BK Nail Polish Swatch and Review

Born Pretty sent me this beauty for review.  BK#11 is a bright, neon pink jelly. Shown is three coats over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door. See bottom of this post for 10% off coupon code!

Ah it's so squishy! Shown is three coats and there is some slight VNL but I actually stopped at three because I like how it looked. The BK polishes are available HERE although the #11 they have listed is a blue, so I'm not sure which this one is actually supposed to be.  This one is also 7ml and the bottles on the sight are 8ml.  So that confuses me a bit, but I wanted to share this anyway because I was thrilled with the application. It went on smoothly and dried quickly, but also keep in mind this is a neon, which typically dry fast. There were no patches or bald spots/streaks.

There are a ton of other colors in this brand, $2.95 USD for 8ml and free shipping! Also, you can use code CA10L91 for 10% off your order; if enough people use my code I'll be able to host a Born Pretty sponsored giveaway (=

China Glaze Flirty Tankini

I was so so so excited to get these when they first came out and when I finally got them, I shelved them for a while.  Once I saw them in person I just wasn't about the China Glaze 2012 Summer Neons anymore, even though I bought most of them.  Maybe its the subtle shimmer, or the fact that they're not-so-neon-neons, I'm not sure but I finally decided to wear this one today.

Sunlight

I took some outdoor photos because I was under the impression that I couldn't capture the color as well as I had hoped, but since they're not true and obnoxious neons, I don't think I needed to.

Sunlight

This is three coats of Flirty Tankini over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door.  The formula was OK on this one, not spectacular, a bit thicker than I had anticipated. You can likely get away with two coats and my coats tend to run thin.

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 I really like the color of this one; it does stand out on my nails and it's a lovely color in itself.

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This does try as a somewhat satiny finish.  I determined it not a true neon due to the fact that I was able to photograph it, and these photos are pretty much color accurate.  Additionally, I'm used to a neon polish having zero sparkle and shimmer, the ones from this collection had either shimmer or were jellies.

Sonoma Nail Art Sonoma County Gazette

My friend on one of my forums sent me this pretty as a Random Act of Kindness. I had previously never heard of Sonoma Nail Art but after some quick searching I found they sell other polishes as well, if you're interested in learning more about them, their blog is HERE.

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Sonoma County Gazette is "black and white and red (read) all over", cute! It's PACKED with various shapes and sizes of black, white and red glitter in a clear suspension base. And I do mean packed, all swatches here are one coat.

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I've never been a huge fan of bar glitter, and this polish really doesn't change my stance on it.  There were some pieces that didn't lay flat on their own.  If you love the look then you probably don't mind coaxing the bars to behave but I've always found them to be more trouble than they're worth.

Macro Bottle Shot

I liked that the large white hexes were very prevalent.  I didn't have to fish for them at all, they came out on their own, and in multiples.

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Sonoma County Gazette is seen layered over Revlon Nail Art High Voltage that I blogged about yesterday.  As stated before, this is one coat of SCG and one coat of Pro-FX top coat.

Revlon Nail Art Neon High Voltage Swatch & Review

I saw this at my local Harmon and I was intrigued by them.  I picked this up for $6.29 but was able to use my sister's employee discount, yay!  Anyways, onto the polish..

I choose the one that stood out to me, the bright sunny orange, High Voltage.  Each bottle has two bottles, similar to the French Mix ones that I blogged about previously.  See below;

They look like this.  These are a bit pricey considering the label says you get only .26 fl oz of polish.

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You're supposed paint your nails with the white.  Layering any neon polish over white makes it really POP and brings out the neon a lot better.  So that's the implied method of polishing here.  I used two coats of the white over Orly Bonder and then I used 3 thin coats of High Voltage and sealed with the Pro-FX top coat (available at Walmart in a big 2 fl oz bottle for like $5 or $6).

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The orange needed 3 coats, it was streaky without it.  But this color is super bright, its really florescent looking and made my hands so tan looking too!  The white polish was decent, too.  I'd recommend 2 coats, but to wait until the first coat is really dry so you don't get streaks.

Brucci Cali Cat and OPI Black Spotted

So Cali Cat is definitely a polish I bought for its name.  We call two of our cats the "Cali Cats" because my brother sent us this via an airplane when he moved. He lives in California but couldn't house them any longer, so two new additions it was!  I do also love Brucci as a brand in general so I wasn't opposed to the idea of purchasing another polish from them.

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This is 2 coats of Cali Cat over Orly Bonder, sealed with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash.  Cali Cat is a neon green shimmer. I thought maybe I hadn't tightened the lid enough when I swatched it for the OPI Black Spotted nail wheels because it seemed a little goopy.  I added a few drops of thinner and it seemed much more smooth and ready to go.

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It kills me to have to say anything bad about my beloved Brucci, but the formula, even after thinning, was difficult to work with.  I did not like how it applied; it wasn't super streaky but it was thick and difficult to smooth out without get tons of brush strokes. It's a neon shimmer but applies almost like a frost (EEEEEEEEEEK!!) so you can see the brush strokes.

Flash

Despite the formula and application issues, the color is really fun and bright, a great summer color. Makes me sad that Cali Cat won't be a new favorite. I wanted to test OPI Black Spotted on my nails so I figured this would be a great opportunity since it's coming right off anyways.

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This is one thin coat of Black Spotted over the previous manicure sealed with another coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Flash. The index finger is a bit of a thicker coat, so it didn't do its effect as much, but on my pinky it was a super thin coat, so it spotted a whole bunch!

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Blank Slate Nails Part I

Blank slate nails! They're like a canvas screaming for some color. I wouldn't wear a regular stark white polish on its own as it looks like White-Out but I would use a stark white for a base for some fun designs!

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This is a blank slate, just screaming for something to be done! I started with Orly Bonder and used 2-3 coats of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White and sealed it with OtD.  Looking at my white nails just gets the gears turning!

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Rainbow zebra stripes? Sure! I used plate BM-223 and a few different colors to do this.  KleanColor Mango, Sally Hansen Lightening,  China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic and KleanColor Bikini Green.  I did diagonal stripes on the plate with the polish to get some more fluidity in the design.

Source

It kind of reminded me of Fruit Stripe Gum. It's obviously not a direct take on it, but it made me feel like Fruit Stripe Gum and Lisa Frank had a party on my nails.

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Overall I think its a sunny, fun, summery mani that doesn't take much effort. I may try this with other full-nail images from my plates. What do you think about it?

Summery Funky French

It's almost Memorial Day, which means it's almost June.. which means it's almost summer! And what better way to celebrate that than with an obnoxious funky french?! I went full derp on this one (you NEVER go full derp!)  My sister politely told me it belongs at the Jersey Shore, which at this time of the year, becomes a scary place.

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So for this mani I did things similarly to how I do my regular french manicures, which is applying the color to the bare nail so it is easy to shape it and fix any errors. After the color was on, I applied a coat of Orly Bonder. Then I stamped with WnW Black Creme and I can't remember which Bundle Monster plate (oops), after that I put on another coat of Bonder. I'm not sure if my layering was the best but it worked in this case!

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After the second coat of Bonder, I applied Instant Artificials since the color had left a visible lip/edge sort and was raised a bit compared to the bare nail.  After that dried a little, I sealed it with Out the Door.

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I used China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy for the pink (3 coats), KleanColor Mango for the orange (2 coats) and KleanColor Bikini Green for the green (2 coats).

KleanColor Bikini Green

I've been consumed by academia lately. Finals weren't the issues (I've yet to take them) but more so final projects and papers.  Always due the week before finals, always big chunks of your grade.  Two of my finals there is no way to "study" for them, so I've got a light load in regards to studying, at least!

I swung by my dollar store and picked up a couple Klean Colors.  This one stood out to me so I grabbed it.

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This is Bikini Green, 3 coats over Orly Bonder and sealed with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.  All of my other topcoats have picked up shimmer from various manicures, I'm keeping this one "pure" by only using it on cremes.  My giant bottle of OTD has a ton of shimmer in from my mother carelessly using it, and the rest have just picked some up over time.

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I think there is some neon to this one, it didn't photograph 100% accurately.  It's close, though.  It's really a sunny green but it is a bit more grassy in real life.

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You don't necessarily need 3 coats for this. I did two on my right hand. I'm not sure why it always works out like that, maybe I meticulously scrape too much polish off the brush when I'm painting with my dominant hand, I'm not sure.

KleanColor Mango

My dollar store has a KleanColor display! And it's a real dollar store, so they're only a dollar.  This encouraged me to pick up some new types I'd normally pass on.

KleanColor Mango is an almost neon creme of sorts.  It's a strange polish but very bright.

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This is three coats over Orly Bonder sealed with OTD.  It wore really well but KleanColor's take a little bit longer to dry.

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You could easily do only 2 coats, I did on my right hand.

Flash

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It was so fun to wear this, my hands were distracting me.  Definitely a summer color, not so much early spring, but that's OK.  If you can get your hands on this one, do it!

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

I really wanted to love this one, and I do, color wise.  The formula on this one pretty much sucked though, and that kills me to say about my beloved China Glaze.  It reminds me of the difficulty I had with Essie Knockout Pout, which I've never worn after swatching.

This is FIVE coats of FFF. Five! One-two-three-four-five!!  I stop at three.  I know it's a neon and a bit tricky to apply but it was just so streaky.  After doing my left hand, I tried doing much thicker coats on my right and was able to reach opacity on about three nails with three coats, but some needed a fourth.

It really is such a beautiful shade and so summery, so it's a shame that it needs so many coats.  Fortunately, being a neon, it dries incredibly fast.  It also, like other neons, dries matte.  I had a bit of a hard time capturing the color, it literally glows.  Not in a glow in the dark kinda way, but it just seems like there's a black light over your hands everywhere you go.  It's such a fun color so I probably will give it another try sometime in the future.  I don't own many neons or wear them often, so my personal difficulties could've been just from lack of experience.

Do you own this polish? Did you have the same issues as I did? Share!

funky fingers "Kingston" neon nail polish

Considering I am not crazy about oranges or neons really, I enjoyed this nail polish!  Under the fluorescent lighting at Five Below, it looked a little pink (like, deep pink) but it really isn't. Anyways, look!

2 coats of Funky Fingers "Kingston" over 3 coats
of some random white polish.

Excuse the tipwear.  This was after a day and a half of wear and a full day of work.  I also didn't wrap them at all.  Also, as you can see, I messed up my index finger when cleaning up the edges and didn't have the energy to fix all those layers so I left it as is.  Looks a little wonky but you should get the idea.

In the shade.

In the sun. Looks like tomato color here (=

Completely unaltered!

I can't believe how much it glows.  None of these pictures are edited in any way.  Well  I cropped them, but that doesn't count.  This is the first time I've used white underneath, and the results were stunning!  I bought this at Five Below with two other polishes which came out to 3 for 5$.

funky fingers POP ARTIST

Hello ladies!!  It's Sunday, as you know, but its rainy and actually kind of warm out.  Not the worst combination of weather I've faced this year so I'll take it.  I have a nice, bright summertime polish for you today but it is most certainly a neon, and cannot be photographed true-to-color.  I tried to color correct to the best of my ability with photoshop.  It's also a jelly, for that added fun haha-you-can't-photograph-me touch!

Funky Fingers "Pop Artist"

The name alone inspired me to add some fun decoration.  I CANNOT get enough of the polka dots lately.  I'm sorry they've been on every many I've posted lately, but addiction is addiction so please don't judge.

I tried outside, but its cloudy. Fail.

Color corrected.  Yea, its *this* bright. My dad couldn't look
directly at it, lol!

Dots:

Art Deco "Baby Pink"
L.A. Colors "Energy Source"
OPI DS "Elegance"

The fact that I can't capture neons, yet alone neon jellies, discourages me from wanting to swatch 'n show!

This is probably my last reminder before my giveaway ends tomorrow night at 11:59PM EST. Click HERE for details and submission form (=

Saint Patrick's Day Mani

Alright, I braved the green for this mani.  Not a fan of full green manicures.  I don't like it on my hands.  Teals and such, OK, but green green makes me squirm.  Even though this isn't 100% green.. well I don't know.  I only did one hand and removed it ASAP. :D

Actually kind of cute right? Please ignore pinky smudge :D

Ingredients:

Funky Fingers "Mint Monatauk" - base color
China Glaze "DV8" - triple shamrock
Funky Fingers "Tribal" - individual shamrock
Wet n Wild "Sunny Side Up" - dots
Art Deco "White" - dots
BM03

3 coats of "Mint Monatauk" No BC or TC.
What a bright, beautiful color! A minty neon.

Little darker image here so you can see the details.
I couldn't get a picture without a glare )=

I thought it looked pretty decent considering I went into this mani with NO idea of what I was doing.  The single shamrocks are sort of in the "background" and can be seen very faintly if you click to enlarge.  They were more noticeable in person.