc, which is its own struggle to apply, and two coats of the neon shade. In spite of that, I still couldn't get it to come out quite even, and it took forever to dry. As in, woke up with half the polish having slid off my thumb forever to dry.

I'll have to give it another try without the white basecoat to see how it looks, but I definitely see this being more of a novelty color in my collection rather than a fun summer treat.

I am aggressive. So are my nails.

Last night, as I was pondering what to write, I had a slight panic at the thought that I have lost my focus for this blog.  Am I really a fashion blogger?  Should I change my focus to food?  Should I take more outfit shots?  Should I eat less sour cream and Greek yogurt (obviously not, don't panic)?  But then, I had another thought -- I am told thoughts often work this way, one following another -- and echoing through the vaults of my mind was the fact that I've only been doing this for a monthish.  I don't have to have a focus.  And I've always been more of a figure-it-out-as-you-go-along type of gal.  So I hope you're all looking forward to another monthish of whatever the hell I feel like writing, and if you're not YOU'LL LEARN.

In other news, I AM SO TRENDY. (I am so shout-y today.)

Errbody loves neon.

With the miraculously good weather and "abundance" of sun we've been getting, I felt like I wanted something on my body to reflect all the brightness coming my way.  Not fully assured of the wisdom of getting a neon-colored tattoo, I settled for nail polish.  Admittedly, this was partially inspired by the fact that Roommate Sammy happened to have neon green Milani polish just sitting out, begging me to slather it on.  Which I did, on Sunday.  Voilá!  And, while I was waiting for my laundry yesterday, I painted my little toesies with Essie's Punchy Pink, which is from their neon line from two summers ago that's discontinued, so haul all y'all's asses on over to that link and get it before it's gone.  When I first got this polish, my dad looked at it and told me my feet "looked like Miami."  I don't think he meant it as a compliment.

Boys don't know anything anyway.  Ain't nothing wrong with a touch of Day-Glo every now and again.

Have you guys been getting into the game on the neon trend, or do you think we're destined to relive the 80s in the worst kind of way?